And Now We Have Winter…

Reader Contribution by Paul Gardener
Published on December 22, 2008
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Well, I guess I’ve been rather remiss with my writing here haven’t I? Particularly when you take into account that my last post was titled, “Building soil in the fall,” and today (at the time of writing) is the first day of winter. It never ceases to amaze me that, regardless of the season, it always seems there’s so much to do.

Spring presents it’s priorities with its usual sense of urgency. Digging, prepping, sprouting and planting hit like a maelstrom to start the growing year. This is the time of projects for us as well; a time to actuate the plans we have for the garden and our home. Next, summer creeps on us, sometimes lazily and sometimes all at once, bringing its flurry of activity and its own urgency. Plants and animals need tending from the heat, fruits are ripening, harvests need to be made and preserves put up for the year. The third course of our seasonal feast is fall, a personal favorite. It’s an interesting time in the garden in autumn. Most plants are beginning to die off while others are being reborn in the cool days. In our climate, fall is when we tuck the garden in for its winter nap. A time to say “Goodnight, see you next year,” and that means lots of labor at times in and of itself, building compost piles with the spent plants, prepping animal shelters for the coming winter and harvesting the last of the year’s plants.

And now we have winter…

Now there’s nothing to do, right? The garden’s asleep, tucked in for the year. Nothing to start yet since it’s too early. On the contrary! Winter is a critical time in our garden, perhaps one of the most critical. It’s when we sit down and assess our successes and failures of the last year. We update our garden journals with the wealth of information from the rest of the year and begin to picture what we see for the next one.

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