Winter Garden
Ashley Evans
The days grow short, the mornings are covered in crisp sharp frost that refracts and reflects the blueish early to mid morning light. The land is at rest. The season is one of nostalgia for me. The season feels like a time for Christmas, for the smell of hickory nut pies, for time spent indoors with the Saturday morning cartoons, and awaiting the fall of snow. The garden in this season is oftentimes an after thought, but it is a time for ordering seeds, for dreaming of the season ahead, and for clearing the remains of the previous season, and for enjoying the produce you’ve put back from the summer and autumn gardens. On a good year my cellar will be filled with pumpkins, picked from my own vines in late September, used for autumn decorating, and later put in the cellar to be saved for winter time pumpkin pies and pumpkin soup, a dish I am frequently requested to make.
Planning well in the winter will ensure a well filled larder and cellar the following winter. Use these days and hours spent inside rather than tending to the garden to order seeds, to take notes on what you enjoyed about the previous garden, and what you dream of for the year head. Seeds are best ordered from a catalog, to stay true to nostalgia, and should be ordered early to ensure the desired varieties are not sold out. Use this time to read almanacs and books that were written by experts on developing the most wonderful and practical gardens. Martha Stewart’s Gardening book is the best resource I have found for planning a garden.
The winter is also a fun time to craft with dried gourds, okra pods, and corn shucks from the summer months. Allow your mind to wander back in time and to create crafts that feel made by hand. Keeping an active body and mind during the winter months will be beneficial for being prepared for the grueling spring planting in the season ahead.
Like in everything in life rest is required. The winter allows the garden and the gardener to rest.
