A Master Gardener (ME!) Visits Snowy Missouri Botanical Garden And Falls in Love with Winter. . . Again

I'll admit it: I love snow. I begin praying for snow about mid-October. I think I got my wish this winter, and then some. Forecasters in the area say this is our ninth snowiest winter on record. This girl is loving it! Five more inches predicted for today. Growing up on Lake Michigan has, I'm sure, endeared me to snow-covered landscapes. I love getting my camera out and just taking photos of anything covered in the white stuff.

Yesterday a fellow Master Gardener and I headed out to the Missouri Botanical Garden for some photo ops. We had a wonderful day--did the ladies lunch thing, the whole nine yards. The place was nearly deserted. It was a perfect picture taking day. Our botanical garden is the third largest in the world. We are so lucky to have access to this gorgeous place. I don't visit it nearly as often as I'd like. But when I do, I always walk away with something new and interesting. Yesterday was no exception.

Last week a call went out for Master Gardeners who might be interested in speaking to a gardening club in the area on how to begin prepping their gardens for spring planting. (I became a Master Garderner a few years ago. Best decision I'd ever made--certainly better than that ridiculous MBA program I once enrolled in. Cripes.) Anyway, in my MG classes, I learned an amazing amount of "dirt" stuff. I have a long held belief that you never truly can master any garden, I think the garden masters you. Anyway, I want to help give gardening presentations. I think it will help with my fear of speaking in public places, boost my confidence--plus give me the chance to learn a ton more from other gardening types. I also love the idea of giving back.

  

So a couple of other Master Gardening gals and me volunteered to give this presentation and between the three of us will cobble together enough "Here's how we do it" to arm them with enough dirt stuff to make them, hopefully, not too dangerous in the garden!

As much as I love the snow, I also have an itch to get out and begin playing in the dirt. The possibilities are endless when everything is covered in white. As I look outside, I consider all the possibilities. A new plot might be good here, or a potential spot for a new veggie patch there--it just goes on and on. Each spring I tell myself, Well, I think that's what I want--haul the mulch in, the plants, the dirt, the seeds, and three months later, I'm thinking: Well, I should try THIS next year. It's maddening. The snow is good for this kind of thinking. It forces reflection. Keeps me anchored to the house, contemplating other things beyond dirt: my life, my dogs, my knitting, my cooking, fundraisers coming up, then, more garden goals, crop rotation, my second year asparagus bed--cannot WAIT for my first asparagus harvest!

Meantime, here's a glimpse of what we saw yesterday at The Garden. . . so very worth the trip!

To me, this is the Ultimate in Garden Chimes!

I could not get over the little tracks across the icy pond. What could have made these? Practically a straight line, barely two feet, barely a few inches between them?

These poor kids missed their flight.

Zen. Total zen.

More zen.

I love waterfalls in snow.

Then my friend and I came into this garden space and this yellow pine just leapt out at us. We were stunned--just look at this giant mound of yellow! There are other plants that work magic in winter like witch hazel (which won't bloom until later this winter) or red twig dogwoods--but this pine was so majestic. Adding interest to the winter garden was one of our Maser Gardener topics covered during our training.

I made note: Golden Pine. I'll try to get my hands on one of these at some point. (Famous last words of nearly ALL gardeners, master or not! We covet plants!)

Then inside to see some desert-scapes. One of my all-time favorite plants is aloe. I adore the aloe plant. (Probably because I find I burn myself in the kitchen almost weekly--having it around is sort of like having a mini triage on hand.)

Midwest tropics. I totally LOVE this picture. A happy accident because the lens on my camera had begun to fog up from coming inside from the cold.

Really, really love this shot, too--more of my happy accident, foggy lense. A left over glass sculpture from the Chihuly exhibit.

Finally, for the season: American Holly. Probably one of the most majestic trees of them all--a winter masterpiece--this one is over thirty feet tall. All full-out color, deep glossy green leaves and just covered in red berries (which means it's a female). My friend and I looked for the male as you really need to have two hollies for them to grow and be happy: a male and a female. Sure enough, about a hundred feet away, we found the male holly. Not as beautiful, but still stunning against the winter backdrop.