Garden 'siteseeing' around the world

There's snow here in Boston -- about 10 inches (25 cm), I think. Very pretty -- if you're indoors -- and very quiet except for the snowplows rumbling through the streets (and alleys). With the wind chill below zero (-18 C) and supposed to remain there all day, it's a good time to continue our Web visits to gardeners and their gardens in other parts of the US and the world.

I'm reminded that the weather could be worse, of course. In La Ronge, Saskatchewan, earlier this week it was -39 C (-38 F.) -- real temperature, no wind chill or "feels like..." That's cold! Think multiple hats and three pairs of wool socks!

I've lived all over, but mostly in moderate climates. I can't imagine what it's like to garden in Zone 3. The outdoor growing season is so short, I think I'd become discouraged. But Northern Exposure shows that you make the best of what you have -- a collection of orchids, visits to warmer gardens (in Vancouver,) and quite a bit of thinking about plant orders for next year.

Ah, yes, every gardener's daydream, next year. It's what keeps us going until warm weather returns.

One December, she "reorganized the seed collection, adding computer labels, alphabetizing them, and dividing them into annuals, tropical/indoors/novelty, and perennials." (I admire such organizational skills and industriousness. Somehow, in cold weather, I feel lazy.) The rest of the year, it's fun to see all her flowering perennials and bulbs.

In Germany, Anita admires the look of plants covered with glazed frost: crab apples, purple-leaved heuchera, ivy, blue Angel holly, and yellow-berried pyracantha. And instead of working in My Country Cottage Garden, she participates in a Christmas crafts fair.

As a grower of many roses -- she especially enjoys the old garden roses -- she's made some attractive labels for them.That would keep you busy in cold weather. And they would be great for perennials, too. I wish I were talented at crafts, any craft. But I'm not. I enjoy admiring others' creativity, though.

In Garden Bytes from New York, two entertaining garden experts -- Ellen Zachos and Ellen Spector Platt -- keep residents of the Big Apple up to date on what's happening in city horticulture.

The duo, who have authored a number of excellent garden books between them, suggest alternatives to the ubiquitous poinsettia, provide encouragement to prune your evergreens for wreaths and indoors arrangements, and reveal a neat solution for attaching vines to a building without harming the facade or the vine.

If you think those are ideas that will interest gardeners living other places beyond the Big Apple, you're right. Even if I can't imagine trying to grow cotton or peanuts on a rooftop -- as Ellen S.P. did -- I love to read about it! This has become one of my favorite garden blogs.

This last link isn't a blog -- but it's fun when you're stuck indoors in cold weather. It's call Click to Create a Flower Garden.

When you arrive at the site, you see the words Flower Garden. You wait for something to happen. Nothing does. There's no way to scroll down. Then you remember the name of the site and -- hey, if only real gardening were this simple and fast!

Join us next Friday for another virtual jaunt to see what other gardeners are doing.