In the Pacific Northwest where I garden, January and February used to be predictably rainy months where temps would hover in the 30s and 40s and generally it was miserable to be outside, so there was much incentive to do one’s indoor garden work. While it is still a great month to attend to many indoor tasks, changing climate has made it such that our winters are not quite as rainy and mean daytime temps sometimes climb into the 50s for many days in a row, which means that some outdoor work is also not only possible but desirable! This week’s blog post will focus on late-winter’s indoor tasks, which will, of course, be valid for all the other ice-encrusted, snow-laden areas of the country, and next week’s will focus on the new set of late-winter outdoor tasks that have opened up over the last 10 or so years
Indoor:
- Check your seed inventory. Go through that box or crate where you keep all your old seed packages and see what you have and how old it is. Here’s a handy cheat sheet to help you decide what to keep and what to compost: Seed Life Chart: How Long Will Seeds Last? – Gardening Channel
- Read your seed catalogs. I love getting seed catalogs in the mail, and I learn so much about gardening from them, not just about gardening but about history, cooking, geography. Plus many farmers and gardeners have come to the profession from many other avenues, some literary so some seed catalogs are actually artistically and/or entertainingly written, bearing reading, that is, on their own merits and not as just the means to a seed-order end.
- Grab your favorite cookbooks and look for inspiration. Simultaneous with reading seed catalogs, I do love to pull out some of my favorite cookbooks and see what it is I’d like to cook over the coming year vis a vis what’s offered in the seed catalogs. Cookbooks also help to ground your seedy dreams; for example, while perusing the seed catalogs, I may like the looks of beautifully white bitter melon but if I’ve never cooked anything like it, I may wind up overwhelmed and frustrated when I get a bumper crop that I don’t really like. Having a recipe that sounds good, that I might even try in the off season if I can get the crop or the variety at a grocery store, can be an insurance plan that an impulse seed buy won’t go wrong.
- Make a drawing of your garden and list what you are going to grow and where. No sense getting too crazy ordering seeds until you know you have the space to plant them. Also consider a drawing for each season, because short-term crops like radishes and lettuce mean that there will be spaces open when the short-termer is harvested. Some people use a spreadsheet to make their garden plan. I like bubble doodles on scratch paper (but I do save them to compare from year to year). WARNING: having a garden plan doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t get crazy when ordering seeds, but at least it provides some defense.
- Write it all down! I’m a big fan of the garden notebook, and I like notebooks where I can both write and sketch. What should I write down? Well, record what seeds you want to order, your garden plan, new things you want to try, recipes that are motivating, weather patterns you observe, etc. You can, of course, keep all this on the computer, but I like the feel of a real notebook which I can take out into the garden and then later review from the comfort of an easy chair. I’m an especially big fan of the multi-year garden notebook because it gives you the chance to compare your gardening efforts or this year’s weather notes against years past with just a glance up or down the day’s page. Here’s an example of a multi-year garden notebook I like: Gardener’s One Line a Day – Chronicle Books
- Don’t forget to actually order your seeds! I’ve spent lots of time planning and cross-referencing only to realize I made the seed order spreadsheets but didn’t actually make the seed order. Also the earlier you get in your seed orders, the more likely the seed company will have all of what you want.
- Clean and order your growing area. Maybe you have a section of the house or garage dedicated to starting seeds. Now is a great time to go through it, cleaning up a bit and checking your stock and/or the condition of potting soil, pots, seed trays, lights, etc. Get the place freshened up a bit because you’ll be starting seeds again real soon!
Why not use the down time of winter to learn more about gardening. Check out my garden course titled “Things They Didn’t Teach You in Garden School” done in collaboration with @anneparmeter
https://www.udemy.com/course/gardenschool/?referralCode=6A7389A3FC7B22E8FA91