Chicken and Garden Sheds

Everything you need to know about how to survive winter can be learned from a chicken. They know how to fluff up their feathers and huddle next to each other for extra heat, how to linger in the warm nesting boxes before breakfast and murmur deep comforting sounds like the chants of Mongolian throat singers. Nothing beats the comfort of a warm chicken house on a cold winter morning, except perhaps the garden shed.

This morning, I trudged through the snow to my garden shed to gather gear for the first of my winter garden workshops at the Rowe Conference Center. As I stood quietly looking at my the garden tools hanging from pegs: bamboo hoops and trellises against the wall, my rugged canvas garden bag overflowing with fiskars, dibbles, and a pair olive green gloves soiled from the fall clean up, I felt like was waking up the dormant plant inside of me. Inhaling the crusty soil that clung to the garden fork and the empty clay pots under the potting table, my heart fluttered with excitement. Chickens and garden sheds are essential to the gardener, and are a true source of contentment when the winter ceases to satisfy.