Our mild winter ended when biting cold temperatures caught a ride on gusty winds and held fast.
Yes. Winter is here. Cocooned, safe from the elements. Enjoying the solitude winter brings.
My garden sleeps except for the beautiful Hellebores blooming in the depths of winter.
I sit in my sunroom overlooking one of my favorite garden beds: peach drift roses, purple lavender, Miss Kim lilac, and bell-shaped clematis; their beauty held in remembered images.
An earlier memory of second grade: I woke up with painful, swollen glands on the day I was supposed to make my First Holy Communion. Measles. I spent the next several weeks in bed; my neck wrapped with strips of a cloth diaper that smelled of Vicks VapoRub. It wasn’t all that bad; my mother made me chocolate malts and brought me library books to read. I guess you could say that was the beginning of my love for books.
It’s a perfect day if I have had enough time to read; gardening days sometimes don’t afford me the luxury.
A favorite book I’ve been reading is: The Lost Kitchen by Erin French.
In one episode of Erin’s television show: The Lost Kitchen, we see Erin surrounded by beautiful flowers in her edible garden; her small glass jar filled to the brim with the delicate, orange marigold blossoms she gathered. Each course she serves in her restaurant is enhanced with the beauty of herbs or flowers. The blooms can be used as a garnish or in salads.
Two other books I’ve been reading for inspiration: The Complete Kitchen Garden by Ellen Ecker Ogden, and The Beautiful Edible Garden by Leslie Bennett and Stefani Bittner.
Both books have information about growing edible flowers. I am inspired to order edible flower seeds to plant in spring. I will definitely include my favorite Nasturtiums; the flowers and leaves are an excellent, peppery addition to salads.
Seed catalogs are arriving in the mail. Yes. winter is here. Time to peruse the colorful, detailed pages.
A few of my favorite catalogs:
High Mowing Organic Seeds, Sow True Seed, Select Seeds, and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.
You can see Allium Purple Sensation in the above photo. They are 4″-to 5″- wide , violet-purple starry globes. I planted them in my perennial beds; Allium leaves can become straggly; later blooming perennials hide them.
Always the Garden 