Article by Ann Short
What’s not to love about winter in a California Mediterranean Garden? It is quite something.
The weather cools.
Leaves are bagged and saved for compost. Trees let in more light without their canopy. The vegetable garden is mostly dormant and cleaned up, and bulbs planted. Now, we wait for the weather to do its magic.
In between rainstorms, I still do my morning “round,” squelching through the yard in my mud boots.
The bulbs I planted in the fall have yet to make an appearance. My roses are patiently asking for a pruning, but the perennial flowers and shrubs love the cool, damp weather and reward me with beautiful growth. A crop of moss appears yearly on the lava stones in the fairy garden.
I consulted my winter vegetable chart and planted Brussels sprouts for the first time, ever. I have happily discovered that irritating aphids do not like the cold! Most have departed after a spray with soapy water, and the plants are thriving. The onions and garlic have no worries — pests are leaving them alone.
I wait for a rainstorm to go out and re-sow poppy seeds in open spaces. My poppies were happy perennials until another bout with my gardener and his weed spray! Every year we have the same discussion… please, no poison! But his helpers change regularly, and now I try to dash outside in time to save the flowers.
And oh — those seed catalogs! What fun…
Then one morning, after weeks of cool, damp days, I see a lady beetle.
Hello, the pear trees are blooming.
Spring has sprung.