While watching Inspector Barnaby on TV tonight, wondering whether the town of Midsomer will have any inhabitants left soon comparing the number of murders with the actual number of inhabitants and seasons, 🙂 I was also browsing and “googling” a bit. That’s when I came across this quote:
“Most people, early in November, take last looks at their gardens, are are then prepared to ignore them until the spring. I am quite sure that a garden doesn’t like to be ignored like this. It doesn’t like to be covered in dust sheets, as though it were an old room which you had shut up during the winter. Especially since a garden knows how gay and delightful it can be, even in the very frozen heart of the winter, if you only give it a chance.”
– Beverley Nichols
Reading it made me stop and think a little. Many people whom I wouldn’t ever consider true gardeners are like that. Everything concerning their garden is considered a chore. Part of that is “cleaning up” the garden in September and October and never wasting another thought on it until early spring. Tediously they “clean up”. Every perennial is cut down. The stems of long gone blooms of hostas are cut down to the ground. Oh, don’t forget the once beautiful rudbeckia. Never could they leave it there during the coming winter.
In the 10+ years that I have had my garden, I was never like that. As my garden gets older I like it more and more, also during the winter. Of course, this cold winter makes me yearn for spring. However, looking at the perfect white snow cover I get excited at all that is to come.
Have a wonderful week!