'TIS THE SEASON: GARDEN WORK & WONDERING

We had some gorgeous, sunny days in the 70's this week, which prompted me to get out in the garden and do a little winter housekeeping.  It was an excellent opportunity to see which plants looked best in winter, and which ones had really grown a lot this past year.  For instance, those red yuccas in the big pots started out as small centerpieces which I surrounded with lots of other plants, but now they pretty much fill the pots all on their own.  All they need is some sort of trailing plant to spill down the sides of the pots --  if only I could find one that deer didn't love!  Since repetitive chores like trimming back clump after clump of ornamental grasses, inland sea oats, flopping asparagus fronds and mushy succulents is just the kind of activity that always causes my brain to switch over to its right-side, contemplative, creative mode, I soon found myself receiving spurts of inspiration, picturing which new plants would be perfect for a particular spot, or which plants could be moved closer to certain others, so that their colors and textures could play off of one another.

Since deer love most of my usual winter-color plants, like pansies and such, I instead added several ornamental cabbages and kales to my lettuce and herb beds this year, for extra pops of color.

Last year I was inspired to plant redbor kale next to my red-veined sorrel.  Loved it, so of course, added more this year.  Recently I brought several new plants home to test, favorites of the Arnosky's out at their flower farm.  They're a dianthus called Amazon.  None have bloomed yet, but the stems have taken on a beautiful magenta color.

Unfortunately, I planted them on the opposite side of the garden from these beautiful magenta cabbages.  I'm not sure what color the dianthus blooms will be, but if they are in the pinky-purple-burgundy (or maybe even peachy-coral?) family, and if they don't prove to be too much of a deer magnet (deer aren't supposed to like dianthus much, but you never know) then there will definitely be a lot more of them in the garden next year, mixed in amongst these cabbages and kales! Also, if these gorgeous yarrows and lambs' ears manage to survive our fetid summer ok, there will be a lot of them mixed in those beds as well.  They've added a lot of lush texture to the winter beds this year, and their lovely greys and greens would be a perfect backdrop for those electric pops of fuchsia, don't you think?

The next morning when I went out to snap these pictures, I found someone there, surveying my work.

She looked straight at me, then nodded her head several times, before turning to walk away.  She might have been saying "Good job, Beck!  It looks much neater now."  But, most likely, it was more along the lines of "Mmmmmmm.  Yummy!"