From The Editor: Leave a Light On

I’ll admit that of the four seasons, winter is easily the hardest to put together a home and garden issue for.

For one, half of the topic is almost entirely out the window. As far as winter gardening goes, I haven’t been able to turn up any great stories about local window-box gardening experts or succulent salespeople. (If anyone has any leads, please drop me a line for next year.)

And while, unlike most gardening options, our homes don’t disappear over the winter months, those months are dominated by holiday decorations. While I enjoy getting into the holiday spirit, the overwhelming influence of tradition on festive furnishings leaves few exciting new developments ripe for coverage in a magazine.

However, what winter home and garden choices lack in variety they more than make up for influence. Whatever décor choices you make for winter, you’re going to be spending a lot of time inside, staring at them.

Personally, I am no interior design expert. I’ve experienced enough second-hand embarrassment from seeing “male living spaces” on the internet to make sure I get something up on my walls and scraped together enough impressions from better-designed rooms and to make sure it’s not a complete disaster. “Not a complete disaster” is about the highest compliment I’d confidently give myself, though.

Despite my lack of overall experience, though, I have one winter home tip I’ll share confidently: invest in some quality lighting. Keeping up my fight against the winter darkness, however ultimately futile it may be, does wonders for my mood. Also, it turns out the daylight alarm clocks I once thought were a gimmick actually do ease my transition from the womb-like comfort of my bed to the cold, dark harshness of a winter morning as advertised.

For all of your other winter home and garden questions, I’ll leave it to the experts we’ve featured in this issue of Lavender. Lord knows I need their help. At least I have enough light in my apartment to be able to read their sage advice.