To Do in the Garden Now

  • Cut back dead perennial foliage 
  • Clean up leaves, sticks and debris from garden beds and grass areas   
  •  Mulch your cleaned-up garden beds
  • Compost fallen leaves and other garden debris from garden clean up
  • Walk around and look at the "bones" of your garden - take note of gaps that need filling
  • Look at the places that you see the most in winter - the walk to the car, the view from the window - could those winter views be improved? Make notes!
  • Study all those lovely seed and plant catalogs, go through your garden books and favorite garden websites - take notes, get ideas, make plans!
  • If it has been dry and you are expecting a severe freeze, water if you can - especially planted pots
  • If it will be extremely cold at night, below about 30 or so, consider putting planted pots in your garage or wrapping them with tarps. Use big clips from the hardware store to secure against wind
  • Don't trim - yet! You can prune your roses and some shrubs at the end of February in the deep South, and about a month later in colder climes, but remember, you will encourage new growth, which is much more susceptible to late freezes. We had a very hard freeze on Easter in Georgia last year, which zapped lots of new leaves and  flower buds.
  • Plant dormant trees, roses, and shrubs, and any hardy plants. See our special page on Planting.

PLANNING!

This is the most important winter work we do.

Here's what's on our list of things to do and when we will hope to accomplish them:

  • Choosing and ordering vegetable seeds - we will be ordering pretty soon, in order to have them in hand for April planting. If you start them indoors, you will want to plant them about six weeks before your last average frost date.
  • Planning how we will support those veggies - with tomato cages, trellis, sticks or whatnot - these need to go in when we plant in April, so that we don't damage the roots of the plants.
  • Ordering fruit trees. We hope to plant 5 here, pears, peaches, and a plum. We will hope for delivery and planting in March. They will arrive in a dormant state, so if well mulched, they should do fine with late cold weather.
  • Planning about pots. We love beautifully composed pots, but it's hard to manage too many of them in the summer - they have to be watered every day, and since that has to be with recycled water from our house, it's pretty important to plan well.