Six on Saturday: Visualization

The morning view!

Coaches of all sorts say the key to success in doing something is to first visualize yourself making that goal, catching that long pass, making that putt, and then putting in the work to make it happen. That’s where gardeners need to focus during these long weeks of winter. Visualization. Today we awoke to new snow, and while it’s indeed beautiful it’s a reminder that our garden season and signs of spring are still in the distance. So, in the meantime, I’m visualizing for Six on Saturday.

The Front Island, January 16, 2021

1) The Front Island is the first thing most visitors see (although when we will again have visitors is still in question.) I’m visualizing those forsythia in full bloom, the myriad of daffodils of many, many varieties, and the newly added blue alliums.

The Front Garden.

2) The “Cantaloupe” rudbeckia that appreciates the wire ring will be a long time coming, but the hundreds of crocus and dwarf iris will be among the first to appear, followed by over 200 tulips. Oooh! Those luscious colors. Just thinking about them makes me feel warmer.

Will they return?

3) Under my beloved elder, are the winter aconites that made their first appearance last spring still alive and growing? Or, did watering the coleus that grew over them all summer do them in? I’m visualizing them as spreading roots, popping through the soil and snow, and opening their golden flowers….soon!

I love the furry, antler-like branches of sumac in winter.

4) The area under the golden sumac was cleared last fall, and for my first-time-ever snowdrops were planted. I don’t know why I’ve been so slow in planting snowdrops. Maybe because I’m drawn to more colorful plants, but if they bloom before the crocus, I’ll be delighted. Maybe they are blooming, and I just can see the white petals against the white snow????? Okay, visualizing only goes so far.

5) The potager looks a little forlorn right now. The only green are the Lady Cottage’s shutters and porch posts. But if we pulled on our boots and trudged out there, we could peek in the berry boxes covered in plastic, and see robust spinach, carrots and leeks. And, under multiple layers of row cover, are some lettuces that are still looking good. Can you visualize that?

Even the nutcracker is impressed!

And finally 6) even though they aren’t in colorful, mouth-watering, seductive photo packaging, I have no trouble at all visualizing the magical seeds inside that will transform into tiny green shoots and eventually gorgeous produce. Want to know what’s in those plain (what would you expect from an Amish family business?) white envelopes? French Garden beans, French Horticulture beans, Fordhook lima beans, Scarlet Nantes carrots, Quickstar Kohlrabi, Lettuces “Marvel of the Four Seasons,” “New York 12,” “Rouge de Hiver”; Cipollini; Parsnip All American; peas “Green Arrow,” Penelope,” and “Spring.” Spinach “Bloomsdale” and finally, Squash “Jaune et Verte.”

To see lots more garden Six on Saturday posts…maybe some that actually show some plants!…visit The Propagator, who thought up this whole idea of Sixes.

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