Fellow temperate-zone sufferers of garden withdrawal, how do you cope? What activities replace all those hours you’d like to be in the garden but can’t because of, you know, winter? I’m looking for help here because this is the part about being a gardening addict that’s sad, really – when we can’t. And of course it’s on top of the normal challenges to happiness that affect everyone, like short days and hostile weather. Here are my pathetic attempts to replace digging:
- Thorough immersion in podcast availability, with the help of my new Nano and the growing supply of gardening podcasts available on the web.
- Plowing through my stack of gardening magazines and books, even my nongardening books and a few New Yorkers.
- The occasional daytime movie, and lots of little red envelopes from Netflix.
See, I’m in trouble coz that’s not nearly enough. And this year is a particularly challenging one for me because I’m heading into winter without my daily dose of laughing at power from the dynamic duo on Comedy Central – the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Where else can I turn for that comic/tragic perspective?
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I use your same techniques, but I also have a flourescent light garden (the cheapo kind; shop lights and a homemade bench) in my basement for coleus cuttings, overwintering non hardy pot plants, etc. Puttering around down there keeps hope flickering, at least.
Susan… try some indoor plants. You’ll get hooked, I promise.
I practice gardening in the mind: imagining what I want to do next year, planning, drooling over catalogues and such, catching up on reading books I started and never finished.
This year, I’m also busy over the winter doing gardening-based organizing organizing, something new for me. For example, my neighborhood association has asked me to draft a proposal for using some of our budget surplus to green up our streets and yards.
I’ve never been able to keep a houseplant alive.
I’m still out there planting and doing general bed preps for next season. Just re-did my veggie raised bed and hope this weekend the winds bate so I can get my water garden cleared out for the true winter freeze.
Indoors I have a stack of garden catalogs calling name. Seeds to sort and label for trading. Bulbs to force. Indoor plants to repot…
Okay I’m going to stop there as my ‘to do’ is starting to stress me out.
I think you should try having more living things inside your house. It can be anything: more cats, plants, fish, birds, seedlings, newts, alfalfa sprouts, exchange students, whatever. Living things take up our time and give us something to take care of and pamper. Like our gardens do. (also, some houseplants can be moved outdoors in the spring/summer/fall)
Yes, I suffer from winter withdrawal and lack of sunlight. Also I’ve recently moved 2 zones north from 9b to 7b, which made it worse. I do have a few houseplants and have moved some outdoor pots in for the winter. I read (mostly regional) gardening books voraciously. However, my main diversion is bird feeding and birdwatching. Lots of feeders and lots of seeds. Using shepherd hooks, I can move them closer as the birds get comfortable in my garden. I also plant bulbs, have put in a wildflower plot (seems to be germinating well now), and make new beds by recycling cardboard and newspaper (from our birds) and laying them out “lasagna” style with organic matter on top. Did I say I recently moved here? So this place needs lots more gardens and plants!
Winter Sowing! Nothing better than playing in dirt and seeds while it’s below zero and a blizzard outside. I’ve even posted about how much it has saved my gardening sanity through the dark days of winter. And it works! Why not give that a try?
http://www.wintersown.org
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