Let It Snow! (Please)

"In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan

Earth stood hard as iron,

water like a stone."

These 1872 words of Christina Rossetti and the picture on the left describe my January garden as the calendar page turns. The next line of this hymn,

"Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

snow on snow"

is wishful thinking. In this unusually snowless season I am growing impatient. Most of my perennials can shrug off the frigid temps without nature's blanket of snow But there are also a few tender perennials such as Flax and Geum, whose roots are not likely to survive being exposed to the winter blast.

I will admit that mulching is not my forte and in a bow to that admission I try to cut my losses by avoiding fragile perennials. But this year I planted my first mums as a challenge to my "wintering over skills." Openly facing the west wind, they invite destruction. Today I tried to talk them off the ledge. I first cut back and blanketed them with their own brown stems and blossoms. Their next blanket was a generous layer of leaves. After we dismantled Christmas, Hank cut several branches of our tree to lay atop the leaves to anchor it all in place. In May I will know if my efforts were rewarded.

When the task was complete, we put what remained of our tree out to the curb, inviting the obvious observation from passers-by. "Oh, those poor Cardinalis....what a pitiful Christmas tree they had this year.