December in the Garden: The Thankful Season & Monthly Calendar of Events
( If you are reading this anywhere but my blog, you can find the original post here. )
A small old ceramic bowl filled with little offerings sits on my desk. It reminds me of a monk’s alms bowl, but instead of being filled with food or money, my bowl is full of gifts from many of the people whose gardens I visited or who shared their gardening stories on In a North State Garden this year. The offerings include things like a lacy tomatilla skeleton, a sculptural spice bush seed pod, an owl faced walnut shell, the aerodynamic shape of a winged maple seed, a fragrant California bay leaf (Umbellularia californica), a white birch bark curl, silvery dried grandfather sage leaves, a plastic baggie of Humboldt lily seeds, a pinch of paprika, a small vial of lavender oil, a heart shaped pebble….and more. These offerings add layers of meaning, the ritual of giving and the creation of memory to my garden. And meaning, ritual and memory add depth and dimension to anyone’s garden and gardening.
My gardening this month will consist of finally finishing with the bulbs. I still have snowdrops and crocus to go. I’m also working on cuttings and starts of several plants to donate to various garden club’s Spring plant sales. I am working on Nepeta, 6 different scented geraniums (Pelargonium), one variety of true Geranium, as well as some hens and chicks and several varieties of sedums. I am raking the leaves from the lawn and pathways, making piles of them in out of the way corners so that I have leaves to add to my compost bin throughout as much of the year as possible. This kind of end of year work in the garden – along with the garden’s own seasonal decorations of remaining colorful leaves, bright red Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) berries, snow frosting the mountains and foothills, yellow Meyer lemons and squat Mandarins – puts me in the seasonal mood.
Lots of fun seasonal events are being hosted for gardeners in the North State in December: On the r 7th in Chico The Plant Barn is hosting a wreath making workshop, the 11th, 12th and 13th the Red Bluff Garden Club is hosting a Holiday Scholarship Boutique also featuring holiday greens and decorations and benefiting the highschool scholarship program, and on the 12th and 13th in Redding, Shasta College is hosting their holiday plant sale where they will have 1,000 poinsettias to choose from. For more events for gardeners in the North State in December click here. The Full moon – also known as the Full Cold Moon or the Full Long Nights Moon falls on Friday the 12th,, and the Winter Solstice falls on Sunday the 21st.
I’m working on In a North State Garden programming for 2009 and would love feedback. Send me an email: Jennifer@jewellgarden.com with topics you would like to hear covered, or suggestions for ways in which I might help you enjoy your North State garden even more. Anyone who emails with thoughts and suggestion will be entered in a random all-names-in-a-hat drawing on December 15th for one of the lovely 2009 In a North State Garden wall calendars. The calendars are available for just a short while longer and make great holiday gifts. The winner will be notified by email.
Several listeners wrote recently to say they had discovered the many photographs and in-depth essays that I post to my website with each weekly feature. These essays now also appear on Food for Thought: News Café, a wonderful on-line news source for our region featuring award winning journalists, and found on the web at donigreenberg.com. Check it out.
While Thanksgiving Day itself has now come and gone – I like to think of it not as a just a day, but as the Opening Day of the Thankful Season. I wish you a small bowl of meaningful offerings and a wonderful season of thanks in your North State Garden. 
In a North State Garden is an educational outreach program of the Northern California Natural History Museum and a co-production of Northstate Public Radio.