OLD LYME — The Old Lyme Harbor Management Commission is now accepting electronic Mooring Permit Applications for the 2023 boating season. Supporting information, including updates to the process for 2023, is available on the HMC webpage, located at this link.
Previous permit holders will receive an email with a link to their records in the system.
New applicants can access the system via the link in the instructional materials posted on the webpage.
For further information, contact Old Lyme Harbor Management Commission Mooring Records Coordinator Tom Meyer at HMCMoorings@oldlyme-ct.gov
OLD LYME — The Old Lyme Land Trust (OLLT) is offering YEA! (Youth Environmental Action) grants of $100 to $600 to support worthy environmental projects. Applicants should be 11-21 years old and live in Lyme or Old Lyme.
The Trust is especially eager to fund original and independent projects that otherwise might not happen. It welcomes requests for support of any project with positive environmental impact in which the applicant plays a major role, including relevant student and volunteer work.
Projects may be proposed anywhere, including on OLLT properties.
The applicant can either commit to rolling up his/her sleeves to help the natural world in the best way possible or come up with a creative approach to tackle a neglected problem — in either case, OLLT would like to assist.
The YEA! grant program is in honor of Edward J. Sopneski, former Trustee and longtime OLLT volunteer. Ed died in 2022 at age 87 following decades of work caring for the environment.
Edward J. Sopneski
He installed osprey platforms, removed invasive plants from his beloved Watch Rock Preserve, and worked to boost declining numbers of pollinators.
Sopneski was also keenly interested in encouraging the next generation to live a life of action to protect our natural world. That goal inspires these grants.
Grants are awarded on a rolling basis with decisions made by the OLLT Board when it meets, typically on the third Thursday of every odd month (January, March, May, etc.), and notification to applicants in the following weeks.
Applications should be submitted at least 10 days ahead of a meeting to assure consideration.
Paper-white narcissi have a beautiful and uplifting fragrance. Photo by Jonathan Diemel on Unsplash.
Maureen Haseley-Jones
This winter, as in other winters, when I need a blossom boost, I have enjoyed the fragrance of paper-white narcissus that I planted in tall glass vases. I surrounded the bulbs with seashells from White Sands Beach here in Old Lyme and kept them in a dark cool area keeping them moist as the roots developed. When the bulb foliage reached about six inches, I introduced the bulbs to indirect light.
The fragrance of this plant is so refreshing and each morning when entering my lounge, I inhaled it and felt immediately uplifted and ready for my day. I keep extra bulbs in a brown paper bag in the vegetable keeper in the refrigerator. These bulbs, I plant when the first blooms have gone by. With this method, I have a succession of bloom and fragrance in my home into spring.
In his annual appearance this year, the Groundhog let us know that we have six more weeks of winter. On that note, it’s a recognition for all gardeners that there is much to decide on and plan for this season in our gardens. The warm breath of Spring will be here before you know it and we will be filled with the anticipation that lives within all gardeners to get outdoors and plunge our hands into the soil.
For all of us gardeners, there is so much to look forward to and, to reiterate my modus operandi, I continue to stress the importance for you to garden organically. In this country and around the world, the results of pollution and chemicals are just some of the factors that are causing climate change.
We are in a crisis, with invaders that have already battered down the gates and invaded our gardens. These invaders are destroying Mother Nature and your health in the form of poisonous pesticides and herbicides. The main producers of these poisons are Monsanto, Bayer and other biological monsters, who have been decimating our planet, our soil, human health and doing all those monstrous crimes purely for selfish profit.
We have all been able to observe the result of the global warming in the colossal melting of the glaciers and how that has affected polar bear population, causing their demise in great numbers through starvation and disease. Here in the United States, we have seen the terrible floods and tornadoes and recently in California, the catastrophic flooding and mudslides.
Bees have been killed in the millions when our EPA under the Trump administration allowed the spraying of over 14 million acres of land, with poisonous chemicals. Bees pollinate 70 percent of the world’s food and their demise is our demise.
Last year was recorded as the hottest year on record. In this country, the drought in the west, that resulted in dry tinder conditions, caused devastating fires that brought death and destruction to many in California, Oregon and Colorado. Extreme weather patterns evident in the blizzards throughout this country and the deadly hurricanes are due to the rise of our oceans and the result of warming water. Climate has also had a tragic effect on earthquakes as we see in Turkey and Northern Syria.
Please do not listen to the naysayers who deny climate change, tell them to open their eyes to witness the results.
As gardeners, it is our task to help counteract these negative changes by using only organic methods of gardening on your own plot of land; what we do is in our own small patch of earth all contributes to healing the planet.
Over the span of over 20 years on my radio show WRCH 100.5 FM and through my Garden Earth lectures, I have received a commitment from thousands of people to discard all poisonous herbicides and pesticides and to garden organically. The response had been tremendously positive in the production of healthy gardens grown in healthy soil.
It begins by what you put into the soil for the growth of the plants, accomplished by adding liberal doses of my favorite stuff – manure. Manure either from the farm or in bags from the garden center. The following insert is from a book I am writing on gardening and the humus component.
In 1937, Franklin D Roosevelt said that ‘the nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.’
America has not heeded that warning. Precious soils in this country and around the world are being destroyed by dangerous practices in industrialized agriculture and poisonous chemicals, which completely disrupt our ecosystem and poison all living things.
In your own garden, you can build and retain a rich growing environment by building the Humus component. We are all carbon-based creatures as is all life on earth. Not only humans but also our soil microbes need carbon to flourish. And to attract carbon from the atmosphere into your soil you need to build the humus component.
How to Build the Humus Content
Do not till soil – tilling breaks up soil structure.
Step #1 Add composted manure three times each season –beginning in spring when the soil has reached a temperature of 50 degrees. If the soil has not reached that temperature, the soil organisms are not able to work with the bacteria in the manure to produce nutrients for the roots of the plants. Purchase a soil thermometer to check the soil’s temperature.
This year, following deep frosts the soil temperature may reach 50 degrees by the end of April to early May. Add the manure again in July to continue to nourish your growing plants and again in October to protect and nourish your plants through the winter. Manure is not a fertilizer; it builds soil structure and works with all the soil animals to keep a healthy disease-free growing environment.
Step #2 Add wood chips in the form of brown fine bark mulch or wood chips that you produce from your garden of aged wood chips with a combo of leaves, twigs and branches.
These two major steps build the humus component. If you do this in your garden – not only will you helping to heal the planet but also produce the healthiest of gardens.
A question I am often asked is, ‘Can I put manure over mulch for example in my July garden’? The answer is ‘yes’ – the manure together with nature’s moisture and your own irrigation enables the manure to find its way easily into the soil and the roots of your plants.
What Exactly Does Humus Do?
Humus is a critical ingredient in any garden.
Humus acts like a sponge and can hold 90 percent of its weight in water.
Because of its negative charge – plant nutrients stick to humus for nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus and other elements, which prevents these from washing away and acts as nature’s slow release fertilizer throughout the year.
Humus improves soil structure making it loose and friable, which helps a plant root in the soil with better access to nutrients, water and oxygen.
Humus also helps’ filter’ toxic chemicals from the soil, much like carbon-based water filtration systems that filter toxins from your water.
We cannot control industrialized agricultural practices, however, in your own garden you can make a difference. Feed the soil and it will feed the plants.
I have made statements about the humus component in tips, but I cannot over-stress its importance.
Now on to the next topic, this week I spoke with my friend Ann, who lives in Cheshire, in England, which is next door to my home county of Shropshire. Ann is an avid gardener and she told me that her daffodils are well above the soil and last week she started seeds in the greenhouse.
Seed-Planting in Connecticut
February 20th to March 20th is the time for serious indoor seed planting here. Check which garden centers are stocking organic seeds or go online for the organic varieties – one company that I use is “Botanical Interests”. Do not go overboard when buying packs of seeds as there are about 500 seeds in each packet. If you do purchase too many – have a seed sharing party with gardening friends.
Equipment to have on hand for seed planting– cheap envelopes, fresh sterilized potting soil mix, and sphagnum moss. Also seed trays, egg cartons and cardboard milk containers that are cut down also work well. Make sure all containers are scrupulously clean. Sphagnum moss works well as a planting medium; the moss can prevent a soil born fungus that causes “damping off” which causes seeds to rot before germination. I have, together with many gardening friends used this method for years and have lost no seeds to “damping off”.
For tiny seeds, I use the moss as the planting mix and for larger seeds, I install a topsoil base and a layer of the moss on top of the soil. I mix fine seeds with sand before I sow; this method helps to loosen them up. Soak the seeds overnight before planting and just before planting spray them with warm water, never cold as cold water can delay germination. When they have germinated, water gently.
The best method of watering seedlings is to water from the bottom. But, if you feel you must top water, just mist with a fine sprayer, otherwise you will drown the delicate seeds, washing them out of the planting mix. Use new sterilized soil when seeding and do not save any leftover soil, add leftover soil mix to houseplants or put it in the garden. Leftover soil from the previous year, can develop disease, which can ruin future seedling crops. If you are growing seedlings on a windowsill, place them on a south or west-facing sill; seedlings need light, not heat to thrive.
Winter Care of Houseplants
My houseplants lift my spirits, especially in winter when the landscape is rather monochromatic. I talk to my plants enjoying the blooming variety and the different foliage varieties and thank them for cleaning the air in a stuffy home environment.
Keep your houseplants away from draughts and direct heat. If you are able, have humidifiers and air purifiers in the rooms, which will benefit not only the plants but also your own health. Place pebble trays under the plants and keep the pebbles moist for additional humidity.
Spray houseplants every few days with lukewarm water and once every couple of weeks, put the plants in a sink or bathtub and allow water to run freely over the plant to remove dust from the leaves and clean salt residue from the soil. The exception to the spray or soak rule is African violets as they do not do well with wet leaves.
Houseplants can lift the spirits … especially in winter. Photo by Alena Ganzhela on Unsplash.
Aphids and white fly thrive indoors in winter and an organic sulphur solution called Safer works well to clean the soil of the insect eggs and from the foliage. Perhaps you are fortunate like me to have ladybugs in your home in winter; if so, allow these useful creatures to roam freely; the ladybug menu is aphids and white flies.
The best time to repot houseplants is from April through June but if a plant has become root-bound with no visible soil, then you can repot them in February. Water the plant to loosen the roots from the soil, turn it sideways on a newspaper and gently slide it from the pot.
Cut away any dead roots and repot in fresh potting soil in a clean pot that is only two inches larger than the original. With the plant firmly in place and the soil one inch from the rim, water it gently and do not fertilize with an organic fertilizer until April. Plants need this dormant period to recharge.
A few suggestions for trouble-free foliage plants in the home are Rubber plants, Spider plants, Ivy, Philodendron, Monstera and Spaphyllum. If you have a sunny window Aloes, Succulents and Cacti do great and offer trouble free variety.
Blooming plants sitting side by side with foliage plants, enjoying one another’s company, give one an impression of a miniature garden.
A few suggestions of bloomers are Cyclamen, African Violets, Kalanchoe, Primulas and Paper white narcissus. To prevent pets from chewing on the plants, add some cayenne pepper to the water whenwatering. I enjoy using my herbal plants, which sit in a sunny window. My favorites are Rosemary, Basil and Parsley, which are great additions to any recipe.
Power Tools
Gheck any power tools that require maintenance or repair. February or March is the time to get them into the repair shop, because as soon as the weather breaks the shops get busy and you may not get your lawn mower back until August.
Check all tools and implements in the garage or shed. If you did not clean them off at the end of last season, plunge the shovels and spades into a bucket of sand; sand is an abrasive and will clean off any leftover soil and manure residue. Oil the wooden handles of tools with Linseed oil or some inexpensive vegetable oil; oil feeds the wood and keeps the handles splinter free. At the same time, check your hoses and fittings that may have sprung leaks since last year.
Make a shopping list of new tools that are needed – there are lots of sales in late winter for you to get a good deal. However, I suggest that you buy only quality tools and hoses; as the saying goes, “you get what you pay for.” Also check that there are sufficient twine, bamboo rods, and wire ties or nails, bags of manure and peat on hand.
Making a Shopping List& Other Reminders
In March or early April when soil and manure are available purchase bags of composted manure from the garden center. On the other hand, if you have a farm close by sells aged manure, acquire a small truck to acquire a load. If you decide on that method, ask the farmer for manure from the bottom of the pile – aged stuff. Manure needs to be at least six months old before applied to your soil, as fresh manure will burn your plants.
Check the paintwork on your wooden fences, arbors, decks and any other outdoor wooden structures. Then, purchase paint supplies so that on a dry day in March for painting, everything will be on hand.
Don’t forget to put paintbrushes on your list – I have a feeling you forgot to clean your old brushes last season, which means they are ‘stiff as a poker’, also remember sandpaper, brush cleaner and if possible, buy eco conscious paint. If you are painting benches and garden seats on a dry day, put them under cover before sundown.
White walls in the greenhouse reflect light so any areas that need retouching, use white paint. It’s so rewarding to see how much lighter and brighter the greenhouse is after a touch of paint and the glass is cleaned. However meticulously clean and tidy your greenhouse, you may find that white fly, greenfly and scale insects have found their way inside the greenhouse for warmth and so it may be necessary to spray with an organic spray. I mix an organic spray of orange peels in white vinegar and allow it to sit for two weeks before spraying – this works well and is very economical.
Walking around a garden that looks good and feels good in mid-winter is a real pick-me-up. Patterns emerge created by paths, walls and hedges. As you walk, enjoy the shapes of shrubs, the shadows of evergreens and the strong silhouettes of tree trunks and enjoy their shape and bark without foliage.
Keep the bird feeders full. I love to watch the birds in their quick flights across the garden to alight on the feeders, and their sudden bursts of song when the sun peaks through. It is so much fun to watch the “pecking” order and see the blue jays, who can be bullies and red cardinals, who like the blue jays can be rather territorial. Bringing up the rear, come the finches and house sparrows. And sometimes a bird appears arrives that I do not recognize and out comes my binoculars and Peterson bird book.
Watching birds on a bird-feeder is always a winter joy. Photo by elvis bueno on Unsplash.
If you notice squirrels swarming the bird feeders, add some cayenne pepper to the birdseed; if that occurs, do not be concerned as the heat from the cayenne does not affect birds. Choose a spot away from the feeders to sprinkle cayenne-free birdseed on the ground so the squirrels can also enjoy a meal.
Winter has its own distinctive fragrance, the fog, in the morning when the air is very heavy, thick and damp – a damp that is even more bone-chilling than rain. I can deal with that for a while and know in about six weeks I will be inhaling the healthy, nose-clearing fragrance of the soil, rich and brown, well-manured or covered with wood mulch, shredded leaves or salt hay. Winter fragrances are a potpourri, one moment sharp and cold like the north wind, and spring’s flavors are light and sweet.
If you find you have spent year after year throwing good money after bad, it may be time to get a professional design, if that is so, don’t hesitate; if you want work to begin in the spring, a design takes time to complete. You may want to contact my son Ian, whose company LandscapesbyIan.com shows his creations and Ian will work with you and your budget.
Have a great month and I’ll see you in your garden in March. If you have any gardening questions, feel free to email me at MaureenHaseleyJones@gmail.com
About the author: Maureen Haseley-Jones is a member of a family of renowned horticultural artisans, whose landscaping heritage dates back to the 17th century. She is one of the founders, together with her son Ian, of, The English Lady Landscape and Home Company. Maureen and Ian are landscape designers and garden experts, who believe that everyone deserves to live in an eco-conscious environment and enjoy the pleasure that it brings. Maureen learned her design skills from both her mother and grandmother, and honed her horticultural and construction skills while working in the family nursery and landscape business in the U.K. Her formal horticultural training was undertaken at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Surrey.
Snow may be pretty but driving in it demands special care and attention. Photo by Korey Moore on Unsplash.
Driving during winter months is inherently more dangerous than driving in other seasons because the road conditions can make an accident more likely. Some of this is also out of the control of motorists, who may have no choice but to drive in suboptimal conditions when they have to go to work or to school.
As such, it is important to know how to drive safely and avoid accidents. Here are some tips that can help.
Remember that you can’t always see ice
In some situations, it is very obvious that there is ice and snow on the road, so drivers are more likely to be careful. But you also have to watch out for black ice, which is a type of thin ice that is so clear that you can’t even see it while you’re driving. This is perhaps the most dangerous road condition in the winter.
Reduce your speed when possible
Slick road conditions are going to make it harder to react to conditions ahead of you because you cannot slow the car down as quickly. The best counter for this is simply to reduce your speed while you drive. This gives you a better chance of stopping and reduces the odds of serious injuries if you are involved in a wreck.
Focus on staying calm and in control
If you have to drive in poor conditions, always try to stay calm and remain in control of the vehicle, staying alert and keeping your eyes on the road. Never allow yourself to become distracted. Don’t rush, but focus on careful driving until you reach your destination.
If you do get injured in an accident caused by another driver, you may be able to seek financial compensation.
Editor’s Note: Suisman Shapiro is located at 75 State Street, New London, CT 06320. Their mailing address is 2 Union Plaza, P.O. Box 1591 New London, CT 06320. Visit their website or call 800-499-0145 — lines are open 24 hours a day.
Your yard in winter can be an anchor, connecting heart, body, mind and spirit to Mother Nature.
Maureen Haseley-Jones is “The English Lady.”
I know it is only early January, but it is never to early to begin to plan for this season in your garden. My motto has always been to plan, before action and production. Mother Nature is waiting for us with her gifts of renewal, growth and nourishment as we begin to plan for the coming season. She tells us that in this wonderful pastime called ‘gardening,’ we can escape from the trials and tribulations of our world. Each day we move gradually from the dark into the light to a longer, brighter day and welcome spring.
A few weeks ago, I retrieved my second batch of Narcissus from the brown paper bag in the refrigerator and planted them on pebbles, with just enough pebbles to anchor the bulbs in place or you may use potting soil. I use tall glass vases, making sure to keep the pebbles moist with just enough water to cover the bottom of each bulb.
I brought my Rosemary plant indoors in September, as Rosemary is not hardy outdoors in Zone six. I spray the plant twice weekly with warm water and run a cold-water humidifier and two germ guardian air cleaners with UV lights for personal health and the health of my plants.
After planting the paper white Narcissus, I placed them in a dark, cool closet until the foliage is about four inches tall. Today I moved them from the dark closet to a cool room with indirect light and where the temperature remains at about 65 degrees. When the buds are almost ready to open, I will place them in a brighter area to be enjoyed, not only for their bloom but also the heady fragrance which permeates the house. The new bloom draws me out of the winter doldrums and their gentle fragrance lifts my spirits.
Paper-white narcissi have a beautiful fragrance. Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash.
I know that the severe changes, which are occurring with global warming combined with pollution in the air, water and the earth, are severely damaging our planet. Your personal contribution to saving our planet is to organically tend the soil with compost, manure and natural brown mulch, which builds the humus component in your soil. Your plants and vegetables will thrive, as will you. Throughout the year, allow your garden to anchor you, connecting heart, body, mind and spirit to Mother Nature’s life-giving bountiful gifts and spiritual energy.
The cold, harsh winds of January and February extract moisture from trees and shrubs, especially the evergreens. Winter winds are more harmful to plants than cold temperatures, not only causing plant breakage but also soil erosion. For that reason, it is helpful to have a few bags of topsoil and mulch in the garage. With these items on hand, any roots can be covered when they become exposed by wind or frost heave.
Roots exposed to the elements for any length of time can kill the plant, so when you notice exposed roots, quickly cover exposed areas with soil and mulch. When spring arrives, and the earth warms up, the plant can be resettled in place together with composted manure and natural brown mulch to provide protection and nutrition.
On a sunny day in January, take a walk round the garden and breathe in the freshening air, and as you walk, make some notes and decide what worked for you last year and what you will never try again.
Later, when you are back indoors, relaxing in your armchair, browse through the catalogues that began arriving a few months ago. You have already begun making lists of plants that you are thinking of buying. However, a word of caution when gazing at the photos, which are meant to tempt you with their lovely but “doctored up” pictures of plants.
Don’t be fooled by these pictures, instead decide that this season in the garden will be for sensible and organized change. Do not allow your imagination to run amok and get caught up in the fantasy of the brightly colored, high-maintenance garden pictures you see in the catalogues.
Suit your garden to your lifestyle and what will work within your timeframe and physical abilities. If you follow that construct, you will have the time to sit, relax and smell the roses, without being overwhelmed or disappointed.
As you sit and plan for the coming season, it’s important to keep your budget in mind. It’s hard to believe as you look outside at the muted landscape, that in a few months, sunshine and gentle breezes will warm the soil and new growth will appear.
When the soil is dry enough to tread on, winter debris may carefully be cleared away. Then with a clean palette, make a clean edge on the borders; this simple task makes such a difference to the look of a garden. Then in mid -April, add that lovely layer of manure and compost (the ratio being three parts manure to one part compost). With that prep completed, you are ready for the fun stuff — the placing and planting!
For those of you who are vegetable gardeners and look forward to a bountiful year with fruits and vegetables; spring rain, extra irrigation and sunshine will produce delicious bounty. As spring moves along, so will the appearance of both good and bad insects, moles, voles and other critters, that can be dealt with naturally. My remedies for this problem I will give in an upcoming gardening letter.
Your memory of your garden from last season may be lost in the enthusiasm of a new season, therefore, I am asking you to be kind to yourself. If last year you became overwhelmed with too much gardening, and not enough time to relax and smell the roses, the following are some suggestions you might follow to avoid that problem:
For example, send some of your borders back to grass.
If you are tired of mowing all your grass areas, spread wild flower seeds in the grass and enjoy the pleasure of a prairie meadow.
Turn some of the high-maintenance perennial borders into mixed shrub borders. To accomplish this, take out some of the high-maintenance perennials and donate them to a worthy cause.
In their place, plant small- and medium-size evergreen shrubs; some green, some blue and some of the lovely gold species of evergreens. With these shrubs displaying their all-season beauty, add small flowering deciduous trees and shrubs that begin flowering in April and successively through June. The Carlesii viburnum, also known as Korean Spice, is a favorite small shrub of mine, with its white buds that open to a pale pink with the most delightful fragrance.
Add a Ben Franklin tree with its white cup-like blooms and gold center that flowers in August through September.
Nestle three Blue Mist shrubs in the mixed border; this plant will delight with purple blooms and fragrant leaves into September.
On a fence or trellis, plant white autumn clematis.
Add a groundcover as an evergreen framework – my favorite is Myrtle with its glossy leaves and miniature blue flowers that bloom in April.
I feel it is never too soon to introduce your children and grandchildren to the wonders of the garden and begin by introducing them to the garden fairies. Through the years I have asked children to draw a picture of the garden fairy and make a list of questions to ask the fairies, who live in the wild patch in the garden. We all have a wild patch in the garden; and at this point you are probably saying, “Maureen, my garden is one large ‘wild patch.’
Children become so excited and enthused about their lists and pictures of the fairies because what you are showing them is the transformation of science into magic. These days we seem to have forgotten about fairy tales, dreams and magic; it is way past time to bring those wonderful energies back into our lives and into the lives of our children.
In spring and on into summer I would find my children or their friends impatiently checking the garden wanting to see their planting efforts come into bloom. In the vegetable garden they gathered to check what was ready to eat from the produce they had planted. I have found that this introduction to the garden has inspired these children when they become adults to enthusiastically plant and tend gardens of their own.
My son Ian is a great example of this as he has partnered with me through the years in the garden – and thus the old adage that ‘the student is better than the teacher’ has certainly proved to be correct. Ian is a designer par excellence and I invite you to check his website LandscapesbyIan.com and his Facebook page for lovely examples of his work.
In my March gardening tips, I’ll offer you some suggestions of ornamental trees, shrubs and long-blooming perennials. With that list in hand, it is a good idea to obtain your plants from local garden centers that carry tried and true plants that will flourish in Zone six.
On the other hand, if you feel that over the years, you have been throwing good money after bad and you are feeling desperate because you feel that your garden, no matter what you do, never looks right. If that is the case then get in touch with a landscape company like LandscapesbyIan.com, who will keep your budget in mind whether you want to do your own work, or wish for a design to install yourself.
But if you are planning your garden for this coming season, there are important facts to keep in mind:
What are the plants requirements for sun, shade, soil, and water?
Will they survive in this zone, Zone 6?
What are the growth patterns of the plants? Do they grow fast or slow?
You do not want a 50 ft. tree up against the house with tremendous roots that will play havoc with your house foundation. Or do you want that lovely but very large, Catawbiense Rhododendron, all 10 ft. of it, climbing through your dining room window in five years?
To find those facts, either check the plants in a book, on the Internet or read the labels attached to the plants in the nursery.
Check every aspect of the plant before you buy. The red or green Lace Leaf Japanese Maple looks lovely in spring but is it something you can enjoy, without its leaves in the winter? Personally, I not only enjoy the foliage of plants and trees but also the shape and bark of trees without foliage in winter.
For those of you just beginning to garden, I must be honest and dispense with the myth that gardening is always a relaxing hobby. At the end of that first day of digging, lugging soil, manure and fertilizer, and planting everything at the proper depth; you will feel rather exhausted.
At that juncture, you remember that you still need to water the newly-installed plants as you drag your tired body to switch on the hose. Thank goodness, the mulching can wait until tomorrow or next weekend.
Watering by the way can be meditative. Imagine that the hose is your umbilical cord so that as you nourish the earth and the plants, the earth can nourish you.
By now the sun has gone down, and you trudge indoors muttering to yourself, “What the heck did I get myself into?” To this comment I say, “You did not have to tackle all of the garden in one day.”
In gardening, there is always tomorrow, or next week, and even though the label says to plant it by the end of May or June, believe me folks, a few weeks later does not matter, the garden will wait for you.
You may be saying to yourself at this point “Maureen are you trying to put us off gardening”? No, but I would remiss, as someone who has gardening in my blood (as well as manure) for over 400 years to tell you, however reluctantly, not only the pleasures, but some of what can cause aches and pains.
The idea is not to bite off more than you can chew. For first-time gardeners, don’t scatter your energies all over the garden, tackle and complete one area at a time. That area should be priority one until it is complete.
A water feature need not be elaborate. Photo by Dan Hayman on Unsplash.
If you have a new home with no landscaping, some hardscape may be required. Hardscape is walls, walkways, patios, ponds, decks and so on. The sound and look of a water feature in the garden is delightful. A water feature need not be elaborate, a fountain is fine – the reflection of water is Mother Nature’s mirror. If you are not able to do this construction yourself, get in touch with a landscape contractor now, so that a plan can be done now, installed and ready by spring. (I say to connect now as Ian tells me that many landscape products are short on supply this year.)
All of these endeavors mean you getting yourself in shape physically, so get off that couch, put away the catalogues and your plant lists, stretch, then wrap yourself up in warm gear and take that walk.
As you walk, look at the trees in winter, the elegant shape of them, the lichen on the stonewalls, and the moss tucked in cracks and crevices. Clear your mind and allow nature’s spirit to surround you. As you walk, look at a few gardens in your neighborhood; gardens that you have admired when they were in bloom and see what they look like in winter.
I remember one of my professors saying to me when I studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London, England, “In winter you can tell a really good landscape by its bones, without the flesh of flora and foliage.” In spring, get in touch with those neighbors whose gardens you admired and ask them some of the secrets of their garden. They will be happy to talk with you, not only of their successes but their failures – true gardeners are realists when they speak about their gardens and love to share.
Well folks, I’ve given you plenty to think about right now so enjoy your daydreaming of the season to come and I’ll see you next month in your garden.
About the author: Maureen Haseley-Jones is a member of a family of renowned horticultural artisans, whose landscaping heritage dates back to the 17th century. She is one of the founders, together with her son Ian, of, The English Lady Landscape and Home Company. Maureen and Ian are landscape designers and garden experts, who believe that everyone deserves to live in an eco-conscious environment and enjoy the pleasure that it brings. Maureen learned her design skills from both her mother and grandmother, and honed her horticultural and construction skills while working in the family nursery and landscape business in the U.K. Her formal horticultural training was undertaken at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Surrey.
