Sunday, February 27, 2005
Four Season Gardening.
In weather like today's ( a swirling north wind with big, fat snowflakes) if I was reading a garden magazine, and suddenly let out a loud "FOOF", you could guess I was reading an article on four season gardening.Unless you consider shoveling snow to be a gardening task, there really isn't a real fourth (winter) gardening season here.We had 9 inches of snow that gradually turned into 4 inches of uneven ice on all the garden paths, so that my ankles hurt after just taking a walk around the garden.There wasn't much to look at out there anyway, as there aren't a whole lot of evergreen perennials in this climate; a shining exception, though, is Helleborus niger, the Christmas rose. In relatively mild(it never got below -10) winters like this last one, it's shiny, dark green foliage stays almost perfect, without any protection at all. The pure white flowers are a bonus, blooming usually in early March here, sometimes so early as to be spotted and frazzled a little by the weather. Above is H. niger, Potter's Wheel, showing its foliage today.
// posted by IBOY @ 3:15 PM 
