Winter in Minnesota is not easy. It’s cold, it’s dark, and it’s isolating. While we happily spend all other seasons outside in parks, backyards, or by one of the 10,000 bodies of water, winter is often endured indoors, covered up by blankets, commiserating over the temperature. I will concede that there are Minnesotans who LOVE winter and enjoy their days outside in the snowy sunshine, but I would venture this is NOT the majority opinion of our population.

One of the ways we get through our winter season is by traveling to warmer and sunnier places to “recharge” the batteries; a Minnesota Snowbird Migration Vacation, if you will. Destinations range from Las Vegas to Hawaii, Florida to California, or really anyplace that promises an average daily temperature above 32° F .

But this year has been different. This winter, no one can travel easily. Whether our wings have been clipped by money, health, or psyche, the result has been the same. We’ve sheltered in place and our moods have dropped like the outside temperature.

Folk feel pretty low; low without a chance of sunshine.

But I’d like to share a solid work around for the no travel conundrum; an activity that I never thought was even “a thing” to do. In fact, until this year, I hadn’t visited one of these places during the wintertime.

Greenhouses. Plant store greenhouses.

Hear me out. There aren’t many, but their strategic placement around the city allows you to walk through the doors of a green oasis within 30 minutes of leaving your home. Greenhouses are warm, bright, and airy, full of living things and friendly people. They have easily accessible hours and wide open spaces. You can wander in at any time, slip off your jacket, and BREATHE. Maybe you’ll run into another person browsing in your aisle, but chances are you only have to wave across the table to them. And that’s enough interaction for me right now – far enough apart for COVID, and close enough to exchange a short hello. I can get lost doing this for hours; looking at plants I’ve never heard of, eye smiling at strangers (masks are always required), wondering if I have enough light at home to keep anything easily alive. I can feel my shoulders drop, my worries fade, and sometimes I even start humming. I feel happy. I feel free.

Which is how I feel when I’m on a beachy, sunshiny, so-far-away-from-Minnesota vacation.

But why? I’m not dressed in flip flops with wet ocean styled hair or sitting in a chair listening to music and reading a book. What is it about a greenhouse that somehow substitutes for the winter travel experience?

I think it’s the green landscape. In a sea of green I feel the promise of hope, forward movement, and an excitement toward new growth. In the gray and white tundra I feel stagnant, without direction, and resigned to “hunker down” and “make it through”.

Plant store greenhouses are magical spaces you’ll never realize you need, until you go and experience one for yourself. And I suggest that you DO take my advice and find one to visit soon, because when you’re INSIDE, it feels like winter is more than simply OUTSIDE, it is miles and miles away.

Stay safe, stay warm.

MM

Tonkadale Greenhouse

Sailers Greenhouse

Bachman’s on Lyndale

Tangletown Gardens

Sunnyside Gardens