Like most people who have eyes and ears and minds that are open, I learn something new every day – but sometimes it’s good to get out and actually be “schooled”. Now that the gardens aren’t commandeering every moment of our time and every scrap of energy in our minds and bodies, we can give ourselves the chance to be taught by something/someone else outside of our daily realm. For Gail and me it’s a winter ritual to go to the RI Nursery and Landscape Assoc. (RINLA) Conference and Trade Show.

I attended the RINLA Conference yesterday and as usual came back with my mind humming and my world a little rattled. Sometimes it’s not just that I don’t already have access to the information that’s being shared but find by listening to someone else (usually an expert) speak about it, I am handed a new way to process or think about the information. For instance, during the panel discussion on invasives (what’s currently being done to limit/control invasive species in RI and MA), Dr. Sue Gordon from URI mentioned worms. She said that as a kid she remembers crashing around the forest in leaf litter that was up to her knees. Now-a-days forest leaf litter is only ever inches thick. Native worms in the U.S. were wiped out in the last ice age and what we’ve got now (we all know this) are European immigrants and we’ve been taught as gardeners to love and feed these lowly dirt munchers. Well. Perhaps too much of a good thing is not so good after all. Worms are not meant to be in our forests and leaf litter that breaks down too quickly is not good for forest ecology (see Teeming with Microbes by J. Lowenfels and W. Lewis). Native plants get stressed and opportunistic invasives get the strangle hold and the balance goes all out of whack. Dr. Gordon who also manages Kinney Azalea Gardens in South County said that she can’t keep a root ball around her nursery plants because the worms have made the soil so friable. Have you ever had worms in a potted plant? Because now that I think of it, it’s awfully hard to keep a wormy pot watered… Maybe – could it be that we shouldn’t go quite so crazy adding organic matter to our gardens – especially those of us in places that have been teetering on the edges of drought? I don’t mean to say that we should stop making compost or ammending the soil in our gardens but I do think we might have to keep an ever more vigilant eye out for all kinds of potential invasives in our local landscapes. And we’ll have to learn methods of moderation. (Doesn’t come down to “all things in moderation”?) And I think we should keep getting “schooled” by the experts. Have you learned or heard anything that rattled your world this winter? (For lists of Blithewold’s winter educational offerings click here and here.) At RINLA I learned more than I knew about using native plants too – stay tuned for that post later (when I’ve done some more reading on the subject!).

I can’t let a 15th of any month go by anymore without a peruse for blooms for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day – now a year old at May Dreams Gardens! This time of year it’s not easy to find outdoor blooms – I actually can’t tell if the hellebore is blooming today or still fully in bud (I didn’t want to track footprints into the bed to investigate)! More shall be revealed with the melt… Like most gardeners with a real hibernation style winter, we have more blooms indoors. Here is a little greenhouse selection:

Today at Blithewold has otherwise been about undoings. The garden volunteers came in to help finish un-decorating the house. It was a morning of organized chaos; a calm implosion of glitter and ribbon and a chance to reconnect with friends after the holidays. There is something about undoing that is a lot like gardening – it’s fairly tedious and yet relaxing (or is it mind-numbing? This group who spooled miles of tulle called it some kind of therapeutic – “moron therapy” I think it was…) and it’s completely gratifying to see the tree un-ornamented and boxes neatly packed and labeled – like finally taking a good satisfied look at the garden you spent all morning on your knees weeding. It seems like we only just decorated the tree and it will seem like only another moment before we’re back in the gardens together again. A couple of garden volunteers were honored at lunch today – Ann A. is beginning her 31st year in the gardens and Louise W. her 26th – that’s amazing dedication and devotion! And this gardener was honored and completely undone – I know now what it means to be “showered”! I’m going against the grain to include this picture of me (this blog is about Blithewold!) but I want those of you to whom my back was turned to see the giant grin you placed on my face (the tears didn’t show in the photo). Merci beaucoup beaucoup beaucoup!!

I think winter’s gone upside down for the moment. Less than a week ago I posted this about an honest to goodness arctic-like morning where my fingers felt like they might fall off and I couldn’t hide my nose deep enough in my scarf to keep mean Jack from biting. This week the temperatures in RI have risen into the 60′s. Weird. I’m not inclined to complain – the other day I worked in the potting shed with the outside door wide open while the greenhouse vents flapped up and down (they’re set at 75 and 80 degrees F, I kid you not). It’s pleasant to walk out in less than eleven layers of clothing. The smell of thaw outside is gorgeous and sweet and I want to suck it all up and wear it like perfume. Birds are singing, the bees have been out for a stretch and still-fat squirrels are racing all around. The weather is perfect for winter walks and wildlife sightings (hawks have been circling overhead). I like it. But it’s weird.

I’m nervous for the spring flowerers. If you were a bud wouldn’t you want to swell to burst in this weather? The Forsythia are still wrapped but the Quince is showing an awful lot of green… And the Witch-hazel buds might open soon.

The unseasonable warmth can induce a gotta-get-out panic in gardeners too. It’s ok. Relax. It’s not time to cut the garden back yet. Instead, go for a walk and look for buds, keep perusing the seed catalogs and start thinking about fertilizing your houseplants again. The sun is out again today so I gave half-strength fish emulsion (Neptune’s Harvest, 2-4-1) to our big potted flowerers like the Camellias, the citruses and Gardenia and to particularly anemic looking other things. In another couple of weeks on another sunshine day, I’ll feed the whole greenhouse (except the Sweet Olive -Osmanthus fragrans- which, we found out recently, prefers starvation).

Tomorrow the forecast is calling for rain and thunderstorms. Thunder in winter? – Weird. After that maybe it will start to feel like January again.

I think one of the best things about January is getting to flip through the blank pages in a crisp new calendar and writing in the stuff of life. (Yes, I’m easily amused.) I like to write things like “fly to Paris”, “sunny, warm – bees are out”, and “Bonsai workshop 10:30-12″. Blithewold members, did you get your winter flyer of education programs and events? Have you filled in your calendar? (–Have you registered for classes?) Those of you who aren’t members, don’t you wish you were? click here for a special deal and just for kicks, check out what we’re offering this winter and see if you’re inspired to fill in a page -or 9- in your calendar too.

The first to do is the Owl Prowl – sure to be a hoot and a half (am I easily amusing too?) the evening of January 23. There’s nothing like the sound of an owl – and to get to see a real Hedwig winging over Blithewold would be amazing. Fred Orwiler, former director of education at the Norman Bird Sanctuary will teach everyone how to hoot like an owl with any luck the group will get to watch one in action.

On February 9th, Julie Morris (director of horticulture here and container planter-upper extraordinaire) is teaching a bonsai workshop where you’ll get to take home your very own trainee. Anyone who loves the miniature worlds of fairy gardens and terrariums will get hooked on bonsai too – it’s inevitable. I’ll be there.

After that on February 12 (just in time for the big V day) learn all about the health benefits of chocolate from herbalist Bonnie Kavanagh. Evidently chocolate is one of the major food groups (I knew it all along) – try samples, learn recipes and impress your Valentine.

Hop on the bus to the Smith College Botanic Garden on February 23. Our own greenhouses are very cool (if I may say so myself) but I was blown away by Smith’s. There’s just nothing like house after house after house of the most amazing plants from all over the world. If you can tear yourself away from the greenhouses (I had trouble) the entire campus is a gorgeous garden too. This trip needs 30 people to happen – please oh please sign up by Feb. 6 – for my sake if not your own!

Learn about xeriscaping from landscape designer Brooke Merriam on February 27. Anyone with a garden who remembers last years drought (let’s not sugarcoat it – some of us watered a lot) should attend this class. Xeriscape isn’t about desert gardens anymore – it’s about being smart about water.

March 1 is all about (All Abuzz over) bees and honey. If you’re half as facinated as I am by bees and how important they are in the world, you won’t want to miss this. Local beekeepers will tell us all about pollination, bee culture and keeping. And after trying honey samples and different cheeses from Milk and Honey Bazaar you might never have the same relationship with regular sugar again. It’s honey for me all the way. (Hey look! – It’s so warm today, the bees are out! You’ll have to believe me – they don’t show up well in the photo.)

Our own Susan Gimblet is sharing her love of African Violets on March 19. She’ll be selling plants from her own (ginormous) collection, and will divulge all the secrets she knows about growing and grooming healthy bloomers. Look out – African Violets can be as addictive as terrariums and bonsai…

We can’t be awake in the world right now and not be thinking “green”. Bob Chew from SolarWrights will talk about renewable energy systems on March 22 and show how you can transform your home into a lean green machine.

Finally, get out your camera and learn digital garden photography from a real pro on March 29. Barbara Bourgette, an organic gardener and artist will show examples of her work and critique yours. This is a camera’s-on workshop. Just think – you and I might find ourselves using some of those mysterious bells and whistles on our fancy cameras!

I don’t know about you but my calendar is filling right up. Anyone else as gratified as I am to fill fresh pages with what’s going on?

I know a lot of you in the world are used to cold weather but this Bristol morning’s wicked cold temps felt remarkable to me! And just to prove it, I took my camera to the water for a couple of shots of the harbor boil, rimy ice on the rocks and the wind that made me send my nose and faceparts scarfward. brrrrrr!!!! It was a fast, frozen fingers, fogged glasses walk back to the potting shed, I’m telling you!

The greenhouse was covered in ice and the uninsulated potting shed windows were gorgeously glazed. Gail and I cranked the heat (to a balmy 62), leaned our elbows on the radiator next to the table and spent the whole day scheming and planning each garden, working our way across the property from the Rose Garden to the Rock Garden. Now that we have color ideas (no, we’re not stuck on orange this year – yet!) we’re ready to dive into catalogs starting tomorrow…