I was asked recently what there is to write about or even do gardening-wise when it is almost winter. Good question. I’ve been thinking about this for awhile – what Is a gardener supposed to do come winter here in zone 4? Well, I’ve come up with a couple possible answers.
1 – We could be working on a covered winter garden. As shown in the book Four-Season Harvest, it is possible to keep gardening year round even with snow on the ground. Unfortunately for us though, we started thinking about doing a cold frame garden much later then the optimal time to plant for a winter garden, so we don’t have much for a winter garden (this year at least). The idea of a winter garden is to have the plants already planted and grown before winter comes, so you are really just harvesting. There is very little growing going on during winter months. So, maybe next year we will have more to show using this idea.
2 – We could be growing plants in containers indoors. I have to say I’ve fallen behind on trying this, but feel a new wave of motivation coming on to give this a try. What we would really like to grow are some fresh herbs for cooking… Just the idea makes me hungry! š
3 – Planning, learning, and planning some more.Ā This is what we have mostly been doing so far this fall/winter season. After cleaning up the garden area, putting things away, and raking a heavy layer of leaves over the ground we’ve mostly been doing a lot of reading. Not that I mind reading, I’ve really been enjoying learning new techniques other people use in their gardens to have success. It is just sometimes you loose the sense of being a gardener if there isn’t something to be picked or planted. But, that’s where other resources come to the rescue to show you how much there really is for a gardener to be doing while waiting for the ground to thaw. For example you can
- Learn how to control bugs and/or plant diseases you encountered
- Find out how to get better yields from your plants
- Plan out next years garden
- Find new varieties of your favorite plants
- Learn how to save your own seeds
- Use winter cover crops
- And many more…
Check out these pages for more great cool weather gardening ideas:
So in true gardener fashion we can take the weather, work with it, learn from the experience, and keep on going to achieve even greater success. Truthfully I really like the snow and prefer cold over extreme heat, so I’m not really going to complain very loud š Plus winter brings with it all that yummy holiday food, which is even better using my garden produce – Yeah š
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