Making Sunshine On A Cloudy Day

The wet was late in arriving. After I returned from having a screw removed from my left rear tire I got busy with more chores on my to do list. I'm still feeling like winter, when I have more time to work in my own garden, may not be long enough to get everything done. I have a work kind work list for winter too. Every opportunity to be outside in my own garden must be put to good use.

My front road side bed is one of the few areas of full sun in my forest setting. To keep it that way requires some maintenance.

Powered by the sun trees grow. And they will grow towards any available sunlight. A couple of them were sending branches way out over my front road side bed casting shade on my sun wanting plants. They had to go. Off with your limbs!

There are a few more trees in the wild cultivated gardens I have marked for some limbing up. This will do for today. The branches I cut off had reached the far slope and were headed for the grasses. Every little bit of sunshine helps up here even when the difference made by some light pruning is subtle.

In the forest every unobstructed shaft of sunlight is a precious commodity. A few extra minutes or hour of light during the day or in a part of the season can make a lot of difference in a plant's health and vigor.

Many plants that grow beneath the deciduous forest's canopy have adapted strategies to deal with the ever changing quantities of light. A number of the native ferns are pretty much evergreen. Though they got squashed by the first heavy snow, they are still photosynthesizing.

The native orchid, Aplectrum hyemale sends up its single leaf in the winter when the forest trees are bare. In spring the leaf withers and the leafless flower stalk rises alone in June.

Winter is a good time for making more sunshine. There is less worry about crushing things when branches fall. Then I can turn that stored sunshine back into some warmth.

I have started three winter projects now and finished none. That makes me a little squirrelly, but better that than no progress at all. I have a garden to tend - in the winter when I can get to it.