Will This Winter Be Long Enough

Most all of the gardens I tend have been put to bed for the winter. One would think my thoughts would turn to rest and contemplation. Instead I look at the client list and see so many things that could be done on any half decent day of 40 degrees and above with out any snow on the ground. I may have worked my way to a year round schedule.

This supposed to be down time is also when I tackle a lot of major chores in the wild cultivated gardens. I have a list for that. Manually chopping down three acres of meadow isn't even on the list. That is just a given.

Between the two I'm not seeing the chance to exhale quite yet. Will this winter's good days be ample enough for me to get everything done?

Last weekend I got more dung into the roadside vegetable garden. I still have more than half the garden to go and then it needs to be mulched. The tree trimmer's former wood chip dumping ground is still barricaded. I don't know where they dump their chips anymore. I need my wood chips.

The idea behind this cold hardy clumping bamboo was that when I stood up on the scenic byway I would be looking directly at the tops of the bamboo. I'm still looking down. At least it leafed back out from it's complete defoliation from last winter's Polar Vortex. Other things were not quite so lucky or so hardy.

The Miscanthus 'Morning Light' has a certain lean to it this winter. That first heavy wet snow looks like it left a permanent impression, at least until it comes down in the spring.

Did you know bamboo and grass are in the same family? Every bit of this Miscanthus came from a single one gallon pot I kept dividing for several years. Obviously my species of bamboo is one of the slow relations.

Why is it that I feel like a wave is still crashing down on me after all those gardens have been put to bed for the winter?

My schedule and routine is now thoroughly discombobulated. I think I caught a touch of the flu. The cats woke me up three times last night.

I should have taken a nap. Instead I did chores to get ready for a road trip.