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| Variety of heirloom tomatoes |
Gardening is not usually on the minds of most people in winter; however, to ensure you have a good productive season now is the perfect time to prepare and plan your garden. Here's a list of what you can do in winter so you will be prepared for the season this spring.
1. Make a list of what you want to grow this year include veggies, herbs, and flowers.
Determine if you want a spring and summer garden. This requires different planting times and more space because some crops overlap. Spring plantings or cool season crops include:
potatoes, greens, lettuce, spinach, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, peas, Swiss chard, onions, shallots, leeks, cilantro, parsley, beets, kohlrabi, kale, radishes and carrots.
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| The purple carrots are Purple Sun. |
A summer garden or warm season crops includes:
carrots, beets, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, melons, pumpkins, summer squash, corn, winter squash, eggplant, tomatillos beans, basil, and other herbs.
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| Watermelon can and should be seeded directly in the garden. Their roots don't like being transplanted. |
2. Determine what you will purchase as transplants and what you will direct seed in the garden.
Crops best grown from transplants include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos and tomatoes. All other crops can be grown from seed in the garden. Root crops should always be seeded directly in the garden. You can start your own seeds indoors if you have the proper set up to ensure you raise healthy transplants.
How To Plant Seeds & Transplants
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| A Chinese cabbage good in cole slaw, salads, and stir fries. |
3. Organize and order seeds and perennials
Lots of varieties are already sold out so the earlier you order seeds online the better. Before ordering inventory your seeds. I don't keep seeds older than 3 years. While the length of time you can store seeds varies, the longer you store seeds the lower the germination rate. Having fresh seeds saves time. Onions seeds need to be reordered each year. Order perennial crops such as asparagus and rhubarb.
Preparing for the Growing Season: Organizing and Ordering Seeds
Heirlooms, Hybrids, & Open Pollinated Seeds
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| Asparagus is an easy to grow perennial. |
4. Determine what additions to the orchard, grapes and berries you want to add.
Don't wait too long to do this. It's best to order barefoot for fruit trees and some berries such as raspberries come bare root. Given the choice go with bare root. Strawberries are best bought as a barefoot plants they come in bundles of 25. Albion are my favorite strawberry. Blackberries that are erect or semi erect do best in our area. Generally those with Indian names and Triple Crown have done well. Triple Crown seems more prone to fungal infections. I prefer everbearing to Juneberry with berries because you get fruit throughout the growing season until a freeze. Plan carefully because these are permanent plantings so put some thought into it. All berries should be contained in boxes. Below are links to other helpful posts.
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| Albion strawberries are my favorite. Everbearing variety with large sweet berries. |
Everything You Need To Know About a Home Orchard
How To Choose and Plant Fruit Trees
Backyard Orchard: Choosing a Site
Brambles: Growing Blackberries and Raspberries
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| White peaches are the best fresh eating. They are a delicious dehydrated or juiced. Too soft to can. |
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| Bing cherries |
5. Consider adding elderberries, gooseberries, currants, or jostaberries. Some of the other hybrid berries such as loganberries or boysenberries or tayberries may also do well certain areas.
Elderberries, gooseberries and josta berries grow well in our area. Some berries prefer some afternoon shade such as raspberries, currants, and some varieties of elderberries and all the hybrid berries. My own experience is that hybrid berries without shade are not as productive.
6. Consider planting a medicinal garden including elderberries, echinacea, lavender, catmint, lemon balm, thyme, peppermint etc. These are perennials you can incorporate in beds within your garden or some make great landscape options.
6. Purchase supplies
Winter is a good time to inventory and purchase garden compost, tools, organic fertilizers, and organic pesticides. This ensures you have the products you need on hand when needed.
Amendments: Complete dry organic fertilizer, azomite, greensand
Liquid Fertilizers: Fish emulsion, sea kelp
Organic pesticides: Neem, Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew (spinosad) which is for coddling moth and other caterpillars, dormant oil, Pyrethrin, Sluggo for pill bugs
Row covers to protect against frosts and insect damage
Compost
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| Favorite green bean Slenderette. Favorite filet green bean Maxibel. |
7. Determine if you want to add beds or new growing areas to your garden and what materials you might need.
