I’m not sure what I would do without a real break from gardening. As much as I dream all winter of hightailing it to the tropics, I depend on this dark, cold season for the time to rest, refocus my eyes, and renew my enthusiasm for all things gardeny. That said, isn’t it hard to go cold turkey into a restful winter? After a few days or a couple of weeks spent not outside gardening, I find that my gotta-garden energy gets pent up and needs to be channeled into something productive. Anything hands-on. I still seem to need to work with plants and find myself grooming houseplants whenever I feel restless, but I know people who do more baking in the winter (their cranberry bread is delicious!) and I’m sure I’m not alone in picking up a knitting project where it left off last April or in getting all kinds of crafty and inspired to make art.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been pretty industrious here and because everything we have worked on — from terrariums, to boxwood trees, to wreaths — has involved plants, it feels like an almost seamless transition. And so fun that it doesn’t feel at all like work.

This past Friday and Saturday we held our ever-popular sell-out wreath making classes. I know I say this every year, but I just love how the wreaths come out all different from the next despite picking from the same array of (fabulous) greens, and how proud everyone is of their own gorgeous creation.

Come to think of it, I wonder if that kind of I-made-this-myself! pride is part of what fuels our energy to garden and is what we would miss over the winter if we didn’t get creative one way or another.

How do you channel your gotta-garden energy over the winter?