By Barbara Damrosch, published Thursday, November 23, 2006 in The Washington Post

This time of year the Earth does the old possum trick of playing dead. Not easily fooled, we know the leafless trees are merely dormant (scratch a twig with your fingernail and you'll see the green layer just beneath) and the daffodil bulbs just biding their time. When snow falls, tracks reveal that multitudes of creatures are still out and about. Snow fleas, a type of hopping insect that feeds on pollen grains scattered on snow and ice, appear as sooty dustings within those footprints.

The soil's secrets, however, are more closely kept. We can't see the buried pupae of hibernating insects or the earthworms burrowing deeper into the earth to find unfrozen ground. However, the most barren-looking garden, if it contains plenty of the organic matter on which bacteria and fungi feed, still has a living soil.

When people talk about the winter garden, they usually emphasize protection. It's true that certain trees, shrubs, perennials and roses benefit from insulating wrappings or mulches. And an important strategy in vegetable growing is learning how to use mulches and cold frames to coax a harvest out of the cold months. Right now you might be laying straw or evergreen boughs over spinach, carrots, leeks, parsnips and other frost-tolerant crops.

Frost, however, can be a force to be put to work.

To read the full article at washingtonpost.co, please go here

Photo credit: Lida Rose