Garden Decay

Gardening in a place with summers as bone-dry and desert-like as I do, it's easy to become convinced that if only winter would arrive, the plants would all be much happier. However, every winter I'm reminded that December isn't really all that kind to most plants either.



The garden looks okay at first glance, doesn't it? But a closer look reveals that many plants are suffering and a few are probably dying. The white sage, just across the drainage ditch from Boston, is almost certainly going to die before this winter is over. The bush mallow a little in front of Boston has lost all its flowers and buds to the frost, without ever going to seed. The serviceberry in front of that has lost almost all of its leaves. And although the aster in the foreground is the only plant left in the back yard that still has flowers, more than half of it has gone to seed and shriveled into dry brown twigs.

( Decaying plants . . . )