Final Winter Wrap-Up

Well, that's how it goeth. Summer wanes, Fall rushes in, and Winter is on the horizon. Yesterday it was I doing the final wrap-up in the garden, covering frail and vulnerable (for our hardy zone of 5) plants, bushes, and trees. Usually it's done before Hallowe'en, adding to the seasonal atmosphere, with the many rose cones resembling headstones and the winter-white wraps on the less hardy shrubs resembling, in the dim of the night, ghostly figures.

My portion of winter-readiness has thus been completed; all the winter wraps, the rose cones taken out of storage, making way for all of the tomato cages which come in so handy for propping up so many perennial plants - along with the peony cages, all the various-sized poles and stakes and the garden ornaments. And the transition was completed. Almost. Because in our gardens there are dozens of clay and ceramic ornamental garden pots needing also to be protected and over-wintered.

Some of them contain plants which will also over-winter safely stored in our capacious garage or our now-stuffed garden shed. We've hostas growing happily in large clay pots, and miniature roses as well, along with herbs like orenago that wait out the winter, ready to be restored to growing condition when spring comes along in the new growing season.

Those pots which can be moved, that is. There are a great many others which are classical urns and weighty, and these are left standing on their equally classical pillars, along with the 'stone' Japanese-style lantern, the birdbaths, the statuary reflective of classical antiquity. Covered, to protect them from the wet, freeze-and-thaw cycle, deadly to their continued intact status in readiness for another year.

The distaff side looks after readying the gardens, cutting back perennials, pulling annuals, emptying garden pots, while the spear-side does the heavy lifting, which includes the conveyance of those heavy garden pots into their winter abode, and the covering up of the urns for winter safeguarding. He also disassembles the outdoor furniture and hauls it into the garden shed (for those which are used in the back) or to the garage (for those used in the front).

The stone (cement) half-curved benches front and back are more than capable of holding their own through the winter months and they remain where they sit gracefully but stolidly. Lastly the covering and wrapping-up of the trusty barbecue whose job has finished for this year, along with the air conditioner; it too placed in rest condition for the nonce.

Until Spring!