Not Dead Yet!

In the wake of the snowstorm's destruction and the subsequent cleanup, it's been too depressing to spend much time either writing about or working in the garden.  So I've missed a post or two.  But this is the second consecutive weekend where we've had unusually warm weather and even though I know this is a tease, and another snowstorm is just around the corner, I've succumbed to the garden's siren song.  

I ventured out with pruning shears to do some winter prep and discovered that the garden has been more resilient than I of late.  The premature snow is gone, and in its place are signs that there is still life there.


The arugula we planted in the late summer has, in fact survived -- though spinach of the same vintage did not -- and looks as though we might be available for salads this weekend.

Arugula -- survivor of the big snowstorm!

The cold frame seems to have done its job in protecting the radicchio under its supervision.  It seems to be heading nicely and might soon join the arugula in the salad bowl... or perhaps sauteed with red onions to serve as a bed for seared scallops (if that sounds appealing, check out the delicious recipe here)! 

Radicchio heading nicely -- if slowly -- in the cold frame

I even found some hardy kale standing sentry alongside the cold frame.  It outlasted whatever cold-vulnerable insect was gnawing on it, and seems to  be thriving in this mini-warm spell.  A little garlic and olive oil, and this, too, will make a tasty side dish.

The kale outlasted bugs and snow

But even the plants that have not survived have their own austere beauty.  And once I stopped sulking about the fallen limbs and leaf debris everywhere even I -- grouchy though I was -- was able to appreciate some of these starker pre-winter tableaux.

Lacy hydrangea panicles still look regal when petrified!

The last bloom on a rose bush shutting down for the winter

And then there's the compost pile we started in a cage at the top of the hill last year around this time.  We began it with leaf clippings and fed it all year long with kitchen scraps and garden detritus.  Mr. Mulch built a second cage into which we he shoveled the first turning.  Then last weekend he built a third to hold the ready to use compost from the second cage.  And as he shoveled #2 into #3, there was the final discovery: in yet another of nature's miracles, all that garbage had decomposed into thick, dark nutrient-rich compost ready to feed next year's garden. 

Mr. Mulch shoveling from bin #2 to bin #3

Fully composted -- black gold!

And so, even though the garden has come full circle and is almost as barren as it was at the beginning of this blog last March, in that moist pile of disintegrated debris lies the hope for the next successful growing season.  

The hill has come full circle, plants done, hunkering down for the winter

And for that, on this holiday weekend, we are inded very, very thankful.