December 15

2007

Gardening in the High Desert.
Snow has turned to ice on the back patio, but little else of it remains. Nights are cold, but the days are still mostly above freezing. I long to be puttering out in the garden. I haven't been there in a week.

• Does the oregano survive under its light mulch of old iris leaves [2011 Note: indeed, it survives without any mulch, and is now becoming a weed!]
  
• How are the garlic beds looking?
  
• I never did "mow" the strawberries under their shredded paper mulches. Are they still alive and will they return vigorous in a few more months?
  
• And my sleeping trees - did I over water them in the fall - causing them to go dormant too late?
  
• Yes, time to start my indoor herbs before I go crazy with lack of greenery.
  
• We bought a cut Christmas Tree. Next year we hope to buy a live one. But for now, I am already plotting how its dying branches will become mulch for my Black Austrian Pines.