Resolved....a Declaration of Determined Dormancy

I was sitting there, snug in my well heated home, grateful the overnight forecast had changed to reflect slightly warmer temperatures for our area last evening.  I was dreading hauling in and covering plants to protect them from freezing temperatures and since it wasn't going to freeze, I wasn't going to bother.  Actually, not bothering is getting to be a theme of sorts around here.

Honestly, I've gone just about as dormant as most of our garden plants, to the point of rigorously ignoring multiple opportunities to get maintenance or other outdoor winter work accomplished.

Obsessing (but only through the windows) about how the bluebonnet rosettes are handling winter weather so far is about as much energy as I've spared in December for the very same spaces I worked in multiple times daily other months of the year.

Bluebonnet rosettes holding up well so far...

That is just the way I roll, folks.  I go from one extreme to the other.  I am either thinking about the plants and beds and working in them nonstop, or alternately I go about my indoor business, living as if I had staff, as if those outdoor spaces were somebody else's responsibility entirely.

Should I say all that will that change in 2015?  Can I come to you with assertions I will do better, I will behave differently, I will take full advantage of winter's chilling effects and personally get around to addressing the laundry list of chores that routinely accumulates during the growing season?

These succulents are displaying the characteristic color of the cold bitten.  My apologies for leaving them uncovered during the last freeze of 2014 had no visible effect.

Nah.  We've been at this too long not to be honest with each other.

Nope. I am resolved, as I face another New Year's Day, to reconcile myself to myself.  Going forward I will freely admit my own nature.  As a native in my own microclimate I acknowledge I will go dormant in December, drop the pretense of garden control, and remain horticulturally insensate not only through January, but potentially well into February.

When I enlarged this photo I was a little shocked to spot aphids on the stem below and to the left of the seed head on this Tropical Milkweed plant.  I never thought of aphids as cold hardy.  

If you are and have been out regularly working your own spaces, planning ahead and getting prep work done for the growing season to come, then I offer you my deepest admiration and most earnest accolades.  I am currently and will remain cocooned inside, keeping the loosest eye out for freeze warnings but otherwise letting the garden have its head.  I am counting on reappearing from the roots, bouncing back vigorous and fresh right along with my garden as the weather warms.  It has certainly happened that way every year so far.

Wait, you may well wonder, does this declaration of dormancy mean I will have nothing at all to say here for weeks to come?

A little home crafted dino succulent planter bling.  This was a favorite out of the various gifts we made this year.

I wouldn't bet on it.

Happy 2015 to one and all!  As this new year unfolds, here's an early wish: may we all experience growth and grace in equal measure.