Published January 5, 2006

As we sit in our homes or work places looking out at the rain and occasional “sun breaks,” some of us get depressed from the lack of light and activity, while others of us see winter as a time to hibernate and plan for spring.

Your Jolly Green Goddess looks out the window and sees nothing but opportunity to plant and bring cheer to others, and a wee bit to herself as well.

At the front end of our side yard one lone Roma tomato plant clings to life. While its outward appearance is black and rotten looking, inside it is still ripening two-inch oblong tomatoes, slowly, and not so surely.

Roma’s neighbors—lettuces, white and purple cauliflower, and Italian parsley that I picked for turkey stuffing and salads, are all in the optimistic stage of their lives. While the roses on the south side of the house are in that late fall wane toward the momentary dormancy we all experience in our ideal climate, the yellow, green, and red chard and broccoli planted between them are nearly in the springtime of their lives and are now a healthy eight inches tall.

So everything runs in cycles, as does life of all kinds. For all the leaves falling from trees and irking some neighbors who cut down their trees because they don’t like leaves in their yards, there are new beautiful buds popping out all over. Camellias are blooming, albeit a bit early, rhododendrons’ buds are getting bigger and bigger, and some weird huge-leafed tropical looking tree is even sprouting up from near the base of one of our rhodies.

And I love to go out after each rain and check on how my baby favas are growing—and they are. Some are about six inches tall, while others in the back garden are slower to sprout, since they get less sunshine, and the beans apparently offer great appeal to birds, squirrels, and the occasional raccoon. Yes, I think at least one raccoon is still hanging around.

Those of us who were lucky enough to receive a plant as a gift usually wonder what to do with it to keep it alive and get it to bloom another time. Granted, potted plants that look good when you buy them at nurseries, supermarkets or big box stores get to look as gorgeous as they are by some form of forced blooming. Few of us know how that is accomplished or if those plants were grown in circumstances close to real life—and it’s a good thing.

At a gathering in a friend’s home last week, we guests discussed at great length how to make a table centerpiece amaryllis last and live to bloom again. One answer is: for the cold months, keep it in a warm window and water just enough for the soil to feel moist. It is supposed to go into dormancy, so if it doesn’t, force it to by putting it (either the bulbs or the whole pot) in the garage, where it’s cooler than in your house, hopefully. Next fall, start all over—place the bulbs in a pot, and place the pot in a window to warm into blooming again.

Our neighbor keeps his amaryllis in their pots on his north-facing covered outdoor porch almost year round, and they bloom beautifully every year with very little care.
If you bought a living Christmas tree this year and still have it inside, water it with ice cubes to help acclimatize it before moving it outside. The inside of your home is much warmer than anywhere your tree could have spent the part of its life before you adopted it. Move the whole planter outside, repot the tree if it looks as if it needs it, and keep it out of direct sunlight for a month, not that we have any around here. Turn the pot every once in awhile so that all sides get the same photosynthesis and its growth is kept balanced. You can then either plant it in the ground, or keep feeding it occasionally to take back in next Christmas.

As for those Mexican-origin pointsettias, it’s nearly impossible to make them bloom again. Their growth is forced for the holiday season, but we can best keep them pretty in a south-facing window. I have actually kept a few going for more than a year, but not lately!

Stay tuned. In a couple of weeks your Jolly Green Goddess will start to take us through a whole year of easy, healthy organic gardening.

Kathleen Hill is co-author of Sonoma Valley-The Secret Wine Country and Napa Valley-Land of Golden Vines. Kathleen is also the host of The Kathleen Hill Show, Mondays from 3 to 4 pm on KSVY- 91.3 You may reach Kathleen at hilltopub@aol.com.