Sunday, January 17, 2010

Loves Gardens, Hates to Garden

Maybe I should begin this blog by choosing a classic gardening book and attempting to raise to adulthood every plant on every page. But the would take to long.

According to all those gardening books, winter is the best time to start a garden. You use the downtime to peruse all the gardening catalogs that arrive in the mailbox (or don't--the nurseries know better than to entrust their seeds to me). You also emend (or is it amend?) the soil, preparing it to receive the unsuspecting tenants when it is time to chuck them in. Work on the compost.

Yet, the few plants that have been successful in spite of my care, or lack of care, are the gems of the winter garden: Hellebores, Daphne, and Edgeworthia, the yellow, architecturally interesting cousin of Daphne. My holly, alas, is barren this winter. Perhaps the gentleman friend that had pollinated her previous years went to his reward.

Pictures tomorrow.