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.

Gardening in November

November is probably my favorite month of the year. As much as I LOVE Christmas and Spring time, there is just something about the quietness of November that makes me feel peaceful. All the craziness of autumn harvesting and Halloween is over and the insanity of the holidays hasn't kicked in yet. When it comes to gardening, however, November is pretty laid back. Since we moved this summer, I don't have a lot of harvesting and preserving to do. Here are a few of my small projects I've been working on.

1. Raking up leaves and putting them on the garden beds. My one year old has been helping me by carting leaves in her little garden cart. So adorable! Because our only tree is a Sargent Cherry with small leaves, I haven't worried about shredding them with the lawn mower. Don't waste your leaves by throwing them away, flower beds and vegetable beds can use a warm blanket of leaves during the winter. I've been piling them up over my garlic bed, herb bed, and the berry beds.

2. Plotting out my garden beds for spring and smothering the grass underneath. Fall is the best time to make plans for next year. Also, keeping grass out of your garden can be a pain. It's a lot easier to cover the ground with a tarp, cardboard, and/or grass and leaf clippings in the fall and kill the grass underneath.

3. Foraging for walnuts. Our local township park has two large walnut trees that sit unappreciated. My daughter helped me look around and collect a couple buckets full of walnuts. My mom has been growing and harvesting them for decades.

4. Planting spring bulbs. At first, I planned on planting tons of spring bulbs but finances are tight so instead I planted one bag of crocus bulbs and plan on buying one bag of bulbs per year. It'll be fun to see how they thrive in the years to come.

What about you? What have you been doing in your garden this November? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.