I don't know who needs to hear this, but you don't have to garden in the winter.  It's okay for you and your garden to rest. In fact, that is what Mother Nature would want.

Don't get me wrong: garden in the winter months if it makes your heart happy.  But I feel in recent years, the novelty of winter gardening has quickly grown into another pressure and guilt to constantly stay productive.  

For all breath of life, there is a reason and a season. You're allowed to rest. Human, plants, pollinators, critters, the furry and the feathered...we all deserve repose, so we can reflect, plan, recharge for a new season. But also, so we can nourish the other facets of our souls that we often neglect while we're in the hustle and bustle of survival mode.

I learned from my good friend Jessi that the beautiful Nordic floral art style called "Rosemaling" was started as a way to decorate furniture and walls on long winter nights when farming was impossible and one longed for the colors of spring, when there was no flowers to look at.

And maybe that is exactly how Nature intended as the life for us, and thus why we are forced to lay down our survival tools, if only for a moment, during those brief months where our side of Earth tilts too far away from the Sun to actually produce any meaningful yield, despite our attempts to convince ourselves that our gardens can be just as productive in the winter as the summer months.

Because at our core, we are meant to create beauty just as much as we are responsible for survival.  So I encourage you, for these winter months, put down your garden tools, rest, and create in other ways. Sing, dance, read, write, compose, paint...whatever feeds that artistic side of your soul that has been deprived for months. Because in the very depth of our hungry souls, we know we are here for much more than to simply exist.