For the week of February 20-26

We are 11-12 weeks away from the last frost date for my growing zone 5-6 here. Here are some things you can be doing in the garden this week.

• Start more seedlings of the cool weather crops such as leeks, onions, celery, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, and peas.  These don’t all need started early, as most of these can be direct sown from seed into the ground as soon as the soil can be worked.
• To test the soil to know if it can be worked yet, gather a handful of garden dirt into a ball in you hand-if it remains in a moist ball, the ground is still too wet to work and you will damage the soil (as well as it will be very messy to work in!).  If the soil crumbles in you hand like chocolate cake when you squeeze it it is ready to be worked.
• Look for and save any recipes that you think you might be interested in using for the vegetables you plan to grow.  (I will be sharing my favorite recipes for each vegetable and fruit as I post about each one)
• On a nice day do a walk around the garden and make a list of what will be needing done as soon as the weather permits.
• Build a cold frame to put your seedlings in.
• The items that were listed in my post of February 13 –SEE HERE-can all still be worked on.

Happy Gardening!

 

 

For the week of February 13-19

I garden in zone 5/6 and we are 15-16 weeks away from our last frost date.  This is what can be done in the garden this week….

• Gather the seed starting supplies that you have on hand and purchase what ever else is needed.  Clean old pots and make markers.
• Inventory the seeds you have on hand and order what else is needed.
• Do a seed viability test on old seeds to see if they are still good to plant.
• Start seeds of cold hardy vegetables such as leeks, onion and celery, spinach, Swiss chard, lettuce and peas.
• Start seeds of hardy perennials.
• Order bare-root perennials, plants and shrubs.  Also rhubarb, asparagus, artichoke and horseradish crowns.
• When the weather is nice, you can work on the compost pile and do general tidying up around the garden.
• Repair, sharpen and clean the garden tools if needed.  Tune-up and service mowers and power tools.
• Take a walk through of the garden and make note of what is needing done. Make plans to fix, repair, or replace anything needing it.
• Write you garden plans out and make a planting schedule.  Begin a garden journal.
• Inventory any vegetables in cold storage and discard the bad.
• Try growing sprouts.
• Begin pruning fruit trees and shrubs.
• Care for your indoor plants.  They are responding to more daylight hours and will begin putting out new growth.  Give a good pinching back and keep watered and fertilized.
• Force branches for indoor color.
• Apply dormant oil to fruit trees.