Seeing Snow!

KCB is a professional gardener and friend who does wonderful work in the Greater Portland area. KCB is also an accredited Master Gardener by the Cooperative Extension Service and we are honored to have KCB as part of our Skillin's Garden Log family. KCB can also be found at the awesome Finishing Touches website.



Snow: A Temporary Covering of Many Good Things!


What do you see? Hours of shoveling? Hoping the snow blower doesn’t run out of gas? Another payment to the snow plow guy? Parking bans? I see a blanket of insulation; the perfect finishing touch for my late fall fertilizing. I see a final bow for the past gardening season and a prelude to the one to come.


I realize I am l lucky as I have off street parking. I currently have no place that I have to be when the weather outside is frightful. No children to find entertainment alternatives when schools and daycares are closed. It is easy to look at the lighter side of a heavy snow fall.

As I stare out my window I become hypnotized by the white stream of flurries. In my pseudo trance I look beyond the haze. Poking through the shrouded earth I spy the normally flat flower heads of Autumn Joy sedum peaked with frosty precipitation. Hungry chickadees pluck seeds from the Echinacea allowed to withstand the elements. The billowy bygone blossoms of the mighty Joe Pye play host to crimson cardinals and their less vibrant mates.

The current state of the crispy vines that once supported azure Morning Glory Blooms offers less drama. I search within to recall how my garden looked during its late August grandeur. Now all I see is snow. SNOW! I decide to venture out-of-doors to take a closer look.

Once outside I touch the crispy tangled web of the Morning Glory. Black specks fall. I seek Mother Nature’s assistance to see that these seeds survive to self-sow. Another part of the yard plays host to a Hawthorne that I refer to as ‘mine’. A white caplet of snow renders the bright red berries elegant in their simplicity.



KCB's Hawthornes!



I am content among the fallen snow. I am warmed by all the possibilities that I see beyond the white. I am envious of the hyacinth, crocus, and the alliums bulbs below. Safe in the earth--they are allowed to sleep. No deadlines, no rent or bills of any kind to pay, they rest. All this I see in the snow.

Take another look out your window. Perhaps take a walk. Now what is it you see when you see snow?


KCB for Skillin's Greenhouses
January 21, 2011