There's snow in my heart

There is something so wonderful about a big snowfall. I have fond memories of sitting inside by the radiator and watching the snow inch its way higher with big fluffy flakes. I love the purplish-gray color of the snowy night sky, and the way snow can balance itself on power lines. I also love the calm that comes with a big snowstorm. Nobody goes anywhere. Nobody expects anything. Everybody just wants to sit in the warmth and listen to the quiet.

I don't have those moments in California. "Summer year round," as my friend Phran calls it, has its low points. "This time of year, most gardeners around here are on a break from outdoor chores," Phran says in her Garden Report on Philadelphia's KYW News Radio. A break from gardening to lay inside and watch the snow fall sounds so delightful that I almost, for a second, thought I could live in the cold again. That was until I remembered shoveling.

A little rain goes a long way

Gardening wasn't a hobby of mine before I bought a house on a quarter acre of nearly bare land. I had some idea of what to do with plants from helping my mother in her garden as a child. But gardening in lush and green Pennsylvania is not like gardening in the coastal dessert we call San Diego. I finally figured out that the sprinklers in the lawn were there for a reason, a good reason, it never rains here. Well, as Thomas says, never say never. We get about 11 inches of rain annually compared to the 45 or so inches I grew up knowing. And those 11 inches come this time of year meaning I have more gardening to do in the winter than in the summer.

I didn't know how much water to give plants, and as a result I lost quite a few plants in the early days of my California garden. Then winter came and plants began to sprout and bloom and grow. But then warm spring days led into hot summer sunshine and my garden suffered. Many of the plants are drought tolerant but I didn't understand they first needed to establish themselves before they could use less water. Now that I am equipped, albeit through trial and error, with a better understanding of what these California plants need to survive many more of them are doing just that.