Winter Garden

The winter garden looked forlorn. Days of cold and wet conditions, which left us feeling down, had taken a toll on plants that normally would be thriving. There was little green and certainly none of the bright flowers we had planted earlier. Still there were those warm sunny days which cried for us to enjoy time in the garden. I have discovered I can feed the need to garden by planning what we will do once warmer weather arrives. This year would be no different, but somehow we decided to plant a mini-vegetable garden in a space that received sunlight all summer but was now only lawn. Once we were confident there would be no more frosts, I dragged out my small tiller and set to work. In an afternoon I had prepared a patch of about 100 sq.ft. My husband emptied bags of soil conditioner and raked the dark red dirt smooth. The next day we shopped for tomato plants,an absolute must, but then we decided to choose something entirely new to us. We chose several varieties of Chinese bok choy, three varieties of garden lettuce, one pale green, one a deep red, and one a ruffled dark leaf. We decided there would be room for eggplant, so we bought six Ichiban plants. Last we chose beautiful herbs: curly parsley, fragrant basil, spicy thyme, and gray-blue rosemary. By mid-afternoon everything was planted. We stood back and admired our work. We knew we would have a fine harvest.