Make the most of your garden in the off-season

December may not seem like a great time to be working on garden projects, but it's actually an excellent time to get things accomplished without eating into precious planting and cultivating time. This month, my husband made me an early Christmas present: an arbor over our garage doors.

For the past few years I've pictured it, pretty and practical, overflowing with wisteria vines that practically beg visitors to come in for a closer inspection. Early on, we encountered a problem: we don't get nearly enough sun in this corner of the property to coax those big beautiful wisteria buds to bloom. The northern exposure ensures only morning rays, and the other portion of the house blocks out a lot of those.

Not to be deterred from my "vision," I've decided hummingbird vine will have to grace the new arbor. It's a bit more tolerant of low-light conditions, and I'm convinced I can still get a few orangey-red buds to make an appearance--as well as some hummingbirds!

The best thing about the arbor is the structure itself. It breaks up all the white space above the doors and really does offer a welcoming entryway along the front of the house. The bonus comes during this time of year, when we layer it with greenery, add a wreath and top it all with a red bow. Merry Christmas!

Why I love the clove

When I think of Christmas, I think of cloves, the rock-hard reddish buds which spice up mulled wine and add zest to all manner of holiday recipes. Ironically, the clove tree Syzygium aromaticum is a tropical plant. Yes, it's evergreen. Yes, its bright red and white flower buds look properly festive, but the clove tree isn't something you'd place beside your other houseplants. It grows up to thirty feet high and twenty-five feet wide! Still, I like to include it in a December posting because I often think of cloves this time of year.

The clove scent--combined with a hint of cinnamon--always makes me think of warm winter evenings by the fire, holiday decorating and singing Christmas carols. Other cultures have different traditions, but the spicy nuggets are just as vital to them. Cloves have been used in the Middle East, China and Mediterranean areas since classical times. They became the rage in Europe back in the eighth century.

Native to the "Spice Islands" of the East Indies, cloves are actually the expanded flowers buds of the plant, dried and commercially available to us all. The pungent culinary additive not only spices up everything from ham to hot cider, its oil, which contains the natural antiseptic eugenol, relieves toothache pain when dropped onto a cavity. Traditionally, it was used to curb vomiting and relieve nausea via clove tea. Herbalists even combined it with olive oil to relieve earaches, but be warned: placing pure clove oil in the ear canal can cause permanent damage to delicate structures within the ear. Best to consult a doctor about your aches and pains and enjoy the tasty attributes of cloves in your favorite dishes and drinks.