01

December is easily the slowest gardening month of the year for us, which is really wonderful since Christmas festivities and family time fills up so much of our time. Out in the garden we had our usual fluctuations in temperature, with cold days requiring row covers to stay up, and spring-like days of 70 degree weather with row covers down. The only thing I am harvesting this month is kale, but the cabbages and carrots are coming along! All the flower seedlings seem healthy so far, but they still have a long couple of months ahead!

02

Eucalyptus has been the gift that keeps on giving this year. I tucked in dried sprigs with foraged evergreens, magnolia, and berries on my porch and my mantle. It added such a special touch! Now I am only weeks away from starting eucalyptus from seed all over again, and I am as excited as ever. This beautiful, fragrant foliage has been a part of my summer, fall, and winter florals--both fresh and dried. This past year's plants remain tucked in the garden, with double row cover and deep leaf mulch. My Christmas wish is that I will have double the eucalyptus this time next year, and I hope to share it with you!

05

The garden was quieter this month. It felt like the first true month of dormancy. I have been reading Isaiah for the past few weeks, and in chapter 40 I read in words what the garden has been showing me through nature. Verse 8 is a well known verse that says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” I have always loved the way this verse makes me take a deep breath. It brings rest and peace to my heart to know that God's Word is eternal, when it seems like everything else in our world is withering and fading. What I had not noticed before is two verses above in vs 6 - “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.” It isn't just grass and flowers that wither, it is our own faithfulness. We are the grass that turns dry and brittle, the flowers that droop and fade. And our faithfulness does too.