The beginning of the new calendar year is also a good time to begin thinking about the new gardening year. While we rest physically from the effort of last season, we can put some thought into how to change and improve on our practices to increase gardening success while hopefully reducing effort. In effect, work smarter, not harder. Here are some ideas that can help move us in that direction.
Plans
- Most gardeners know about the advisability of keeping a journal, but it is often a neglected practice. Keeping an accurate journal is a great new year’s resolution. Key elements include:
- A garden sketch, preferably reproducible.
- Keep track of where specific crops are grown during the year. Use it to plan crop rotations which have a real benefit in reducing pest and disease risk.
- Document companion planting ideas to increase output, reduce pest problems, and build soil health.
- Note the dates when specific diseases and pests arrive and/or depart to let you know when to take action to manage them.
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- Note the varieties of vegetables and fruits planted and what pests or diseases attack them. Next year look for varieties that resist the problem pests and study appropriate pest control measures to counter them. A good resource for identifying pests and treating them is the Penn State Extension’s publication Vegetable Integrated Pest Management With an Emphasis on Biocontrol.
- Put together a timetable for seed starting, transplanting, and converting from one crop to another, starting with cool weather vegetables in spring through cover crop planting in the fall. Find guidance on when to plant and harvest popular vegetable crops in the VCE publication Virginia’s Home Garden Vegetable Planting Guide.
- The new seed catalogs are out now, both online and hard copy. It is worth reviewing a few different providers to compare selection and prices while deciding what to plant in your precious garden space. Look for seed and plant varieties with good pest resistance. Maybe choose to grow something you’ve never grown before, which is a good learning experience, if not plain old fun. Check out the latest vegetable, fruit, and flowering perennial varieties at the All American Selections website.
- If you are thinking of adding small fruits to the garden, review the VA Cooperative Extension publication Small Fruit in the Home Garden for helpful advice.
- Do some reading about best gardening practices. Study Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as a way to reduce chemical use. Learn about Regenerative Gardening practices that focus on naturally building healthy soils as the basis for healthy, nutritious crops. Review ways to add pollinator habitat to your landscape to create a healthy insect population and use beneficial insects to help keep pests under control. If you are looking for some reference books to advance your horticultural education, check out the article Books Every Gardener Should Have from the December 2020 issue of The Garden Shed. Learning new skills over the winter and putting them into practice in the coming season is a great way to become a better gardener.
If you are looking for some hands-on tasks…
- While decomposition slows down as temperatures drop below 50 degrees F, it is a good idea to collect materials over the winter to start new compost batches in the spring. Stock your pile or compost bin with leaves, preferably chopped. If you need more “brown” (carbon-rich) materials for your batch, save newspapers, boxes and household paper not contaminated with cleaning fluids, tear them up, and add them in. Add kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps to the bottom of the pile during the winter, and rotate the pile every once in a while. In the spring, when green materials become more available, add them in to get to a volume of one to two times the amount of browns as greens, moisten everything so it is wet but not dripping, rotate it once or twice a week, and you should have beautiful compost in time for planting summer vegetables in May. For detailed advice on home composting review The Garden Shed’s article Backyard Composting with Practical Tips from the Pros.
- Winter is a good time to clean and sharpen garden and cutting tools. Clean them, rinse them in a 10% bleach solution and wipe dry. Oil cutting tools to protect their edges and maintain free movement. If you have a warm enough place to do it, wash and disinfect pots and planters the same way. It is great to enter spring with tools and pots ready to go.
- If you end up with a stack of plastic pots that you don’t need, recycle them. Some local nurseries will take them for their own or community reuse. Lowes has a chain-wide recycling program. Let’s keep plastic out of landfills!
- If you have older seeds that may have outlived their viability, it makes sense to test their germination rate. The Garden Shed article Good Seeds, Bad Seeds explains how to test seeds prior to planting.
- If you really want to grow something, create an indoor herb garden. The Garden Shed article Be Inspired With Indoor Herb Gardening is a good guide.
Other tasks:
- A key to minimum chemical gardening is to create the most diverse ecosystem you can in your yard and garden. Feeding the birds in winter is a good way to keep these helpful predators around for when they are needed. Get some tips on good bird feeder practice in the article Creating a Bird Friendly Garden from the February 2019 issue of The Garden Shed.
- If you have a natural Christmas tree, please recycle it. Albemarle County has a recycling program with multiple drop off sites. They convert the trees to mulch that is offered free to residents. This year’s program details are on the county website.
- If you burn wood in your fireplace, and you compost the ashes or add them to the garden, remember that wood ash is alkaline. It can be used as an amendment but will raise the pH if added in quantity. Not all plants can tolerate alkaline soils. Some ornamentals — including lilac, weigela, pinks, and mock orange — and some vegetables — including spinach, beets, corn and cabbage — are exceptions. For more info, check the article Wood Ashes in the January 2017 issue of The Garden Shed.
- Aphids, spider mites, whiteflies, and other pests are winter houseplant nemeses. To minimize pest damage, keep new plants separate from plants moved indoors, remove dead/damaged foliage, and check plants regularly using a magnifier to watch for pests. Washing with soapy water and placing sticky-card fly traps around plants can help too. Detailed advice is found in the University of Minnesota Extension publication Managing Insects on Indoor Plants.
Sources:
“Plants Grown in Containers: Indoor Containers – Houseplants,” N.C. State Ext.
