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Health & Fitness

Baby It's Cold Outside!

The first hard frost is often a wake up call for those more comfortable with a warm seaside breeze.  Opening the front door to find your container garden a deflated mass of frozen green signals the very important changing of the season and makes more obvious that we are New Englanders after all and embrace the 4 Seasons like the brave hearts we are.  The week or two leading up to Thanksgiving is a great time to ready the garden (and your spirits) for the important cold season ahead.  The winds pick up and help to naturally prune the weaker branches of the deciduous trees and provide the creative at heart with nice bundles of kindling to dress up with evergreen branches and festive ribbon to give as gifts to neighbors and friends.  Seed pods can now be harvested and incorporated into holiday ornaments for the family tree, and suddenly the bark on trees become the focus and tells those with curiosity the story of the individual tree's health.  
Try mowing the leaves with a mulching blade instead of blowing or raking them.  Breaking down the leaves into tiny pieces will help build up the layer of topsoil that is so important to water retention come summer.
Be thankful for the cold because without it our native species would be overtaken by more invasive species that live in more temperate regions and our historic landscape might fall prey.  As everyone knows, it takes a cold spell to really enjoy the beauty that Mother Nature gladly provides come Spring!

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