Happy Solstice

Gardens revolve around the seasons so to me a gardener ought to celebrate the solstice. Or more to the point celebrate the return of light that is about to come. Today we are having a perfectly miserable "winter" storm. Driving rain and lots of wind. It feels like a nor'easter, but I haven't been following the weather like I do during the growing season. I did notice that my outdoor thermostat reads 51F. I really hope winter comes back this season. I suppose if we have switched permanently to zone 7 I might have to think about gardening more during the winter. But to be honest I really like my winter break. I like that I have a real season to dream about what to plant for next year. Right now I'm reading the Fedco catalog and making my list and checking it way more than twice.

Over the last couple of weeks I did get a tiny bit of gardening done. The roots of figs are hardy here, but the wood is not, so I wrapped up my fig tree. I'm doing an espalier. The main trunk is going about a foot off the ground. Well two trunks. I took two branches and trained them horizontally. Then I'm letting real branches grow up vertically about a foot apart. I bent the branches down so they were closer to the trunk and then buried it all in dry leaves. Then I covered it with a tarp. The other side of the tarp is brown and I was going to leave it brown side up, but I was afraid it would get too hot under the tarp. So the more ugly silver side gets to be the view from my desk window. But if I get figs next year it will be worth it.

The way I wrapped it up is NOT how the Boston fig expert tells you how to wrap your tree, but I just couldn't bear to put on that awful pink fiberglass insulation under the tarp. I could just see it getting caught in everything. Ick! We will see if dry leaves work. If not I might have to talk to a neighbor I don't know. I go by his yard on occasion and he has a little fig tree about five feet tall. Right now it is all wrapped up. I've seen another one in another yard farther away and their tree is about the same size. Of course I've seen ripe figs on neither of these trees, so don't know how successful they are. I figure if I can't get it to work, I can always move one of the figs to the garden proper. There it would be alongside the foundation, which would help some.

I also raked up the pine needles off of the bamboo and put them around my blueberries. I keep hoping I can lower the pH of the soil. I should have taken a soil test to see, but I didn't. I did get some soil from the main garden to test. I dried it out and have it packed up to send to the extension service after Christmas. For now I want to stay as far away from the post office as possible.

So Happy Solstice everyone. I hope you are having a merry season. I know I am. Last weekend was the Chanukah party; today is the solstice/end of the world party; Tuesday is the Christmas party; then comes the New Year's party; then my birthday party just five days later; then another friend's birthday party. I think I'm going to be partied out after the season is over. You would never know I was a bit of an introvert.