It is now winter. It is cold and wet. After coming back from my “semi-tropical” cruise – well it is winter in Australia too, so it was only slightly warmer than home for the most part and quite choppy at sea. I even had to resort to seasick pills at one point, although I appreciate it is hard to feel sorry for me having a hardship on a luxury trip. Anyway I have arrived home and not only was my garden neglected while we were away, it was neglected in the weeks prior as I ran about the place organising everything that needed to be organised in order for us to be away for that long and then neglected in the week of our return as I recovered and restored order in our wee world – ie loads of dirty laundry.
So I have come home to a wet, soggy, overgrown mess of a garden and it really needs a lot of love and attention in order for it to be something to be proud of once again. In years gone by I would have just walked away from my summer garden and ignored it until the spring, but I have since discovered two things….
- Doing that makes it hard work to sort out in the spring and A LOT of digging and weeding is needed to get it ready for the new crops. And Hubby the Un-Gardener doesn’t really like doing loads of digging – he just does it because he loves me. It is much easier to keep on top of it all year.
- There are loads of cool things that can be grown in the garden in the winter like Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, kale, carrots, peas, beetroot, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower. The list goes on and on.
It takes a passionate (read crazy) kind of gardener to be out there in the freezing cold of winter, but luckily I am that nutter. And to keep me motivated to go outside when it would be warmer and drier and much more preferable to stay inside, I made a bold announcement on my website (sarahthegardener.co.nz) and on my facebook (look me up: Sarah the Gardener) that I would blog everyday over the winter.
Now this does scare me a little – has my enthusiastic fingers typed out a promise my poor body won’t be able to keep. At this point I am sceptically confident, although a Wordless Wednesday style post may come to my rescue on a freezing Friday.
So stick with me as I have loads of cool projects I want to do before sun shines warmly again and if you have notifications of my posts arriving in your inbox then I apology in advance for clogging it up.
There I said it. Out loud to actual people, so I shall have to follow through or face shame and humiliation. I shall be blogging daily for the duration of the winter.
Come again…. Tomorrow. Oh the fun we’ll have.
Sarah the Gardener : o )
Those blogging promises are scary, but I am soooo looking forward to reading your blog each day. Great post.
Hi Lucinda. As scary as it is, if I didn’t tell anyone, I would back out of it soon enough and no one would have noticed I was even trying! And I really don’t want an entire quarter of the year slip away without me achieving much in the garden – which is what normally happens! I’m really excited about this attempt at madness.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Thank You for being bold!! I am looking forward to your blogs and to some inspiration knowing that there is someone in the garden, and I can do it, too! I’m in the ddep south, Bluff, by the way…
Hi Marion. I think I am probably crazy enough to continue gardening through the winter if I lived in the deep south! I understand that getting creative with loads of bubble wrap can make gardening in the snow possible! Well – I’d give it a whirl.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Best of luck!
Thanks – I think I’ll need it!
Cheers Sarah : o )
You’re my kind of nutter 🙂 I will try to do some winter gardening a la buckets too so keep me accountable 🙂
Hey Mel – you know me too well! Let me know if you need anything to go into those buckets.
Cheers S : o ) x
How cold does it get for your winter? You have a lot more green that we would at this time of winter!
Hi There. I think we are really fortunate as it doesn’t actually get that cold, but with all the moaning that comes with winter you would think it is sub zero all the time. It is hardy ever sub zero. We do get frosts, but they mostly defrost by lunch time. It snowed once, but it only lasted a few minutes and some people question whether it was actually snow. Most of the time our winters are grey, wet and a bit windy from time to time. But you can still grow things – which is good news for me!
Cheers Sarah
Not a fan of grey and wet but I would love to be able to grow all year round.
Good luck with the blog a day thing 🙂
Thanks so much.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Just in case you have overcomitted yourself…just pull one of those succulent post inside the back door and rootle around for a bit with a fork…” gardening DONE!” 😉 That should see you right for at least a few posts 😉
Hi Fran, I’m sure I’ll have no problems coming up with something vaguely garden related out of everyday ordinariness … I managed it from a cruise ship in the middle of the Tasman Sea!
Cheers Sarah : o )