Enjoying Your Garden In Winter Part 1

 Winter is absolutely the low point of the year for gardeners. It's our time of rest and dreaming/planning. However, if you derive physical and mental health benefits from your garden, then loosing all of it for several months can be difficult. I've been thinking about this lately and how I can still get some enjoyment from my garden even in the cold dark months. Here are some ideas I've had to enjoy the landscape as much as possible, even if you live in the north like I do. 

First, consider your views out the window. Even the most enthusiastic snow bunny will spend more time indoors in the winter. What do you see out your windows? Sit in your most comfy chairs and observe what you can see outside. Perhaps you may wish to move your furniture so as to enjoy the outside more. 

Second, can you create a walking path outside? Even a smaller yard like ours would lend itself to a circular stroll. Even here in PA there are some nicer days in the winter when I can bundle up and enjoy a walk around the garden. 

Third, eventually I'd like to improve our outdoor fire pit to encourage winter use. On the unusually warm day you can have a bonfire outside and drink warm tea. 

Once you have identified the areas of your garden are most visible in the winter and would bring the most enjoyment, then you need to identify unpleasant things to be removed or covered. Maybe you still have fall pumpkins out rotting that need to go in the compost. If you're like us, you probably still have children's summer toys lying around, or some trash that has blown about. Give things a clean up. If you have an ugly view that needs to be covered up, start thinking about how you can do that. 

After you've gotten the problems taken care of, you're ready to add in beauty. How to do that? Well, that's in part 2! How do you enjoy your garden in winter? I'd love to hear your ideas. 

Why You Should Garden in 2021

 Happy New Year everyone! If you haven't already jumped on the gardening bandwagon, then this is the year for you to start. There are several reasons why this is a great year to try it out. Don't be discouraged if you don't think you have a green thumb or if you've had failures in the past, I'll be writing lots of tips to help you have more success in the future. Anyways, here's why 2021 is your year....

1.  Gardening is great for your physical health. The most common new years resolution is to lose weight. However, with many gyms shut down or requiring masks (I'm all for wearing masks in public but it's really uncomfortable while exercising) you might be wondering how you'll burn those calories. Don't worry! Gardening provides both strength training and cardio as well as fresh air and sunshine. Also, assuming you're at your own home, no mask is required!

2. Gardening is great for your mental health. I think we can all agree that 2020 has caused a lot of anxiety and frustration and its important to work through all that. If you can access a therapist, that's great. However, just getting outside to work in the soil and enjoy nature does wonders for your mental and emotional well being. You can read more about that here. 

3. Gardening can improve the quality of your families diet. You're going to be much more apt to eat fresh veggies and fruit if you can walk out your back door and pick them. Also, kids are more likely to try veggies if they have helped grow them. If you're in the group of people pledging to be more healthy this year, then gardening can help!

4. Gardening can help make up for food shortages. Look, I am not a doomsday prepper in any way. However, given the wildfires out west, covid related food distribution issues, and people hoarding at the grocery stores, sometimes you can't get the food you want. Recently there was a shortage of fresh lettuce and I wasn't aware of it for months because I've been getting all my lettuce out of the garden for months.  Growing all your own food is pretty hard core but we can all grow some.

5. Gardening is good for the environment. The first thing people stop thinking about in a crisis is the environment but protecting our precious earth should always be on our radar. Assuming you're not using a lot of toxic pesticides (and you shouldn't be) then growing your own food and creating a more biodiverse environment in your yard is great. You can plant a native oak tree to provide nesting for birds. You can plant milkweed to provide food for Monarch butterflies. Just growing your own food organically means fewer pesticides and less carbon emissions from transporting the food. 

Well, if that's not enough to get your thinking about it, I don't know what is. What are your gardening goals for 2021? Feel free to comment below.