A bit of Winter Sunshine

I don’t know about you—but those gray winter skies can sure get old. Today when I headed outside to set up for milking I couldn’t help but to notice how beautiful everything looked. Yes, it had rained the day before and all the winter grasses—and weeds glowed with a vibrant green hue. It took me a little longer to figure out what was making everything so dazzling—the SUN WAS SHINING!!! The sky was clear and blue. I will admit the temps were in the forties and the north winds were blowing bitterly, but if you could block the wind and bask in the sun it was delicious if I may say so myself.

Winter has been pretty harsh this year here in northern Florida, and the garden has definitely fallen asleep. I long for the days when there are flowers to harvest once again, but in the meantime I am doing what I can to make sure that there are plenty of flowers to pick this spring and summer.

The Rudbeckia is lying low to the ground in little clusters of green leaves—even though the temps were in the low 20’s and it froze for over 12 hours multiple nights, they are still green and growing. Come summer they shall blossom and not only fill the garden with color—but vases too.

We just planted out snapdragons, baby’s breath, stock, statice, and California poppies so that when spring arrives the flowers will too.

I have been making a list of seeds that I want to order so that the summer garden is full of fresh bouquets. There will be sunflowers, amaranth, zinnias, cosmos, verbena, marigolds, liatris, flowering vines and gomphrena. These are all plants that grow well here in our hot Florida summers with its high humidity. While dainty lacy flowers are pretty—they require so much extra care. This list though has proven to survive and bloom no matter what.

To my delight I did not have to wait until spring to see flowers in the garden—for the daffodils have started to bloom. There bright yellow petals add a nice touch of sunshine to the garden!

So as you dream of spring or summer, take some time to plan and prepare to have a gorgeous one.