Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

12/1/00 - More leaf raking. I think that we have two weeks of pickups left, and, by the looks of the trees around the garden, all of the leaves will be down by then. The weather has been quite warm the last few days, and, resting between raking, I can sit on Gertrude's bench in the back of the rock garden (see photograph with the 6/16/00 "Weekly Diary") and think about what the garden is going to look like next spring. I am particularly looking forward to the spring bulbs, including the fifty new tulips that I planted in the Rectangular bed and the thirty narcissus planted around the oak tree. Raking the side of the house today, I noticed the green tips of scillas peeping up; of course, they will have to slow down over the next few months, but it was nice to see them there.
         The indoor gardens are doing well. The picture and description below should help to convince you to consider a glass-room for your home if you don't already have one. I am very fortunate in one regard and that is that the glass-room is on the southeast side of the house. This means that, when I come down these winter mornings and the day is nice, sunlight is streaming through the glass-room roof and into the length of the kitchen. A roll-up awning lets the sun in during the cold months and protects from the heat in the summer.
         In the basement, the two boxes of Wings begonia seedlings are doing well, and the box of impatiens seedlings has begun to germinate. All of my other seeds are cleaned and put into envelopes awaiting planting time. Generally speaking, I plant tiny seeds (begonias) first and the bigger seeds (sunflower) last--I will be planting and transplanting until March.
         This week's picture is of the interior of the glass-room taken from inside my kitchen looking out toward the back of the garden.The red geraniums are prominent in the left foreground together with the still green oranges on my orange tree. By now these are turning orangy-yellow, and there are other colorful additions to my winter indoor garden. The browallia plants, three pots, that I brought inside are now blooming beautifully--on one plant I counted seven blossoms. The four Pink Profusion zinnias are now in flower, and buds on side shoots promise more blooms soon. The kalanchoe plant on the glass table continues to bloom cheerfully, and the hanging geraniums are putting out buds so that I can soon have color from them. The mandevilla vine is growing new shoots, but probably won't flower for some time yet. All in all, my winter garden is progressing, and promises to dispel winter gloom with samples of summer beauty.

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