The West Chicago Garden Club

The Kruse House Garden in January: Vestiges of the Season Past, Thoughts of the Season to Come

Looking at the Kruse House garden in mid-winter is like looking upon the ruins of an ancient civilization.  Pressed against the recent memory of June’s lushness, the bareness of January startles and shocks. Gone are the myriad zinnias, moonflowers, and other annuals that once populated the vistas, flattened into unrecognizable detritus by the successive snows. Stalks of yarrow and hydrangeas protrude here and there, like the columns of ancient temples, shorn of color, but their seared blooms still possessing the power to evoke the glory of what was. Only the dusty millers in front yard, eerily decked yet in their summery silver-gray, like figures on an ancient frieze, vibrantly dance a ghostly dance of the season past.

But January also offers a time to reflect and plan. Uncluttered, the garden’s essence is visible as never before, making what yet can be done perhaps never so apparent.  Unburdened by daily gardening chores, the vision of what should be and the resolve to realize it come easily–“yes, those roses will definitely go, this trellis will be moved!”

And so Kruse in January, like the Roman god for whom the month is named, looks back to what was, and forward to what will be. – Keith

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