Gardening in Late Winter/Early Spring

As I write this, there are a few inches of snow on the ground but in two days the temps are supposed to hit 70 degrees. Central Pennsylvania in late Winter I suppose. It's on those random, unusually warm days that you really want to get out of the house and do something but it's way too early to be planting a garden. (Here, near Harrisburg, PA, I don't plant anything till St. Patrick's Day, if you want to know.) However, that doesn't mean there's nothing to do outside! Here are some great ways to make use of a warm February afternoon.

1> Pick Up Trash. I know, I know, it's not fun but it needs to be done. Winter winds will blow around trash and it will land in your yard. March can be an ugly time of year, not because of the mud, but because of all the garbage lying around that the melting snow revealed. So go pick it up. In your own yard at least.

2> Turn Your Compost Pile. You can be adding kitchen scraps and other compost to your bin all winter so when the pile thaws out, give it a good mixing to encourage it along. What? You don't have a compost bin? Get one (or build one)! Composting is a no-brainer way to turn garbage into useful garden soil.


3>Clean our your bird houses. It's nice to leave them up during the winter to provide shelter for birds but now is a great time to clean them out to start fresh this Spring. No need to scrub, just empty them out.

4>Rake up any leaves you left from last fall. In fact, if you can, shred them with your mower and then put them on your compost pile, or you can use them as mulch in some of your garden beds. 

5>While your at it, give your lawn mower any annual maintenance it requires so it's ready to go when the grass is long.

6> Start preparing any garden beds for Spring planting. My vegetable garden was well manured and mulched last fall so I'm not worried about it now. However, I have a shipment of plants coming this week so I've been getting the beds ready for them. (Digging up sod, fertilizing, laying down cardboard and mulching over that if you want to know.)

7>Cleaning out your garden shed. Yeah, I'm a hypocrite about this right now as you can barely get in ours but hey, you can organize your garden shed!

8>Hurry up and do any pruning you haven't gotten to yet. It's best to prune most trees and bushes  while they're still dormant. Once you see fresh buds coming out, it's really too late. However, many different shrubs have unique pruning needs so be sure to look up guidelines for your specific plant.

So, there are my suggestions for how to best utilize warm, late winter days. What do you do when the snow melts? Feel free to post in the comments below.