Gear Up The Garden
For the avid or aspiring gardener, one of the most satisfying winter activities is curling up in front of the fire with a steaming cup of tea and a stack of gardening catalogues. But while it’s joyous to dream and plan, there is also much to be done before spring arrives. Use this dormant time to get yourself in gear for the upcoming thaw:
- Draw and finalize perennial and vegetable garden plans.
- Make a list of plants to move to a more suitable location in spring.
- Check germination of seeds by pre-sprouting in damp paper towels. (Most seeds except onions, lettuce, carrots and delphinium are viable for a few years if stored properly in plastic boxes with a desiccant such as silica gel.)
- Make a list of fresh seed needed. Don’t forget potatoes and summer bulbs.
- Happily devour seed and plant catalogues. List your desires on Post-It notes and affix to the front of each catalogue. Review the lists, then get realistic and prune them down to an affordable size.
- Order seeds and plants as early as possible because featured selections run out quickly. Keep a detailed list of items ordered.
- Schedule seed sowing times (peppers and eggplant are usually first), counting back from the last frost date expected. Mark dates on a gardening calendar and display it in plain view.
- Order seed sowing supplies: Seed-starting mix, peat pots, wooden labels, permanent marker, seedling fertilizer, heatmats and plastic flats. Check grow lights and replace if weakening.
- Check stored bulbs and tubers for rot. Compost sprouting onions, but not diseased bulbs and tubers.
- During thaws, inspect perennials for heaving. Mulch heaved plants; do not push them back into the soil by dancing around the crowns. In spring, dig up heaved plants and replant.
- Scatter fireplace ashes—sparingly—in beds or areas that need a higher soil pH.
- Get lawn mower and rototiller tuned up, spark plugs replaced and oil filters changed.
- Risk a small mid-March planting of peas, mâche and spinach.
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