Frozen in Between

We’re finally in a more usual Michigan winter wonderland. The imagery here echoes the odd energies I predicted during the period between the December 12th New Moon in Sagittarius and January 20-21st, when the Sun and Pluto both enter Aquarius within eleven hours of each other. I mentioned a major timeline split around the time of the December 26th Full Moon in Cancer, and indeed, that seems to have transpired. We’re not quite in the new yet, either. We’re suspended between unfolding realities.

Everything here feels eerily silent, thanks to the muting power of heavy, wet snow. It’s sunny and still, after two days of gusty wind and whiteouts.

Two nights ago in our backyard, the mesh and metal cage around the Garden Tower collapsed. We didn’t bother taking it down last fall since we already have a new one waiting in the wings. I had limped this one along for two extra seasons, even though the mesh had stretched and the metal showed a few spots of rust. Even so, seeing it mangled in the backyard jolts the awareness–especially in contrast to the pristine and delicate beauty out front:

I enjoy the symbolism of a worn out metal and mesh cage utterly destroyed behind our house, the liminal space inside our home, and the frozen beauty of the garden out front.

So much potential, but not quite yet. Even so, the suspended garden in front of us is now more visible than the destruction behind us. If we look at the destruction, we see that the Garden Tower remains undamaged. Plenty of growth potential there, too.

Creative destruction took out that which had already served its term. No way can we drag it through another year. The metal and mesh cage is over. Our yards and home personify the shift of Pluto (force of nature; death and rebirth) from the final degree of Capricorn (structures) to the revolutionary breakout energy of Aquarius. Enjoy this pause. Life will soon start moving very fast.

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park with Momma Jane

My mom’s out here for a 9-day visit, and Momma Jane is the original CPL (Crazy Plant Lady) in this family. She’s had a gorgeous cacti and succulent garden for as long as I can remember, and she’s got a way with everything from orchids to ferns. After giving my indoor plants a spa day on Wednesday morning, we thought we’d spend today’s “balmy” 18-degree snow showers inside the greenhouses at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. This was David’s and my first time there, and we look forward to seeing the outdoor sculptures, plants and trees in other seasons.

Between Christmas trees decorated in styles from all around the world, Rodin exhibit, the Desert Room, Carnivorous Plant Room, a miniature city made from nuts, bark, leaves and mushrooms, the train, and the 5-story high Tropical Room, we plant lovers were in our element. I thought I’d share some of our favorite photos below. If they’re of me, or they look particularly artistic, David took the photos. He’s really a master at capturing just the right angles and interesting framing. 🙂

The above photos and the next one are in the entryway, filled with amaryllis, evergreens and natural light displays.

First Real Snow Here!

Winter Greens and my PDC

Just two quick updates here:

1. Yes, the gardens continue to produce in mid-January. We’ve had such weird weather here, ranging from minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit a couple weeks ago to 56(!) degrees last night. Between row covers and snow, the kale, miner’s lettuce, chard, and mustard are all still providing us with the tastiest of very fresh greens. I snuck out between rainstorms yesterday afternoon to harvest these yums for dinner and smoothies. I wouldn’t eat the chard raw, since it’s a little mushy, especially the stems, but when cooked, this frostbitten chard tastes unbelievably rich and chewy. One of our favorites!

2. It’s official: I completed my Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) and am now qualified to offer permaculture consultations, help individuals and communities design permaculture setups, and also teach permaculture related workshops. In order to teach the full PDC, I would need more training and an apprenticeship, because that course covers a massive amount of material; however, I’m qualified and open to teaching smaller, more focused workshops for people who want to learn about permaculture before committing to the time and money associated with learning the full spectrum of permanent agriculture and permanent culture.

Still Blooming!

It was minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit here last week, but on this afternoon’s walk through the yard, I noticed these little beauties still blooming strong:

Faery magic is alive and well in this yard! What’s really weird is that the hot pink hat, flower pin and scarf I felt oddly inspired to wear today match the primrose. Someone’s having a Midwinter giggle, scattering beauty across the frozen ground.

December Blooms

It’s 3 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but blooming bright and cozy inside Faery Hof:

Winter Wonderland Garden Update

First snowfall yesterday! Today, the yard looks like a winter wonderland, in delightful contrast with the lush and flowering indoor garden. Here are some photos to cheer you up on a chilly day. Well, it’s chilly here, anyway! A perfect day for vegan aronia-quinoa-cacao scone biscuits:

 

Flowering geraniums, a budding Christmas cactus, peppermint, a living palm screen, lettuce microgreens, aloe and jade in the southern window of our house:

 

The blue house offers a less sunny southern window for oregano, thyme, parsley, chives, aloe and a tree collard cutting, while Mr. Meyer Lemon seems to prefer my sunny southern office window, along with jade and snake plant companions. The office is still not finished, but at least the plants and crystals are happy!

Tonight we’re making a stir-fry and topping it with these homegrown Chinese artichokes, affectionately known by me as “the little dudes,” which I harvested on Friday alongside these self-sown carrots. Gotta love self-sown carrots! I harvested a few more before the snow arrived.

Chinese artichokes are related to mint and will hopefully be a perennial if I harvested them right. The little dudes grow from the roots, and they taste a lot like water chestnuts. You can eat them raw, as I did yesterday, and we think they’ll make a fun topping to a mixed veggie stir-fry. They required zero work, just a contained plot and some water, until harvest, so I hope the remaining roots prove vigorous enough to grow again next spring.

Winter Garden Update ~ Plants Alive After Minus 15 Degrees!

We had some rain and above freezing temperatures, so I opened the cold frame to see if anything had survived the verrrrry deep freeze earlier this week. Um, wow. Many of my plants are still alive! I didn’t harvest much, but you can see some kale, tat soi and radish greens here:

David snapped this Suessian photo of our Winterbor kale earlier in the week:

That and the other two Winterbor varieties are still alive. The dwarf Siberian, lacinato and outside Red Russian kale all look pretty frostbitten, but the Siberian and Red Russian might make a comeback. I also lifted the shower curtain I have covering one of the InstaBeds with the tree collards, intending to overwinter that favorite perennial. It had about 8 inches of snow on top, but the tree collards, Lucullus chard, cilantro and leeks were all still alive with no frost burn, either. In the cold frame, the Lucullus chard looked less happy, but it remains alive, along with thyme, collard greens, beets, carrots and more. Pretty amazing.

We might be one of the very few local people to have greens growing after the insanely cold (minus forty with the windchill) early part of this week. We noticed our co-op had zero local greens and even minimum fresh offerings from elsewhere. I remember that from last year, which is one reason I felt so adamant about having a winter garden this year. No sign of my mache yet, but supposedly those seeds are super slow to germinate. We shall see…

Time to eat a stirfry with some of those fresh greens thrown in. Yay!

Winter Wonderland in Goshen

The frost faeries graced our porch this morning.

Even the Foo Dogs are cold!

As of yesterday, the cold frame was hunkered down in two feet of snow, even after a brush off.

I harvested a bunch and a half of Winterbor kale before the heaviest snows piled on. (This photo shows about 4 inches less snow than we have.)

Snow time in Faery Town (houses courtesy of Grandma Van), but their train keeps running. 🙂

Where the morning glories were …

Just inside from the above photo!

This little birdie watches over the gnomes, foo dogs and faery homes. Minus forty with the windchill, but warm-hearted cheer on the porch!

Wow! The C-c-c-cold Frame Works!

It has been in single or negative digits at night for at least a week. Sometimes it didn’t even reach double digits during the day, so, as you can imagine, I haven’t exactly been messing with the cold frame. Yesterday, I even bought some rainbow chard when we ventured out to the Mishawaka Whole Foods. I’ve had this weird sense that all my plants were still alive under the cold frame, but Reason and others’ experiences would seem to have said otherwise. As far as cold frames go, ours is pretty thin plastic, and -2 degrees is the kind of weather that normally kills off everything but mache, which I haven’t planted yet. (Kicking myself. Actually, doubly kicking myself, since I could have planted it today. Doh!)

Anyway, today the temperature climbed to a balmy 30 degrees, so I clomped out in David’s slip on snow boots (mine are in the garage), armed with scissors, waterproof gloves and some optimism. Below, you can see the cold frame after I put it back together, having peeked inside and tromped around it to dump our (stanky!) compost now that the compost bin’s not frozen shut, as it has been all week:

I would have photographed it to begin with, but I honestly had no reason to expect I’d have plants alive to photograph. I had put some row covers inside the cold frame, and David did engineer a way to keep the cold frame on and eliminate the drafts at the imperfect seals using tarps, clips, D-rings and cinder blocks. Go, David! It worked! OK, and I’m hearing some “Ahem’s” from the Nature Spirits and faeries whom I asked to “protect my crops.” Check out these greens!

The rhubarb red chard looks very unhappy and the garlic chives have melted into nothingness (until spring?). But everything else is thriving, especially the thyme. The Lucullus chard has even grown!

I bundled up the babies again after telling them how impressed I was at their hardiness:

Since most of the greens aren’t really growing, but just surviving, I harvested more modest amounts than I usually do. We’ll still have plenty for my favorite “whole messa greens.”

It was -2 degrees F! It has been below 10 degrees for many nights on end. We have barely had any sunshine to heat up the inside, and those row covers supposedly only offer 5 degrees of protection. Someone’s been helping my greens survive … and I am grateful.