Winter’s Wisdom and the Gardener’s Heart: Reflections in Prose and Poetry

February 4, 2020

On winter’s stage, nature dons her boldest attire. The stars relight their ancient fires, the moon grows more triumphant, and heaven’s dome stands in simple grandeur.

As the American naturalist John Burroughs observed:

In winter, the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity. Summer is more wooing and seductive, more versatile and human, appeals to the affections and the sentiments, and fosters inquiry and the art impulse. Winter is of a more heroic cast, and addresses the intellect. The severe studies and disciplines come easier in winter.

If summer is a lighthearted dance—a season of seduction—then winter is a teacher, calling us to reflection and discipline. It is the silent partner that brings intellectual renewal, making contemplative studies an easy pleasure by the fireside while the garden quietly slumbers.

Paul Theroux, famed travel writer, offers the garden world an uplifting truth:

Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.

The gardener’s spirit finds solace in winter’s pause. It is the time to heal, to plan, and to ready the soil for spring’s renewal. Winter’s hidden promise whispers through every icy leaf and dormant bulb.

The absence of winter would leave the year poorer in heart and vision. Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s words remind us of their subtle gifts:

How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose if there were no winter in our year!

True faith in the garden’s cycles—knowing beauty will return—is born in the cold months. In this quiet, hope’s lesson shines brightest.

Sudie Bower Stuart Hager, Idaho’s Poet Laureate, crafts a hymn for the gardener who adores all seasons. “He Knows No Winter” is an anthem for those who see beyond frost to golden yields:

He knows no winter, he who loves the soil,
For, stormy days, when he is free from toil,
He plans his summer crops, selects his seeds
From bright-paged catalogs for garden needs.
When looking out upon frost-silvered fields,
He visualizes autumn’s golden yields;
He sees in snow and sleet and icy rain
Precious moisture for his early grain;
He hears spring-heralds in the storm’s ‘turmoil­
He knows no winter, he who loves the soil.”

For true lovers of the earth, winter is never a barren season.

It is imagination’s playground, hope’s workshop, and wisdom’s wellspring.

As we peer out from our windows onto snowy gardens, let us remember: Winter’s beauty is not absence, but a rich prelude to spring’s splendid return.