When it comes to gardening in the winter, I’ve always thought of it as the time to prepare for spring. Master gardener Julie Witmer gave me a new perspective when she recently explained how to use winter to prepare for next winter. She suggests looking at your landscape for holes, places where evergreens would be helpful. Her perspective is not to get through winter or to hide from it, but to plan for it, making sure that your garden has winter beauty built into it.
In my haste to usher in the spring, I forget every year that another winter will follow. When life presents hardship, grief, and transitions, I tend to bury my head or plan for the days when the trouble will pass. Witmer’s advice for gardening offers deep wisdom for our lives. What if in the midst of hardship, we could examine our inner landscape and take inventory of our evergreens? Our faith, relationships, and disciplines add beauty and serve as reminders of life in all seasons, but it may only be in winter that we recognize the barren places. We can accept this revelation as a gift.
If the winter has given you insight into your need for evergreens, and you are ready to prepare for the next winter (because there will be another winter), let’s talk. Click the contact button above to start the conversation.