Just because it is cold outside, I do not dismiss the opportunity to get things done in the garden to prepare for the upcoming gardening season. If it is too cold, or rainy, I might not want to go out, and in fact I do not most of the time, but there are times I am brave enough and trek out to check on perennials or to empty out containers filled with water or to retrieve something blown out of place by the wind. I look at the garden and think what I will do or change for the upcoming season. There are quite a number of things, as I mentioned in my post ‘the Garden in January’. These are the things I have done so far this month and I feel it will help me to be better prepared.
What I have done
Put together an elevated planter box. I purchased a planter box on sale almost two years ago and it sat without being assembled and used for storage from then until now–I am so happy this is finally put together and I will use it to plant greens, I think.
Potted a few strawberry plants into a 5-tier planter. When I cleaned up the strawberry bed in December, I ended up with over 100 runners and plants combined. Loath to throw anything away, I put them all into a small pail. I was able to pot about 50 of them into a 5-tier planter and various pots I have in the garden. There are still more plants to put somewhere but I am afraid they might not make it as they are been lingering in a pail for two months now and covered in rain water. I will still plant them somewhere and see what happens
Trimmed the blueberry bushes. My original blueberry bush is over 19 years old and had it’s best performance two summers ago. Since I planted the bush, it has slowly multiplied but it has never been trimmed. No matter how many YouTube videos I watch, I cannot seem to tell what branches are to be cut. This year I think I have partially figured it out and l waited for all the leaves to drop from the tree. I then felt confident knowing which branches were not going to produce food this coming year because they were clearly dead or dying and did not have any potential buds appearing. Time will tell.
Raked the leaves off the grassy paths. I discovered last year that leaving the leaves on the grass (pun intended) actually “kills” the grass and leave the area muddy and, to me, yucky. I do not like to walk on mud or wet grass. I have always had issues with that. I can work in the garden all day every day as long as the soil is not wet. What I have thankfully discovered is that if I am wearing garden boots, I do not get nauseous walking out when it is wet and muddy.
Sown onion seeds and various flower seeds. Quite a few people seem to think that growing onions from seed produces more satisfactory results than growing from sets or starts. Since I can attest to the total failure of sets and starts on my part, I will grow the onions from seeds this year. I am sure it is my inexperience why the sets and starts amounted to nothing. I do have perennial onions (walking onions) everywhere in the garden, but I would like to proudly proclaim growing large onions just once, so I will keep trying until I am successful.
What I will do
There are more things I could have done, but the weather was not cooperative so I will work on getting them accomplished in February. These include the following: cleaning seed starting containers; trimming more vines, bushes and trees; planting bulbs; direct sowing certain flower seeds and starting more seeds indoors (especially several varies of aubergines (eggplants), tomatoes, and peppers); assembling a 4-tier mini ‘greenhouse’ purchased in 2021; buying a few large trashcans to store rainwater (I have a wheelbarrow, two 5-gallon containers, and a 72 gallon tote all overfilled with rain water right now and the tote looks like it might break any day; stocking up on potting soil, seed starting soil and green manure (mushroom compost).
What needs improving
It seems I like to buy things and then not use them. This amounts to waste of money and time. This year I will work on reducing my tendency towards impulse purchases as clearly, if I have not used them, I had no need for them.
