JANUARY AND BIG DREAMS FOR THE GARDEN YEAR

 He Knows No Winter

By Sudie Stuart Hager

He knows no winter, he who loves the soil,

For, stormy days, when he is free from toil,

He plans his summer crops, selects his seeds

From bright-paged catalogues for garden needs.

When looking out upon frost-silvered fields,

He visualizes autumn's golden yields;

He sees in snow and sleet and icy rain

Precious moisture for his early grain;

He hears spring-heralds in the storm's turmoil­

He knows no winter, he who loves the soil.

The sweet smelling blooms of Prunus mume 'peggy clarke ' is the first pollinator that attracts many honey bees and is a welcome sight in the midst of January.

January, in keeping with the weatherman's prediction for an El Nino winter, has been very mild.    We had a week of freezing temperatures and I worried that my 'Peggy Clarke ' blooms would be nipped in the bud, but it survived.

Another welcome sight in January are the many hellebores that I planted in my frontyard forest.

These are the quick spreading ones but there are new cultivars that are sterile and have more upward facing blooms.  I keep mine under control by dividing and giving many away to friends and neighbors.  The hellebores are prolific bloomers that last for at least two months and they are evergreen and deer proof.

The deer will eat tulips but leave daffodils and aliums alone ,  The cheerful yellow blooms of my early-blooming daffodils are another January delight and I love that they colonize and fill the forest with their golden flowers.

This first month of the year also inspires plans for adding new additions to the garden.  Last year I added coneflowers and some Euphorbias that did very well.  For more summer flowering perennials I plan to add a dwarf variety of blackeyed Susans that have a long bloom period as well as 'woods blue ' Asters that bloom from Summer to Fall.  

My goal is to continue to add enough perennials to cover the ground so that they shade out weeds and mulch is not needed.    The garden gets plenty of natural mulch with the fallen leaves and pine needles .

Even in January my garden has a lot of interest in both blooming plants and foliage and it makes my heart glad that I transitioned from the long, cold winters of Chicago to the warm sunny South.  To be able to garden year round is better than any medicine.