Bare Bones

When I walked out to get the mail this afternoon, I took a little side trip and checked one of my garden beds for any damage from the up-down-all-around weather we've had this winter. It doesn't look like anything was fooled into breaking dormancy, but we'll see in a few months. I was struck by how perfect NOW is for garden planning, and intend to get my camera out there and take some good, bare bones pictures.

No doubt the garden is at it's most beautiful in June and July, when the flowers are showing off and leaves and foliage are doing everything they can to out shine them. Spring is thrilling, fall is that dreamy drifting off feeling, but winter is open and exposed. Bare bones.

Last winter I spied a great spot for a path to the neighbour's meadow, and realized that what looks in summer like dense brush was nothing more than theatrics. It was all saplings and scrub and leaves - nothing I couldn't dispatch with 5 or 6 hours work, my bow saw, ratcheting pruners, and the old lawnmower. The old Nannyberry Viburnum in the picture is surrounded by the same kind of scrub, and I think this year I'm going to hack that scrub back further to give this old lady some room to show off. She's a beautiful gnarly old tree with dark purple-y green leaves and pink flowers followed by indigo berries in the fall. I think it's time she got some attention from someone other than the turkeys and squirrels.

**remind me this summer to show you more pictures. Vermont isn't always shades of grey, we aren't called the Green Mountain state for nothing.