Are you one of those people who spends the long winter months pouring over seed catalogs?  Maybe you’ve already ventured out to a garden centre and purchased your flower and vegetable seeds.  Oh, and don’t forget the seed starting trays, soil, heating pads, and the list goes on and on and on!  When I see someone loading up with enough vegetable seeds to feed a village, I see someone dreaming.  And dreaming is the most important part of gardening!

Believe it or not, winter is actually one of my favourite gardening seasons.  Because it's all about dreaming.  As much as I love playing in the gardens, I really enjoy the planning process that comes with the winter months when all is dormant.   

Use this quiet time leading up to the gardening season to see where you need to add some structure to your garden.  Do you have a place for the birds to shelter in the winter?  Do you have ornamental grasses that the pollinators can use to build their nests first thing in the spring?  Do you have interesting twigs that provide colour in the cold months?

Do you have a beautiful Magnolia tree that looks like a sculpture because you have taken the time to prune it?

If you don’t see any of these elements in your garden, take lots of photos, print them, and start sketching in the trees, shrubs and grasses.  You can even use an app to superimpose the elements.  Regardless of how you do it, use these last few weeks of winter to plan the more permanent elements in your garden.  Don’t let another year go by where it’s just a blank slate all winter long… Start dreaming now!

Cindy

Beyond the House Inc.