Seeing Stars

Beautiful and glimmering, holiday twinkle is everywhere. This approaching winter season truly is a time of light. Whether you choose to decorate your home and outside landscape with white, multi-colored or large lit ornaments, extra sparkle can be seen on every street corner.

Of course this is the perfect time to use this season of light to embrace the silhouette of your landscape. Think design and structure even as we approach winter in our gardens. And don’t get so busy looking forward that you lose sight of the natural light; the crystal clear stars and moon above us. With cooler evening temperatures, the sky can be absolutely stunning. Thanks, Liz for pointing out how beautiful the stars can be at this time of year, even on a busy highway.

So I’ll wrap it up with a Mother Teresa quote that captures the essence of this holiday season. “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

Image from the Internet

If you like this blog, remember to post and become a friend on our fan page at http://www.facebook.com/abilowz or follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/annbilowz (where there are even more shared tidbits) or subscribe on the blog to receive posts daily via email or a feed. Either way, we hope you follow the postings somewhere in cyberspace and share it with your gardening friends. Questions, comments or thoughts, contact me direct at annbilowz@gmail.com Happy Gardening. Annie

The Garden Stocking Stuffer

This is a Friday reminder that before your ground freezes up on you, it’s a good time to test your soil. Can’t get to it during the busy holiday season? Bag it up and put it aside for a winter project. Consider it a stocking stuffer for your garden. When one of those dreary January days come round, pull out the soil and test it yourself with a purchased kit or send it out for analysis.  

If you relentlessly till your clumps of dirt without knowing what is or isn’t in each particle, it turns into a lot of hard labor with little to no results. Dealing with plants, whether starting from seed, bare root, or a balled shrub or tree, it’s all alive. And when you are dealing with live material, like us, you need to plant it in good soil. It sounds basic but we tend to forget this simple principle. As Gunilla Norris reminds us in her excerpt about bare rooted roses, “The greatest longing is to leaf out.”

So while our gardens hibernate, we can keep the soul of it moving forward. I end with another excerpt from Gunilla Norris to remind everyone that whether our winter creeps in slow or harsh, use this time wisely and tend to what matters. “Acceptance of yourself as you are and others as they are is the true potting soil. All Growth starts there.”

Top Image of fork and trowel set from the Internet (Want to buy the set? Here’s the link)

http://www.grahamandgreen.co.uk/fork-trowel-set

Bottom Image of Rose by Ann Bilowz

If you like this blog, remember to post and become a friend on our fan page at http://www.facebook.com/abilowz or follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/annbilowz (where there are even more shared tidbits) or subscribe on the blog to receive posts daily via email or a feed. Either way, we hope you follow the postings somewhere in cyberspace and share it with your gardening friends. Questions, comments or thoughts, contact me direct at annbilowz@gmail.com Happy Gardening. Annie

Tidbits to Kick off December

Tidbits to kick off December – the last month of the calendar year! Need something to calm you down? Start with flowers. Here’s an ideal Lavender variety to add to your plant collection.The Lavandula‘Blue Cushion' offers a tight mounding habit and extended flowering period, which makes this Blooms of Bressingham® plant a perfect choice for your garden, especially if you are a Lavender lover.

December is a grand time to start dreaming up your flower ideas and design thoughts. Waiting till spring can leave you scrambling for inspiration so write them in your garden journal during these colder months. Okay, so if that 25-day countdown makes it nearly impossible to breathe in the calming thoughts of planting Lavender, here’s a nifty link for a few thoughts on garden lovers’ stocking stuffers. http://rareseeds.com/blog/bakersville/baker-creek-gift-guide/  I’m expecting a copy any day of ‘The Heirloom Life Gardener’ for review. With a teaser tag line of ‘Growing your own food easily and naturally,’ I’m game. The word ‘easy’ usually grabs me.

But often the month of December isn’t easy. So make a special effort to decorate your home with all that nature provides us. Look in the woods, your backyard but stay away from toxic anything with small children and pets. Include some Lavender into your home to exude calmness. We all need it at this time of the year.

What December tidbits would you like to share? I really want to hear. So please post what makes your holidays magical and joyous or ask plant or design questions that aren’t quite clear. It’s all about making our homes, hearts and gardens better, especially as we ring in the holiday cheer.

Need a quote for today? Here’s a perfect one from Marie Huston. "The gardening season officially begins on January 1st, and ends on December 31." Spoken like a true gardener! Happy December.

Image from Blooms of Bressingham®

If you like this blog, remember to post and become a friend on our fan page at http://www.facebook.com/abilowz or follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/annbilowz (where there are even more shared tidbits) or subscribe on the blog to receive posts daily via email or a feed. Either way, we hope you follow the postings somewhere in cyberspace and share it with your gardening friends. Questions, comments or thoughts, contact me direct at annbilowz@gmail.com Happy Gardening. Annie