Sleeping (napping) Gardens and their Gardeners

Right now is a time to plan and dream about gardening, and maybe take some softwood cuttings.  The ground may be frozen, which inhibits much more than sowing some overdue seeds for the spring.  Bulbs are likely stuck a few cm out of the ground, poking their green leaves  through the brown leaf mulch. 

You can see the 'bones' of the garden now that the perennials have died back and the leaves have fallen off some of the trees and shrubs.  The bones of a garden are the structural stones or wooden structures, the paths and the evergreen plants.

In warm spells, when the ground may thaw, or if you have some unfrozen pots, you can plant primula out for some riotous colour.  The primula are cheap in the grocery stores this year, under $2 each, which is amazing considering how plant prices seem to have gone up so rapidly in the last few years.   A few here or there in places you see every day give a subconscious lift, like a cheerful greeting.

Use your pent up gardening energy to get ambitious about your next year's garden plans.  Make a new year's resolution to develop that area you've been wondering about for so long…like Nike says, "Just do it!"  Dream your garden dreams and make them into reality.