Although this won’t get your hands dirty or even feel the warmth of the sun, now is the perfect time to start planning your gardening journey for 2014.
1. Keep notes on annual seed and plant purchases, past garden successes and failures, and even new things to try. If you have those, it’s a good time to review these before you start planning your seed and equipment orders. Maps of past gardens will help you rotate plants and avoid overcrowding when planning spacing of plantings.
2. The winter months are a good time to start a garden journal or even just a file where you can store articles clipped out of newspapers and magazines, or lists of ideas you want to try in the garden. A good place to get a few new ideas is by taking a class or joining a garden club. Most gardeners love to talk about gardening and won’t mind sharing some of their tried and true methods and products with you.
3. Check the seeds you saved and stored from last year’s garden. Discard anything that is damp, diseased, moldy, or in otherwise bad condition. Look over what’s left, and determine what you need to order.
4. It’s wise to plan your seed order with other gardeners. This will allow you to save money while growing a wider variety of crops and flowers. In addition, some seed companies offer discounts or free seeds for early bird and/or large orders. Just don’t fall into the trap of ordering more than you can use. That’s where the notes you kept from past years will be useful.
5. Planning your landscape plants. Although you wouldn’t be able to plant them now, even if you could buy them, this “down time” in gardening is perfect for planning. Start thinking about what you need to fill in gaps in your landscape or what new plants you’d like to try.
6. Throw on your snowshoes and take a walk around your property to visualize where landscape improvements are needed or where you might put in a new flower bed. Also consider adding things for winter interest (ie, trees for bird food, shelter; red twig dogwood for color; hellebores for early flowering; etc)
7. Above all, think about color, scents, textures, and shapes. Then scout out companies that carry what’s on your wish list. If you have any questions about how to plan color scents, textures, and shapes, your friends at The Mossy Tree would love to help!