Winter Gardening Tasks and Diversions

The renowned author T.S. Eliot wrote in The Wasteland  "April is the cruelest month...".  I beg to differ, T.S., but I'm thinking February may be the cruelest month. As this month has progressed, we've had a fair amount of snow, plenty of cold, and the past two days have featured not only cold, but winds of up to 50 mph in the city! Yes, we had two days of temps in the low 70's. That was a very pleasant but short lived respite, however. But, in terms of winter gardening activities, there really is plenty to do even in February...after all, the groundhog did say "spring is right around the corner."

Early last week I had shoveled snow off of the asparagus bed area. This past Wednesday, February 16, was a gloriously warm and sunny day.  I spent time in the garden raking the asparagus beds (one is shown above) and removing the stubble from last year's crop and the late season "ferns" that grow when the asparagus are finished producing cutting size spears. With the snow gone, and the rubble removed to the compost heap, I laid down black plastic on either side of the bed and secured it with bricks. The black material will absorb the sunshine and heat the soil, which, in turn, will jump start the growing process. After that, I spread wood ashes from the fireplace over the bed. (If you don't have wood ash, an early treatment of your beds with bone meal or blood meal will serve the same purpose.) These simple tasks gave us our first asparagus on April 13 last year! We're hoping for the same this year. There are plenty of  mid-winter days when you can get out and start the clean-up chores to get a head start on this year's garden.

February (and January as well) is also a great time to peruse all the great garden catalogs that arrive in the mail. They are good source for many varieties of seeds and plants that you wont typically find at a supermarket or even a lot of the garden centers. We get at least one catalog from a five different companies. It's like paging through the best gardening daydream! If you don't currently receive any, just use a search engine to find "garden catalogs" and sign up for a few online. We decided to buy a pair of semi-dwarf blueberry bushes this year from a catalog. You can order in January or February, but they do not ship until the time is right in your "hardiness zone" for planting.

There are some garden centers that remain open all year, usually those that sell a large number of indoor "houseplants". They will be the first in your area to have a full line of garden seeds, tools, plant foods, etc.. I visit these spots in January and February just to browse and "feel good" being around all the new garden products for the coming spring. This year, I'm specifically looking for the perfect containers for the two new blueberry bushes.

Next Time:  Green plants to winter inside with you and keep your spirits up.