Warm Blankets

Okay, it's time to get out the warm blankets. Have you ever seen blankets spread over plants? If it gets really cold here, which is infrequent, blankets come out to cover the rhododendrons. It's just too much for their delicate nature, the terrible cold. Once we had a winter storm that sank the I-90 bridge and froze all the rhodys in our yard. The power was down for a couple of weeks and the roads were a sheet of ice. I cooked on the woodstove the entire week, and with no baths, we all got a little ripe. We had 5 trees down in our yard. Big cedars. One landed on the roof. It was frightening.

This winter, who knows? High winds are common here, especially so close to the bay. I think I'll start taking the train if I have to go south. I have friends still in Kingston; the train stops right at the Edmond/Kingston ferry crossing. The storms are worst there, off the shipping lane. You can hear the wind coming, a roar heading up the coastline.

Well, instead of putting blankets on your garden, you can use a cover crop. (although that won't help the rhodys). The thing you have to be careful with is letting the crop go to seed. See Secrets to Great Soil for more ideas. I once had a lot of millet in my garden—no wait--that was millet from the birds—we were feeding them, that's right. It's important to feed the birds.

Okay, it's my day to write—too writing groups, one I participate in, the other I facilitate. Writing is my mainstay, I love it more than I can say. This is good, as it's taken me a long time to figure out what I love in life the most, besides nature and growing things, growing essays—yes, words are my seeds.

Ciao! Flower