10 Things To Do in The Winter Garden

As the days grow colder and the snow begins to fall, we see our garden fall asleep and this year’s life cycle comes to an end. It’s easy to see this as a time of no gardening, but there’s still much to do when the weather allows.

It’s nearly impossible to get my oldest to wear shoes, even in the winter snow.

Here ere are 10 things to do while you patiently (or impatiently!) wait for spring:

1.Read books

I like to think of winter as a time to sip hot cocoa in the living room, reading books to my kids but with a toddler at home, doing it never feels as lovely as I imagine. Still, we read much more in the cold months, and in the warm months, we spend that time outside with friends. A few recommendations: The Last Garden in England is a lovely novel, Gardening with Emma is giving me great ideas for how to make gardening more fun with children, and I’m looking forward to Meg’s release of her book Plant Grow Harvest Repeat –– a deep look at extending the seasons and succession planting in the food garden.

2. Plan for your spring and summer garden

The winter is a great time to sit down and assess what worked and what didn’t in last year’s garden. This year we’ve taken this a step further and planned the garden in Excel with a template from the folks at Gardenologie. Having a hard copy of our plan has already proven to be invaluable as we figure out how many seeds to start and when.

3. Prune shrubs and trees

With deciduous plants dormant and bare of leaves, this is a great time to look at their structure and prune what should go. The graphic below might be helpful to understand the pruning of young trees. We do this on all our fruit trees every winter. Basically you want to stop them from growing one main stem and a bunch of shady branches – instead encourage a few stems to grow sideways, leaving space in the middle for sunlight to reach all branches.

Basically you want to stop them from growing one main stem and a bunch of shady branches – instead encourage a few stems to grow sideways, leaving space in the middle for sunlight to reach all branches.

4. Amend the soil

In a no-till garden, you’ll want to add a layer of compost over your food shrubs and trees, under your mulch. The same goes for garden beds, you’ll add a layer of compost and worm castings over your garden beds before growing your spring food garden.

5. Sow cold-hardy seeds outdoors

It’s true that some seeds will not survive frost, but for more cold hardy seeds, and especially for those that require cold stratification, sowing them in winter allows for the plants to follow their natural process and germinate right outside. More on sowing seeds outdoors during the winter here.

I invited the girls outside to sow wildflower seeds in our moon garden bed last week.

6. Plant new perennials

Winter is bare-root season for a good reason –– if you’ve ever bought a bare root plant you know it arrives without any potting soil and is fully dormant. These are a favorite of ours because they’re easier to ship with minimal packaging, tend to cost less, and adapt well to our garden. But regardless of it being bare root or potted, winter (and fall) are ideal to plant new perennial plants because they are dormant and can start growing roots before springtime and new growth emerges.

7. Start seeds indoors

Once you have a garden plan, you can figure out what needs to be started when and how many plants you want of each variety. So far we’ve started a few:

• In January we started ginger and turmeric

• In February we started a few flowers (cosmos, calendula, sunflowers, nasturtiums, etc). We could have waited to sow these directly outdoors, but with chickens free-ranging the garden and eating every tiny little sprout they can find, it really helps to bring plants outside once they are more established. We also started cold-hardy greens to transplant as soon as the ground thaws in very early spring, and a few herbs for our healing garden.

• In March we are starting tomatoes and peppers indoors for the summer garden. Celery and basil as well, so they have a head start in production.

8. Do some maintenance

Your gardening tools could use a clean-up, and any wooden handles could be sealed with oil so they last longer. If you have a specific workstation, perhaps it could use some organizing to prepare for the busy gardening season. Our garden looks a bit messy these days with cardboard boxes waiting to be used and other bits from projects that were put on hold with the snowfall. We will clean things up a bit when the weather allows.

9. Replenish mulch

If you didn’t get to this in the fall, winter is a good time to mulch around plants and garden beds. This will help protect your roots from frost and the extra winter water will jumpstart the decomposition of wood chips and straw, creating a healthy environment for critters in your garden.

Amending beds with compost and replenishing mulch in garden beds are two activities I love doing with my kids. They’re an easy invitation to get your hands dirty and give the garden some love.

10. Feed the wildlife

It’s easier to forget to fill your wildlife feeders in the winter because we’re spending less time outdoors. But this is a difficult time for outdoor life and some food and water will be greatly appreciated by birds and squirrels alike.

My toddler volunteers to feed the birds and the squirrels almost on a daily basis. It’s an easy and fun job for her now that she loves pouring and scooping things out.

It’s amazing what time at the garden can do for us emotionally, and winter is often a time when we might feel sluggish, sad, or otherwise uncomfortable with and in ourselves. Regardless of how mild or intense your winter might be, I hope these ideas give you the inspiration to get outside and tend your garden for a few moments.