There's morning ice on the windscreen even in the carport, the shadows begin to thicken about 4pm, and the days when "getting dressed" involved pulling one garment up and another down are just a dream...
It's time to remind ourselves why Canberra winters are wonderful.
1. Rest and be thankful. The grass mown three weeks ago hasn't grown a millimetre, and will stay neat(ish) and short for a couple of months, or even longer if the wallabies, wombats, bower birds and roos keep chomping it. Even the weeds have slowed down their growth, though they are still popping up - that's why they are weeds.
2. Citrus become sweeter and juicier after a frost, which is why home-grown Canberra-region oranges taste sweeter than the ones grown in Queensland. Just now we have ripe early oranges, with medium and late cropping oranges to come; seed-filled mandarins; cumquats, calamondin, Eureka lemons, citrons, tangelos, Tahitian limes, and green and red finger limes. The secret with citrus is to give them well drained soil - dig the hole, fill with water, and if it hasn't drained away in three minutes, consider building a small hill in the backyard for citrus.
Citrus are also shallow rooted, so need regular watering, especially after fertilising - never feed without a long soak afterwards, or preferably, feed just before a heavy rain storm.
Finger limes are natives, though most you can buy now have been selected for their fruiting qualities, but all are prickly, and make wonderful cover for small birds to make their nests. A hedge of finger limes under your windows may deter burglars, unless they wear thick clothes, padded gloves and sturdy boots.
3. Slow harvests. Ripe apricots or summer apples last on the tree for about a week before they begin to fall and become fruit fly tucker. Winter harvests like kiwi fruit, persimmons, pomegranates, quinces, winter pears, and Sturmer Pippin or Lady Williams apples will stay on the trees for weeks or even months, if the birds don't eat them first.
4. No fruit fly; few caterpillars, sawfly larvae, stink bugs or flies in your eyes.
5. The snakes are asleep, the leeches taking a holiday; the slugs and snails are temporarily off duty, and we no longer keep glancing at the sky for bushfire smoke.
6. Avocadoes, which will grow and crop in Canberra if you give them a sunny spot protected from harsh winds, well drained soil, and lots of mulch and compost. Cosset from both frost and hot dry summers for their first five years and cross-pollinating varieties will reward you with hundreds of luscious fruit each winter. A lone avocado planted in the middle of a Canberra lawn, though, probably has no hope.
7. Camellias, white and yellow jonquils, golden wintersweet, double-petalled hellebores in purple, fire engine red, vivid yellow or even their original single green-grey, proteas, beds of pansies, Iceland poppies, wallflowers, polyanthus, cyclamen - winter flowers bloom for longer than ones in summer heat.
8. Natives like winter-blooming banksias that look like glowing candles among the green of their leaves, or the Flinders wattle. Wander through the Botanic garden to see what actually blooms in our climate before you head to the garden centre, as the natives blooming there may have been recently shipped from a warmer climate.
9. Bulb catalogues, with stunning dahlias and liliums. Dahlias need sun, and more sun. Liliums like moist, leaf litter-rich soil under deciduous trees, and morning sun only or dappled light.
10. Changing your herb palette from basil, basil and more basil to thyme, winter savoury and bay leaves, all of which transform a chicken soup or a carrot and potato soup into gourmet tucker, unless you have remembered to freeze some basil, to add to the whole tomatoes you froze last autumn, which whizzed together then heated with a carrot or two will make a fast and wonderful soup.
11. Root veg like carrots, beetroot, Jerusalem artichokes and parsnips become sweeter and more flavourful - catch them before they become woody in spring as they go to seed. A simple carrot baked with a little olive oil till brown at the edges is magic. Try parsnips baked with butter and just a tiny sprinkle of brown sugar, or baked beetroot served hot with vinaigrette.
12. When the sky is blue and the wind had died down and the mountains in the distance are capped with snow, the whole day seems golden. Canberra winter is perfect for eating scones hot from the oven, with cherry jam and lots of cream.
We need extra carbs to keep us warm in winter. Just ask any bear stuffing itself with salmon before it hibernates, or a wombat in autumn hoovering up as much grass as possible before the protein level drops. Look at all the traditional puddings, like apple crumble, plum puddings, plum fluffy, and "spotted dog", all of them rich in vitamin C as well as sustaining us through the mini ice age that is a Canberra winter.
Eat at midday in a sheltered sunny spot, or indoors at any time, gazing at your garden's winter colour and sculptural shapes of bare trunked trees.
This week I should:
- Top dress the thyme and winter savoury with good potting mix, so the stems are all covered and will put out new roots. Mine are looking straggly.
- Spray bleach onto mossy or slippery bits of paths or paving (and the corners of our shower recess) so no one comes a cropper. Wash off well unless a rain storm does it for you.
- Order collections of new varieties of dahlias, hellebores, liliums and gladioli as birthday gifts for any friend who has the time to plant them, and who's parents felt frisky in the spring before their birth.
- Prune off the shriveled fruit on apple, apricots et al that will spread disease next summer.
- Ask Linda for more cuttings/prunings from her bright red hydrangeas - the ones that sprouted last year died when a family crisis coincided with a short but very dry heatwave.
- Try to resist all the garden centre and nursery offerings of half-price bare rooted trees and shrubs. This is a great time to plant them, but our garden has enough for us, the possums and visiting friends. (There are never 'enough' walnuts for a mob of cockatoos).
