My Christmas cards are in the mail, so now it is time to publish an annual Christmas letter on my blog, the 1st annual letter.
December 2007
Dear Friends and Family in the Garden and out of the Garden,
Merry Christmas from May Dreams Gardens! It seems like just yesterday the crocuses were blooming by the front steps and now it is once again time to write a Christmas letter. It is hard to believe that another year has passed in the garden.
Do you remember how we thought spring would never get here? It teased us a bit and fooled a lot of the trees and shrubs into budding out, but then it disappeared and winter returned. Those were some tough days in the garden, but me and the plants got through them somehow and I even managed to expand a few garden beds toward the end of spring before the perennials got too big to divide.
I had a pretty good vegetable garden this year even though we had what they called a moderate drought. I discovered round zucchini and now I really don’t want to grow those big club zucchini’s, but I probably will. For once I had a decent harvest of both peas and green beans, which means the rabbits didn’t get to all of them like in the past. I still haven’t trapped any rabbits, so I think the bunnies and I have reached a truce or something. At least I’d like to think we have, since it is the season of Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men (and me and the bunnies).
I wish I could say it was a great year for my tomatoes, but it wasn’t. I never did harvest a big tomato that I could be really proud of, so I decided to go the other way and see how tiny my tomatoes could be. That was fun as it turned into a bit of competition around the blogosphere to see who really had the tiniest tomato.
All year I kept posting about my garden on my blog and now I know about all kinds of other gardens and gardeners, too many to link to in my letter. The gardeners were so nice last spring to choose me for a Mouse & Trowel award for neighborliness. And then in the fall, I got to be quoted in a magazine article in American Gardener about garden blogging.
Many of us blogging gardeners have been sharing on our blogs about what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th day of the month for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. It’s a lot of fun and now I have a list of new flowers that I want to put in my own garden. Maybe Santa will bring me some seeds for some of them?
Funny thing, some of those gardeners say they garden without hoes. Can you imagine? This past year I added three hoes to my collection, one new hoe, and two old hoes, one that my uncle found when he was cleaning out an old shed and the other one from my mom’s neighbor who moved away after forty some odd years next door to her. So, I guess it was really a “hoe, hoe, hoe” kind of year!
Well, there’s a lot of other good news and happenings at May Dreams Gardens, including the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club, but this letter is getting a little long and I wanted to keep it to one page. So I’ll close by saying I’m really looking forward to the next year in the garden which I hope is the best year yet!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Carol
May Dreams Gardens
What a delightful letter Carol. I sure do agree that you deserve an award for neighborliness, friendliness and encouraging others.
If you hadn’t encouraged me to start a blog I would have missed out on meeting so many nice bloggers. And all those tips about gardening and the pictures of so many lovely gardens.
Many thanks and I hope Santa bring you a trug full of your most coveted seeds and that new hoe you have been wanting.
Cheers and Blessings
Carol,
You really summed it up nicely. Wonderful post on a very interesting and productive year.
Merry Christmas to you as well !
Merry Christmas to you too Carol! I hope the New Year brings you and abundance of happiness, big tomatoes, and just enough rain.
Carol,
Nice letter. Brings back all the memories from the garden of 2007.
The ornament with your name on it reminds me of all of our childhood ornaments…which brings me to the coveted bell that you surely have in your possession?
Merry Christmas!
Happy Christmas Carol! You’ve put me into a panic, because I’ve not even started preparing yet. as always I’m heading for a last minute rush. Oh well, you’ve given me a push in the right direction …
Sue
Pam @ Digging says:
Great recap! You certainly enjoyed a busy and accomplished year in the garden. And once again you’ve come up with a creative post.
Merry Christmas!
Great 1st annual Christmas letter. Hopefully in next years letter you’ll have better weather news to share!
Thanks for the letter! I admit, I am one who has no use for hoes but I do have a very old one that belonged to my husband’s granfather that just sits in the shed.
Merry Christmas Carol. You are truly a delight.
Here’s another OpenID experiment, post to follow soon at yourbloghelper.com
Merry Christmas & best wishes on a great New Year in the garden! I hope we don’t have another April surprise like 2007’s. Other than that, though, it was a pretty good year in the garden.
All… Thanks for the nice comments and kind words. I hope to see some Christmas letters on other blogs in the near future…
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Besides a great blog, Carol, of all the profile photos, yours is tops! Merry ‘hoe…hoe…hoe’ Christmas and a ‘Happy Gardening’ New Year.
Joey… Thanks, what a nice comment/compliment!
What a great letter, Carol! You’ve reminded me that i need to do some cards and get my twice monthly newsletter out…but it might not happen before Christmas. Ah well, people like getting mail between Christmas and New Years, too…