Goodbye 2011, I Hardly Knew Ye

Winter Day in February 2011

The year not only seems to have gone fast, but it seems a stranger in the night... passing with little recognizable in it. The weather was different, my goals were different, the holidays were different, and none seem connected to either past or present.

I am sure none of that is true if I think hard enough to rein in the disconnected strings, but that is the general feel of it. I know I blogged far less here on IGJ. I'll look through and see if there were posts that qualify as "best", but I believe the poor satisfaction in the garden reflects in the dearth of posts: the garden inspires my writing. I have never been good at "just making things up".

Here are the posts I liked best:

From January, 2011...

The Night The Ice Fell for the story, which we in the family all look back on with laughing and the kind of good memories that such situations are capable of inspiring. You are never sorry when you "make the best of things", and this post has illustrative photos.

From February, 2011...
What's Wrong With Gardening Today? is something of an essay/ quasi book review. Where I pinpoint what makes gardening something to love rather than something to do. Worth re-reading.

From March, 2011...
Springs Watershed shows that at times I write better than at other times. A day in the life.

Winter Damage is a very good collection of early spring garden advice. I think I will add it to my Spring Maintenance page on the garden site. 

From June, 2011
Short Reminder on Pruning Mugo Pines is very short, but this seems to be a perennial topic. By June, it is too late to ask the question, so get this info under your belt now, if you own a mugo pine.

From July, 2011...
July Chore Reminder is one I like because it marries task tips with a favorite picture that I took that month on a trip to Lake Erie ( Marblehead Lighthouse, to be exact). Though sorry it was for a family funeral, Lake Erie is a place of many good memories.

From August, 2011
Good Reason To Eat Locally Grown Tomatoes holds a good link, good book, and good recipe. All in all, a good reason to read it over again.

Chicago photos holds two collage photos (click to see full size). Best examples of front yard veggie gardens in upscale neighborhoods (the suburb of Evanston, where I used to live).

Best Butterfly Picture I ever took. For some reason my old lilac is a favorite resting place for butterflies and hummingbirds. And me, in my old lichen-covered Andirondack seat... but that is not in the photo.

From November, 2011
I Learn About Seed Bombs and share the knowledge with my readers. Good late winter project.

Short list. I blogged very sporadically, traveled quite a bit to visit family, and decided to not record my many melancholy thoughts, although as is good for melancholy I did go out into my garden more in the latter part of the year.

When I am away from the garden I always wonder why I don't take more time in it after I have returned. It always refreshes me - so long as I don't make it about tasks and projects and instead more about the daily wonder of growing things and touching the soil of this old earth. Then I understand the phrase, "grounded".

I raise my glass to the coming year of growing: plants, projects, myself, relationships, and even this blog. Cheers, my friends, may the year of 2012 find us thriving and prosperous. In all ways possible. And if not, gracefully bent into interesting shapes, and meaningful ways.

To you, to me, to our gardens!

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Wrapping Up The 2011 Gardening Year

Hello Dear Garden Loving Friends!

We are at the cusp of the year, and I greet you as garden-loving, rather than gardening, since some of us -as John so wisely remarked to me- have had a few barriers to doing as much as we might have wished in the garden this year. For some of us it is our health or the slowdown of age, for some it was the wild weather patterns that prove how little control we truly have. I suppose there are a whole spectrum in between, but whether we have have a banner year of bloom or a baneful one, we still remain those who love our world of beautiful gardens... something is always beautiful.

Ohio broke its precipitation record, and it has been rain, rain, all through fall and into December. We dug some post holes yesterday and the water table is very close to the surface. Postholes? In December you say? Yes! We have a new dog (story will follow), and he needs the sight barrier of a fence. So we are using a temporary snowfence along the back of the yard.

Hellebores, and Heavenly Weather

That brings me to the other point of fact: I gardened and did yard cleanup in December! And not my old Midwest Grit of " gardening in any weather", but with beautiful warm temperatures and comfortable garden conditions. For the first time, I had Christmas Roses (Hellebore niger, HGC 'Jacob') that bloomed beautifully in all its pure white glory. The rain and occasional frosts kept the flowers drooping, but they caught my eye from the window and I had to investigate. At first it seemed like white paper or a bag in the garden... but then I ventured out and saw their blooms! Caught in a picture for you.

I don't know if you are a longtime reader, if so, you may remember the story of my Christmas Rose Hellebores ...originally bought on sale as indoor plants and then put into the outside garden on the off-chance that they would survive. See my Christmas Roses indoor pictures here.

White dogs and white flowers to make up for the lack of that other white we wished for: a snowy Christmas.

The "Puppy" Our new "puppy" turned up on the doorstep right before Christmas. He was scraggly from rain and looked like he had taken a dunk in the ditch, looking forlorn and undernourished and BIG. No collar and no one who wanted to take him in. We decided to give him a chance, since we had wanted to get a dog for the past year. He looks and behaves like a textbook Great Pyrenees -except doesn't bark so much as reputed. We have had five people voting on the name and it has been a real challenge to come to a consensus.


Right now I am calling this huge dog, "puppy". My kids are used to naming the cats- and they come up with the most outlandish names possible, I have held out for something more dignified, since the dog is a serious guy. So far he behaves in the garden, but I expect some territorial marking signs on my bushes. Fairly benign with the scaredy cats, who perch on the roof and give him the eye. They are slowly back to their haunts as long as he is out of sight.

The Garden

This year the prairie patch proved to be an asset.

I did not plant new bulbs this year, although I had wanted to.

Was able to weed the entry way and the "Look Into Garden" reasonably well.

Compost pile and the vegetable garden will have to wait for spring to get in order.

Mulching will wait, didn't get to it.

The bushes, including the pyracantha were put in shape, although I think I will reduce the firethorn even more this spring.

I look forward to the new growing season, and am going to put more of my plans together during January month- what about you?

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.