Ode To A Winter’s Day

 

    Henry David Thoreau said; “Live each season as it passes, breath the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.”

    I have a hard time resigning myself to the winter season; the cold, the long nights, the frost; did I mention cold?   I love the spring.  Green shoots pushing up through the dirt, buds ready to burst, a green tinge appearing on tree limbs.  I love summer.  Plants filling in everywhere; so much color, sounds and smells, birds, butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.  I love fall.  Cool mornings, cool evenings, and amazing fall colors.  Winter, not so much.

    While I pine away for those long daylight hours of summer, these shorter hours actually trigger plants to prepare for the cold months ahead by entering dormancy, which is essential to a plants survival.  While I am putting on an extra pair of socks to warm my feet, the plants are becoming cold-hardy or ‘hardening-off’.  While I enjoy a bowl of warm soup, roots are being nourished by the sugars and carbohydrates which were moved down from the leaves in the fall.  While I am sipping hot chocolate, plants are acclimating to lack of water.  While I am curled up on the couch watching old movies, eating popcorn and counting down till spring, my plants are counting down also, waiting to break dormancy, waiting for renewal, waiting for a fresh start.

    As spring explodes around us, I resign myself to the fact that I really should have spent my winter getting my garden ready for spring.  So this winter, I am not going to hibernate my time away, I am going to be ahead of the game and have everything ready for spring….just as soon as it warms up a little.