The Imperfect Gardener

by Adina Sara

The Space of Winter

Even though we live in as close to year-round gardening climate as you can get, still, winter doesn't offer much in the way of activity for gardeners. Time to look through gardening catalogues. Time to pick up clumps of dead leaves and wind-blown sticks. Time to hunt for signs of those bulbs you planted back in October and regret that you hadn't planted more. If your landscape architect convinced you to plant six Mexican sages in a space big enough for one, then you've probably got some major pruning to do. This is not a time for creating. It is a time for cleaning up, planning, and learning last year's lessons.

But there is much to appreciate about winter gardens having little to do with the plants themselves. Winter is a time for open spaces. Bare trees allow in more light, and the absence of abundant foliage and breathtaking blooms allows us to focus on the quiet spaces in between.

Plant an Elf

Garden statues, colorful pottery, lava rocks, even tree stumps come to life against the backdrop of the quiet winter landscape. Though I'm not much for ceramic deer on front lawns, there is something to be said about an occasional red-speckled frog perched on a rock or a bright blue gnome peering out between clumps of iris.

Did your favorite hand-painted Italian vase break? Arrange the broken shards around the bare-root rose or naked apple tree. Colorful pieces of broken pottery not only fill in the boring blank spaces of winter gardens, but also serve as dams, filtering the flow of water where it is most needed. A little whimsy can go a long way.

Although garden statuary can be pretty expensive, most places that sell them have reserves of broken statues at broken prices. My one-armed Kwan Yin and headless turtle are quite happy living amongst the lavender and sage plants.

Catalogues and More Catalogues

Once you sign up for one garden catalogue, you mysteriously receive lots more. Do it anyway. Even if you have no intention of purchasing anything, catalogues are a great way to find out what plants are supposed to look like. Tools and other handy items tend to get pretty expensive in the catalogues, but occasionally you'll find something that you've never ever seen before, like clever little stem supports or artistic fountains that double as irrigation systems.

Shepherd's Seed Catalogue (shepherdseeds.com) and Seeds of Change (seedsofchange.com) are great sources for unusual imported and heirloom seeds mostly edible offering varieties you will never find in nurseries. Wayside Gardens (waysidegardens.com) offers unusual perennials, and John Scheepers, Inc. (johnscheepers.com) does for bulbs what Shepherds does for seeds, introducing you to varieties you never knew existed.

Once the weather warms and the wet muck of winter has been cleared away, take that first stroll around your garden very slowly. Notice the bits and pieces of last year's plants the last holdout zinnia still blooming, the columbine you had forgotten about, the hyacinth head bursting up out of that old wet flower pot. If you look hard enough, you might even notice a one-eyed elf winking back at you.

Gardener's Exchange

There has not been a lot of response to the call for gardeners offering plants to this column.But I recently got a request from a reader who is looking for iris. Does anyone have some to spare? Think of this column as a place to "buy" plants. If there is something you are looking for, maybe a fellow Metro reader has some to spare. E-mail imperfectgardens\@attbi.com with your requests as well as offerings.