WINTER GARDEN SYMBOL OF NEW LIFE, NEW YEAR.

Byline: JANE GATES Gardening

SANTA CLARITA - Like all years, 2002 has had its good times and its bad times.

Like our gardens, some areas have thrived and others have struggled. Some lives have bloomed and faded while new ones have been born. The cycle has been repeated for plants and humans alike for many more years than our histories have recorded.

Much of my garden has snuggled in for the winter, but the California natives are perking up with all this rain.

The California poppies I seeded on my hillside are releasing their little blue-green sprouts and the seeded clarkias in the little field areas have begun their journey to adulthood when they'll show off their multihued pink flowers. The perennials are spreading out to enjoy the moisture and are preparing for their late winter and early springtime bloom. And birds of all sizes and colors are everywhere, grazing happily on the plethora of seeds and insects spawned by the cool, wet winter.

Life is what gardening is all about for me. And although winter is seen as a resting cycle for much of life, there is plenty of activity going on inside and outside my garden this winter.

Just about everywhere outside my garden, people scurry about looking for last-minute sales, buying food for celebrations and trying to prepare for the New Year's festivities. Life seems to have plenty to do in all its myriad forms even in winter.

I'll be going outside soon to harvest some red and yellow chard for my pet cockatoo and carrots and cabbage for my lunch, to pull out a handful of the new crop of weeds growing in the wake of this recent moisture and to take a restful moment to watch my fish perform their soothing flowing dances around the pots of dormant pond plants.

Then I'll come back inside and start bustling around with my list of human-oriented to-dos. I'll check my list of orders from my stack of seed catalogs so I can try some new and different items in my garden, clean and sharpen my tools, and then get around to that never-ending list of nongarden chores.

And as 2002 draws to a close, I'll try to take a moment to mentally list all the blessings this year has given me.

I'll look at my garden and thank it for all its gifts of color, scent, edibles, beauty, wonder, aggravation, frustration and all the lessons I've learned from it about gardening and about life.

Then I'll focus on 2003 and hope it will be a year of harmony and peace for all life on this planet. And I'll send this same wish for joy, harmony and peace to all of you. Happy New Year.