It Must be March!  Oh wait, no it isn't but it sure feels like it doesn't it?  The weather has been unseasonably warm and the plants are responding accordingly, which may not be a good thing.  Don't get me wrong I love being able to get outside and do stuff in the garden but the effect on the trees is what concerns me.  Do you remember 2007?  It seemed very similar to this year.  Unseasonably mild temperatures, we thought that maybe winter was done early and so did the plants, but we were deceived! Winter had one more blast to give us in freezing temperatures and it did a number on our favorite garden specimens.  I'm hoping we don't have to go through that again this year. 

The Japanese maples and crape myrtles suffered the most but all kinds of plants were fooled and received frost damage.  The warm temperatures caused the sap to flow which then froze in the trunks of the trees and caused splitting.  Splitting bark isn't a good thing!  At our house we lost several Japanese hollies that year.  I can't say I was disappointed as I probably would have removed them anyway in favor of something a little less holly-like!

Have you been around your garden and gaged what is coming up early?  I took a trip around the garden yesterday and found a few things.  They are probably coming up in your garden too. The crocus bulbs are sending up their foliage (picture on the right).

The daffodils are coming up too.  I wouldn't be surprised to see the daffodils actually bloom in early February.  The earliest I've had one bloom was in the middle of February and that daffodil bloomed back in 2009.  

The Lenten Rose is already blooming and it's not even Ash Wednesday yet!

Even the tulips are sending up foliage.  I have a combination of Negrita and Shirley tulips that have done a great job for my garden over the years.  The secret (which is not so secret and applies to many bulb flowers) is to allow the foliage to die back naturally to absorb as much energy as possible for the following bloom cycle.  This is how their foliage looks now:

And here's what they will turn into when their blooming begins!

But then of course there are those winter bloomers that are showing off as expected like Winter Jasmine.  Although I have to admit the show isn't nearly as nice as last year but when in winter one should not be picky when it comes to blooms!

January is one of those funny months isn't it?  You long to see something growing outdoors, you're tired of winter, you're ready for spring, but there are still weeks to wait until spring weather arrives to stay.  Fortunately here in Tennessee we are blessed with mild winters and get that occasional nice warm winter day to get out and get our gardening fixes.  So what is going on in our January gardens to look at?  Believe it or not there's always something interesting to see!

The recent threat of snow dumped a whole dusting of snow on our plants!  It definitely wasn't the kind of snow fall that kids dream of that keeps them home from school, just a dusting, but it was enough to make the lamb's ear look a little more like a lamb - or at least white anyway!

Other colors can add some winter interest to the garden if you add the right plants.  Plants like nandina do a great job of provided both evergreen color and some bright red color from their berries.  The only downside is they tend to spread and have lots of little baby nandinas!

I like to leave oak leaf hydrangeas alone until spring so that we can enjoy the dried seed heads.  Once the weather changes I'll cut the hydrangeas back and pin any low lying branches into the soil to make a few more through layering.

If you like the winter interest provided by ornamental grasses here is a picture of the 'Shenandoah' switchgrass near my garden shed.  In a few weeks I'll cut the grasses back for the new growth to emerge.

Red twig dogwoods look pretty nice this time of year.  The bright red stems look especially good near evergreens, it's too bad I don't have more evergreens around to use as backdrops!  Red Twig dogwoods enjoy a good pruning of the older branches every couple years to renew the red shoots.  If you ever want more just stick a few hardwood cuttings in the soil during the fall and winter months and by mid-spring you'll have a rooted plant!

One nice feature of my winter garden is the winter blooming jasmine.  Winter jasmine emerges in blooms anywhere between mid-January and March and usually well before the forsythias begin to bloom.  The timing of its blooming is largely dependent on how mild of a winter we have had.  This year the flowers are breaking in January while last year it bloomed in March.

Another winter blooming plant that graces the January garden is witch hazel. We have two of these native plants, their fragrance is nice but very faint.

There's a quick trip around my January garden.  Fairly soon it will be time to start sowing the seeds of the 2012 garden, are you ready yet?  

Ah, December!  The cool crisp mornings (OK, down right frosty), the joyous holiday season (with the unfortunate season of shopping which has become unceremoniously intertwined), and of course the time when absolutely nothing grows (with the exception of everything you don't want to grow), so what is a gardener to do?  It may seem like nothing to but despair until spring but to those who are truly addicted to gardening there is always something!  It's time to plan, time to peruse catalogs, and time to get our gardening acts together for the next growing season.  

While I'm writing this post I'm sure that mountains of gardening catalogs are finding their way to my Spring Hill, TN home through the U.S. Postal service.  Already two have arrived. One of which happens to be my favorite seed catalog for heirloom vegetables, Baker Creek.  The amazing array of vegetables they offer always spurs my overactive imagination. Which is good because I need a burst of energy this time of year. Let the list making commence!  While running through the catalogs I mark anything I want to try so I can go back and write a master ordering list for January.  I'll need to get some of the seeds started by February in order to get the earliest jump possible on the growing season. 

December is also when I figure out what needs done for next year.  I try to think on what projects I did over the past year, what worked, what didn't, what I had time for, what I didn't, and how I could do it all better.  I plan and I scheme.  I think about where new gardens should go.  This is a great time to mark out those locations and get the area of the garden areas settled before planting season begins.  Whenever I start a new garden I like to use the layered garden approach which is also called Lasagna gardening or sheet composting.  I spread newspapers directly over the area then spread layers of organic material on top.  By spring the turf underneath is usually clear of unwanted vegetation and I can go ahead and plant all those new spiffy plants for 2012.  Leaves, grass clippings, and cardboard are great for use in sheet composting.

As part of my planning process I map out projects I want to get to.  "Map out"  sounds like I have some sort of detailed plans, planting arrangements, or blueprints put together, nope.  A simple list is good enough.  In the interest of full disclosure I never get it all done.  It's kind of a dream list.  If I could stop time I "might" be able to get it all complete!  The last several years I've had a garden fence on that list for my vegetable garden, one of these days I'll get a post hole dug!

December is also my bargain bulb time of year.  I seek out those discount racks and buy up those 75% off bulbs when I see them,  it's never too late to plant a bargain daffodil!  Some plants do need chill time to flower (tulips come to mind) so it's best to get them going as soon as possible or give them a little help with the refrigerator.  I'll drop my tulip bulbs in their holes this weekend and should end up with a nice array of spring flowers. 

So while I'm racking my brain trying to think of what to get my wife this year for Christmas I'm also keeping busy planning the garden.  There's always something that can be done for the garden, even in December!