Judy's Top 10

Since the weather has been very Chicago-like, I have made up a “Top 10 things to do when you can't garden”.

10.Sit under a heat lamp & dream of Oregon in August
9.Read a garden book & dream
8.Read a seed catalogue & place an order
7.Check out the Garden Time Web-site.
6.Look at your garden from different rooms inside your home.
Take notes for possible improvements to that view.
5.Clean out your garden area in your shed or garage.
Clean & sharpen tools & get ready for Spring.
4.Take a Winter tour of all your favorite Garden Centers.
3.Buy Primroses & enjoy them on your window sill.
2.Plan your visit to the Portland Yard, Garden & Patio Show February 15-17
1.Click on your favorite Garden Time Segment from 2007

I know some of these are corny but you get bored in winter & need to do silly things.
Indulge yourself.

Take Care,
Judy

Belated Merry Christmas to All!

Spending time visiting my family in Chicago really makes me count my blessings about living in Oregon. Wow, did they have a lot of snow over the holidays.
I flew in with about 8 inches of snow on the ground & left with almost that much. It snowed, and then it rained & washed it away & then snowed again. It was getting ridiculous!
I did learn some important lessons. Gardeners in the Willamette Valley are lucky.
We have a lot of green in our winter landscape & I’m not talking about just the Doug Firs. We have Rhodies & Camellias (which may be blooming), Hellebores, Pansies, Nandina (Heavenly Bamboo), Eucalyptus, Choisya (Mexican Orange), Heuchera (Coral bells) etc. I did not see any of these plants even when the snow was in the melted stage.
I did see my advice of leaving seed heads undead headed for Winter Interest.
I’m bias as it is my Mom’s Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ covered in a heavy dusting of snow in the photo. She is not big gardener so I don’t know if she just didn’t get to cut the plant back or she left it intentionally. Either way it looked nice. The Yew in the front of her home also looked pretty with the snow cover. I did brush off the snow later in the day, as when snow accumulates too much it will break branches. I was out shoveling for the 2nd time that day anyway.
Enjoy your Winter Garden
Judy

P.S. If you want to see more snow, check out the New Year’s Photos Next Week.