Barbara Wood's On the Home Front: 'All I want for Christmas Barbara Wood's On the Home Front: 'All I want for Christmas (December 17, 2003)is a new pair of pruners'

Most people get stressed this time of year, trying to find time to do all the shopping, decorating, cooking and socializing that goes with year's end.

But I find myself frantic because in addition to all of the above, I want to be out in my garden right now. I need to be out in my garden right now.

I know, I know. It's December, it's wet and chilly and the leaves have fallen and nothing's blooming. It's hard to step outside without getting wet and muddy. No one in her right mind wants to be gardening.

But I do. I've got high-top waterproof boots to keep my feet dry and rubberized gloves to save my hands. My plaid flannel insulated shirt, inherited from my father when he went to that big garden in the sky, keeps me warm. My only regret is that darkness falls before I really need to be inside to cook dinner.

Believe it or not, I anxiously anticipate the rainy season each fall. The rain means, first of all, that I can finally stop watering. The soil is easy to dig and plants have slowed their growth and become dormant, so they don't really mind being dug up and moved. So if I can manage to dig up a small tree, wrestle it into my garden cart and haul it across the garden, it probably won't die before (or after) I get it back into the ground.

Try moving a tree in July and I'll guarantee failure (I know -- I've done it.)

So, by December I have a pent-up desire to get out there and move things in my garden that can only be assuaged by some serious digging. All year I make mental notes about plants I'm sure would be happier, healthier, more prolific or just shown off better if only they were in some other part of the garden. And then I stop myself from doing it right then and killing them.

There are also hundreds of bulbs that need planting (I swear they multiplied while they were waiting to be planted), perennials that need dividing and trees and shrubs that need pruning. Dead annuals and vegetables need to be hauled to the compost pile and compost needs to be spread on the beds, and bark chips on the paths.

So before I rush off to some holiday do, or pick up my kids from school, I generally have to shrug off my muddy, wet clothes, brush the leaves out of my hair, and scrub the dirt from under my fingernails.

The only thing that sends me back to my shopping and cooking and decorating and socializing is that after a few days of rain the soil becomes so wet it really shouldn't be dug. So I have to wait for a clear spell before I can really get back to work.

But it is California, after all. And I can still prune and clean and spread compost even in the rain. Or read seed catalogs and gardening magazines.

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