Marie Iannotti's helpful list of perennials to trim back in spring might be daunting at any other time of year. "What, you mean I have to trim back all those perennials? That's a lot of work!" But this time of year, it warms me up just to think ahead a bit, to a time when such tasks reappear on my To-Do list. To a gardener tired of looking at snow, trimming perennials signifies not work, but bliss.

For these are the days when many of us Northerners become winter-weary. We while away the hours with seed catalogs to keep our spirits up until our gardens return. Or we dream of warmer places. Steinbeck's rebuttal to such dreaming in Travels With Charley is, "[H]ow can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?" As tough a sell as that line of reasoning may be right now, I'll probably agree wholeheartedly with it come July.