Well, I've just come in from leaf sweeping, pruning and general tidying up. I brought the fuchsias up near the house and covered them with leaves as I can't be bothered to carry them up to the porch. Their cache pots now have containers of bulbs in. My garden is microscopic but there are flowers on the Iris unguicularis, Lonicera fragrantissima and Coronilla glauca and even a stray bloom on pink Gran's Favourite. The Hellebores are in bud, the first daffodils, January Gold, are well up and the February Gold in an old window box are also showing.

A couple of days ago I was on the allotment planting some new raspberries, digging over some of the ground and resowing some favas where the voles had scoffed holes in the row. Still plenty of veggies to pick such as kale, chard and parsley.

I'll be bringing some of the forced hyacinths in from the shed soon. I like to get rid of all signs of Christmas by 12th Night and start bringing Spring into the house, even though our coldest weather is usually January and February.

watching the cuttings grow-salvia clevelandii, assorted penstemons, buddleia santana-messing with the compost heap. i'm building a new cold frame which i could get a little more serious about. did some winter sowing-echinacea paradoxa-but mostly looking at pix and thinking about next year.

Just tending to my cool greenhouse, just enough of a path to get through from the front to the back :). At this time of year it's just used for storing all my tender things.
I do have a small heater which is set to keep it just above freezing.
I moved the rest of a flat of Campanula primulifolia seedlings that I hadn't got around to potting up back into the greenhouse, this one is hard to find so thought what I didn't plant out I'd pot up for our garden club plant sale in the spring.
I just picked my last cherry tomato yesterday from a plant where a seed must have fallen onto the gravel floor in the greenhouse, I was going to pull it but curiosity got the better of me and I let it grow, it turned out to be a black cherry, tasty.
I took cuttings of a couple of scented begonias I have, they along with a clematis cutting off my daughter's Rebecca have rooted and are spending the winter on the kitchen windowsill. We both bought Rebecca this spring, I'm hoping the flower on hers is the right shape and color, mine wasn't. Note to self, never buy a clematis that isn't flowering.

That's about it for me,
Annette

Sorting and selecting garden images and summarizing records.

Nice change from hard labour.

I will do some winter sowings. (should have already done that.)
A very nice lady brought me some Egyptian onions and so I will pot up the top sets.
I too, desperately need to sort digital photos.
>
Still will cut back some perennials that did not get done. Would not be the first time I cleared away snow to finish. lol!

This post was edited by Peren.all on Sat, Dec 13, 14 at 18:14

Sorting/organizing plant tags from this year's plantings and updating photo records and the garden maintenance manual are the main winter garden activities here - but I usually don't get started until February when winter is feeling endless!

I have been planting roses. dead heading, cutting back the Plumbago capensis which has grown over the path, pulling out the water lily leaves as they die back. That last job is nice, as to reach the water lily leaves, I have to lean over the water hawthorn which is still flowering. The scent it has is gorgeous.
I have also been planting some new alstromerias, aquilegias, penstemon and some new kniphofias. I tried a Kniphofia Mango Popsicle last year and it did so well I thought I would try a few more.
I now have some Kniphofia Redhot Popsicle and Creamsicle as well.
I hope they do as well as my Mango Popsicle is doing.
I am also having an argument with the goldfish in the pond. They know they don't get fed between December and March, but it doesn't stop them begging, every time I go near the pond.
I am also arguing with the tulips in the pots. I only planted them 3 weeks ago, but they are already 2-3 inches above the soil. I keep telling them, if they don't slow down, I will have to hit them on the head and tell them to stay down until February.
Daisy

For a brief period, we can walk all over the woods where chest-high nettles and impenetrable brambles normally hold sway. This is a manic period of planting hedging and bare root trees, cutting back, dormant growth, raking, making leafmould, compost piling, and taking hardwood cuttings - along with the endless sowing seeds. The chainsaw is in regular use, as is the ferce mulching head on the brushcutter...and there is the usual hard landscaping...but not, thankfully for us, but for paying customers. The activity ramps up now, reaching a peak of frenzy in April...when the growing season coincides with the idling season for this gardener - since spring weeding and a bit of gentle grass cutting hardly counts as work at all.

Just back from the woods, where we have planted quince trees, more wild roses, a lavatera on the dog's grave (because this was the plant which started it all). The prunus subirtella are glowing with thousands of tiny white blossoms - a delight in the sere winter woodland and the wild strawberries are still putting out tiny white flowers. The bulbs are poking above the surface although the moles have been quite active - hundreds of little mountains - grand-daughter had fun kicking and stamping them flat.
All through the winter, tiny seedlings continue to grow and stretch - a daily joy.

For me, it is alot of seed sorting and collecting!! Trading is wonderful to have going during the boring winter months!!

Besides baking and reading new gardening books, I am already getting ready for winter sowing next week and planning out each garden on paper. What I would like to see more of, what should be moved/ or annuals that didn't work in that spot and what new things I would like to add... especially a great task on a snowy or rainy day! The feeling of just thinking back to all those months and what seemed to be lacking and seeing it even better next year!! AHH :) I love being outside but I also love brainstorming and planning!

I also managed to plan out my new raised beds for veggies :) I have never done veggies in full force like next year so we will see!!

I do some pruning on other things, cut back the bee balm and the mums and compost the Annuals :)

~Michael

Michael - you sound like me a few short years ago when I stumbled across the winter sowing forum & started trading for seed. Fast forward a few years and my garden beds (each meticulously designed in a sketchbook) are now all filled with WS perennials and shrubs. I did my homework and scoured garden design and perennial guide books for care/growing instructions.

This time of year I try to take notes of what's still green (St. Johns wort), what has produced seeds (lots) or what's produced interesting seedpods. I use paper cereal bowls for seed collection to let whatever might want to crawl AWAY from the seed pods on its own do so voluntarily. I write the seed type name in Sharpie so I don't have to scratch my head in February about what seeds are which.

I thoroughly enjoyed the years I spent designing and creating my garden beds. Now I enjoy and maintain them. Harvesting seeds is about the most activity I can expect in the garden by now.

Well, I recently moved, so I moved plants about Thanksgiving, what I could locate and move.
I've planted and transplanted a lot of things that were in pots as well.

I'm ready for new growth though...which may be 2 or 3 months coming. I'm trying to brainstorm new beds.

On the indoor side, paperwhites opened today...and an african gardenia keeps tantalizing me to guess which day I get to smell its first blooms.

gardenweed_z6a,

That sounds exactly like me!!! Lol I also keep a gardening journal filled with what I am doing every day/week, the weather, what seeds I collected, what was in bloom, ideas for next year.

Seed collecting this year was mostly in Styrofoam containers I saved and plastic containers from the dollar tree which I lay out on my dressers to let bugs crawl away and for the seeds to dry more before storing!

I love this time of the year for that seed harvest too! I am overjoyed to plant more of my own seeds next year!! I started last Fall so I don't have much written from last year about bloom periods(which I can't wait to see how it is different next year from the weather) and to plant my more of my own seeds!!

Oh and indoors, I just water and tend for the houseplants that were somewhat neglected for outdoor plants in Spring and Summer! lol but my Oxalis, Cyclamen and african violets are in full bloom so far!! :)
~Michael

I drizzle out cleaning over winter. Last weekend I raked and trimmed some plants back, sort of a rough stage one cleaning, the biggest one will be in late January or mid February when I cut back the grasses.

Henbit is coming up in earnest along with the invasive Privet seedlings and a few dandelions & fescue from the property next door so thats been being weeded out with gusto.

I've been direct sowing seeds in dribs and drabs insuring all kinds of surprises coming up in the mini prairie. I've added Astralagus, Prairie Larkspur, more Moss Verbena, Three Leaf Sumac, Spectacle Pod, SW & Texas Native varieties of Penstemon and quite a few others I would have to rack my brain or go through my box of home made seed packets to remember.

Upstairs in a sunny window I'm growing various varieties of grass plugs which need warm temps in 4" pots (S. 'Prairie Blues', S. nutans 'Indian Steel', Weeping Muhly Gulf Muhly & Sacaton Alkali). I also have some Sand Penstemon up to get a head start on plants for spring. I plan to order some Muhlenbergia porteri (Bush Muhly Grass) seeds this week and sow those coming up indoors.

To add more silver/blue I'm starting more Fringed Sage from rooted sections I took from the established plants. The over all plan is to tone down the bloomers in favor of texture since I want the blooms to just be accents of color among the grasses which will dominate in drifts.

I took 3 large cuttings from a blue O. macrocentra cactus that I'm rooting indoors to add some more blue/purple sculptural interest in chosen spots which I will set out in March. I also have a nice blue shindagger agave I got in a trade this fall to set out that came from New Mexico, its under the carport wintering over dry along with another cactus that will form a patch of fuzzy 'dinner rolls' eventually.

No journals or drawn out plans happen around here. No plant tags are saved or organized since most plants are from collected seed rather than a nursery but if its growing out there, I always recognize it and know where it came from even if I don't know the name of it yet which happens a lot. I like to spend time online trying to ID some of these wild things. Luckily I have big windows upstairs and I can look down and right away see the layout and spacing and plan changes visually. Thats about as close to a plan as I have, the rest is done in my head where I pretty much have it memorized anyway and nature makes many decisions here which are better than the ones I had. The sowing I do in winter makes the next year an adventure of sorts as I discover things coming up.

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Mon, Dec 15, 14 at 14:10

Mostly I am pursuing other interests as I do most winters, but I have done a few garden-related things. I did a bit of wreath making using branches I cut from various evergreens (more outdoor seasonal decor than actual gardening) and freed shrubs from some heavy wet snow. It's now cold enough that I'll be pruning my type 3 clematis whenever I have time in the next week or two if the weather doesn't dump a bunch of snow. I am also starting to peruse catalogues and websites as they are updated for the new year.

I have some seeds to start in a few weeks, but it's a bit too soon right now.

Mostly I am working like a slave on a large job. At home It is very light duty since I arrive home beat to a limp rag.I am still building beds and broadcasting seeds of wild things. I have had many come up and they are WAY to thickly planted. So I am moving them around. and dispersing them into the wilds. My California poppies came up in a wad. The mentzelia are popping up prolifically in one spot but they seam to move easily and are great xeric plants. I will be testing a few out on a rocky ridge. I did see some rudbeckia seeds coming up . I moved a bunch(100) of rain lilies from their nursery pot into the ground infant of the Mexican oregano and stachys lavandulifolia And Mexican orange honeysuckle plant (Justicia spicier)

I don't plan things but I have a feeling of where I want my masses and I know in my mind how I want the masses to relate.

I am excited over some Nolina siberica that I found in a nursery. I do not see this plants larger than 4" things from mail orders . So I am going to grab some 5 gallon things on my way back from town if they are still open after I Finnish my job. SO it looks like digging is not over for me.

My daffodils bulbs in the garage are sprouting through the mesh bags....kick me in the butt!

We all know about missing the timing of things. I am trying to STOP MY CAR and pick some seeds of these Mountain Pinks before it is too late. Tomorrow , I swear .along with planting those three 5 gallon Nolina sibericas that I bought yesterday. They gave me a third off. I will , I will, I will.....

The renovation at our house was just completed a week ago. My house has more storage than I had ever imagined. I am putting things away right now including my seed boxes.

I will have to tackle the garage once the basement is in order and bring in potting soil that I purchased in the fall and begin to sow seeds a la Winter Sowing. I plan to sow some perennials and trees. I will sow annuals in April or May.

I am burying kitchen scraps in my vegetable bed. By spring, I should have a well composted veggie bed.
Life is grand. :-D