A winter garden

One of the things that my wife Carolyn does so well is keep our front and back gardens alive with color and changing greenery the year round. If I were doing it, and I certainly can't see myself in that role, I would plant something that would hopefully live forever and flower every once in a while. She goes to the trouble of actually planting things that flower in a particular season next to things that will flower the following season, etc.

This year she has started something new - winter veggies. I think it was the display at the local hardware store that tempted her. Or it could have been an article in the paper. Anyway, when I went out to see what she was doing in the garden, I saw the picture above where a perfectly healthy red cabbage and a healthy Swiss chard plant had been transplanted in the middle of a flower patch. Can you see them? They're the two plants in the middle that don't have any blossoms.

On the other side of the yard, Carolyn decided that the citrus trees were going to live and fruit in our back yard if planted against our north fence. So she transplanted them from their confining barrel halves or vase and planted them directly in the ground. That left the empty containers to be used for flowers as you see back against the fence. Some more mower obstacles.

I hope we can actually get loads of chard to grow this winter. And the cabbage would be nice, too.