I'm in eastern Washington, five miles from Idaho. We can't usually do much until April, but without any snow at the moment, I've been able to at least go out and walk around, in the garden. Maybe that's why I like all these grass paths...so I can 'be' in the garden, even when it's too cold to actually do anything! :)

I'm planning to move a few things around in the spring...and all the beds in the kitchen garden/potager need to be edged. Since it's still a work in progress, I thought I'd edge the beds, after I finish moving the plants around. I did order some roses for the front bed (my Christmas present from my husband) so that's been fun, too. Mainly, I think we just recover from the summer and look forward to the 'burst of energy' in the spring, before it gets too hot in the summer, to do much work! LOL

Hi, MacGregor (and Peter Rabbit and his relatives -- hope you can keep them from chewing up your garden)--

Ah, winter: sleeping time! We NE-ers are lucky to have months of time off. The CA and FL gardeners can't ever take a break. So relax, take naps, and enjoy the seed catalogues. I ordered a few paper ones, but nowadays the online catalogues are better. My gardening year starts around St. Patrick's Day when the peas get planted.

You ask, how we get through the winter. Answer: we travel, sleep, read and eat our frozen and canned veggies from last summer. Not necessarily at the same time.

Carol

In my z4a area, no outside garden work until mid April. Yes it would be nice to see some green plants with flowers but as Carol points out it is nice to have some months off as well. Right now I'm finalizing my seed & rose bush mail orders & will be sending them out in the next 2 weeks. Also catching up on my garden reading & planning. Another thing that happens in my area that I take in is: several different garden clubs put on seminars in Feb & early March. One specific thing I will be doing in the next few weeks is building some trellises for my garden. Other than that, enjoy some of the winter landscapes that Mother Nature gives us.

Thank you fellow gardeners,

I appreciate your writing and will take your tips/ideas to heart.

One thing I want to do is DEFINITELY freeze more veggies than I did this year, so I will peruse the catalogues for good varieties to use for that (beans, carrots).

Reading is always good no matter what - I just got a great used copy of "In the French Kitchen Garden," by Georgeanne Brennan, and I have both of Jennifer Bartley's books, so I will revisit those as well. Get the colored pencils and ruler out and maybe rethink some parts of the garden.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

- MacGregor

If you have access to grow shelves with lights and a heat mat, this is an ideal time to start some cuttings of things that take quite a while to root up, like lavender or boxwood.
By the time spring comes you will have lots of little rooted plants to stick in the soil or pot up for growing on.