Now that winter is here in Ontario, I just came back from a long trip from Asia and found my garden covered with a foot of snow is just so depressing! I wonder what gardeners would do in cold winter days like this? Please help me to find something meaningful or projects that I can do during this long, cold, and depressing winter. Thank you very very much!!!!!

If you have a sunny window, (or a good grow light) start some seeds of perennials. They can take a long time getting going but are a satisfying project for a snow-bound gardener. Might save you a few bucks come springtime, and time to buy bedding plants, too.

Any kind of perennials?

Daylilies? Anything that will interplant well with your daylilies, like Agastache or some of the hardier salvias (although not sure they'd be perennial in Ontario .. )

But you could try the Daylily forum to see if anyone is offering seeds.

You could also , since you enjoy butterflies, get on-line plants and build a butterfly house http://www.craftybirds.com/but...

Start seeds for annuals and perennials that are food and shelter sources for them and design an area to locate the house and plants.

I imagine the Asia to Canada change of weather must have been quite a jolt.

You could help fill in details in the database here, earning acorns!

How Sue?? I would love to do that!

Read forums, #1 winter garden activity for me!

Always stuff to compost still. If you get an unusually nice day, see if any of your hardscape needs attention, like borders. Clean out potting/supply/storage area, get rid of broken pots (which I always prefer to do during non-spider/snake season!) Also a good time to lay smothers for future garden beds. Have your mower blades sharpened, engine serviced if needed.

Assess your 'winter interest' to note where improvement could be made.

Tweak your screen-saver on computer to cycle through your garden pics.

Make labels for beloved garden plants. Like a painted rock...?

Shop for clearance garden items.

Make notes of stuff you want to do in the spring.

Start buying seeds (when they get into stores after the holidays.)

Saving 'annuals' (that are really tender perennials) is one way I get more greenery in the house for winter - and ready to decorate outside again in spring. At this point, the lines have become blurred between "annuals" and house plants.

When I lived where there was snow though, a season pass to the ski place always helped pass the time!

Wow....this is lots of ideas!!! Thank you folks! You guys have been very helpful

Daylilybaby said:How Sue?? I would love to do that!

Well, you can start by going through your plant list here, find an entry with missing details and then click
under the Editing Actions:

» Edit data details

Fill in whatever you can, either by finding the info in a book or online (make sure to write 'inches' rather than using the quote marks for the height and spread), don't worry about what you are unsure of, just leave it blank. then scroll down and click the preview button, then submit. It then ges into a pending queue for admin review.
If unsure about something, I always suggest looking at an existing entry with the details filled in to get more familiar with the genus and type of info most helpful.

I think doing this at least with your own plants is a helpful way to get more familiar with them!

If you like amaryllis bulbs and you have a local source you can force bloom them indoors.

Wow..I can just imagine the temperature variance you feel...I always get that too when I travel home to the Philippines..intense humidity but so love it..being with family..and then back to cold temps here..brrr...major jet lag too for a couple of days

Hang around ATP..we chat here a lot..visit the threads..you'll find lots of things to share the fun with..even in the doldrums of winter.

Thank you Tarev..this is very nice of you. The temperature difference, time difference was not as bad as humidity difference. My skin has been so very dry since I am back.

Tarev touched on something I'd forgotten to mention that I'd meant to. Winter bloomers!
Holiday cacti (and other assorted epiphytes)
various Kalanchoes
good ol' wax Begonias
Callisia fragrans (basket plant, as the species name indeed indicates, it's *fragrant.*)
African violets can bloom any time.

(But avoid any you find boring without flowers - so you don't just dislike them for the other 10+ months of the year.)

It's a great time to do garden art- glass stacks or birdbaths, birdhouses, and if you have a place, mosaic stepping stones, etc. Potted succulents are lovely inside for winter gardening. You can plan and design containers for them and for your summer garden. Sometimes, even in my zone 3, it seems like I never get all the projects done that I had hoped to before spring comes.

Another thing to cheer you up here: The thread "The Blooming South. Season 2014-15" in Daylilies forum

A member from Australia is posting some absolutely stunning photos of daylilies here. Watch this thread for an uplifting daylily 'fix' most days.

Trade seeds.

Pore over seed and plant catalogs, making lists and adding new discoveries to the ATP Plant Database.

Plan and re-plan what seeds you would like to start next spring.

Daydream about starting so many annuals or perennials indoors that you have to give them away ... then plan a charity plant sale or swap event.

Daylilybaby -- I feel your pain, winter is starting way too early again this year!

Hang out and chat here, read seed catalogs and plan for next year's garden, grow a sweet potato vine, bake bread, read books...

I try to do a lot of house cleaning this time of year to make up for the summer, when I don't. It's also my time of year to try to make some progress with organizing photos from years gone by, putting my favorites into photobooks so there's some chance that people might actually get to look at them and know what they're about. Today I spent quite a while putting plastic film over the windows to help hold back the winter (not something I like doing, but I like the heating bill being lower). Also a good time to pick up a project you haven't quite managed to finish, or take up a new hobby. I used to do a lot of knitting and other crafts and I swear this is the winter I will finish that afghan I started years ago!

Before you know it, it will be time to start some seeds indoors for the 2015 garden!!

Here are a couple of links for glass and garden art:
The thread "Totems, Stacks and Glass in the Garden" in Garden Art forum
The thread "Glass Plate Flowers" in Garden Art forum

As an example, here are two of the plates I made that are now 'blooming' in my yard:

thank you Debra,Sandy,Rick, Elaine,Susie andTiffany. I really appreciate your help and advice on how I can do this. I am actually busy on saving my Jasmine. My husband almost killed it while I was away. Aso two orchids😭

Debra your Porcelain plants are gorgeous!!