Winter is Coming - Fall/Winter Landscape in NJ

There’s frost on the pumpkin.

It’s dark at 5pm and the early morning skies are ablaze in that amazing fall/winter sunrise.

I remember last year around this time writing about how I was going to try to find the beauty in winter and in nature at this time of year. Seeing things senesce breaks my heart and the thought of short days, early nightfall and cold temperatures just sends me into a tizzy. But happily, this year has been a little different, it has been a very slow change of the seasons and it has given me a bit more time to get comfortable with the thought of winter.

It seemed every time the temperature dropped, after a couple of days it would head back up. Nice as that was, it has had both good and bad results. The good is that my shrub roses kept blooming well into the fall. The bad is that the trees didn’t put on a very vibrant show as they usually do.

My Hornbeams and Japanese Maples are basically drying up and dropping their leaves with no color to speak of. This Japanese Maple generally turns a vibrant red and then the leaves fall, this year you can see a very different result in the photos below.

I started to write this on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, while the sky was bright and sunny outside, it was clear the end was definitely in sight. Happily, the fall chores are done, mostly. I have pruned back the perennials, dug the dahlias, planted the bulbs and brought in all the outside furniture. Basically we’ve battened down the hatches…

This year I have brought in more outdoor plants than I have in the past.

I am experimenting to see what I can winter over successfully and then bring back outside equally as successfully once spring arrives. I would kill for a green house, to be able to bring everything in and let it continue to grow over the winter, but alas that is not happening anytime soon.

So I have satisfied that urge and used that need to clear out the garage and make it into a pseudo green house. Although the windows are frosted, there is light, hopefully enough.

And luckily for me, the previous owner of this house wanted to keep his Aston Martin warm so he heated the garage with radiant heat which I can control with its’ own thermostat inside of the garage. I would have to say I could never imagine loving a car that much but I am glad he did.

So my pseudo greenhouse is up and running and beyond that, there are plants everywhere from my office to the bedroom.

In addition, I also took my own advice and I have walked my property and made the list of all the chores and projects that I would like to accomplish in spring.

Suffice to say, the list is long, very long. I sometimes wish I could divide myself into three and just barrel through the tasks but unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. This year I will try to get a lot done very early on in the season.