Preparing for Next Year’s Garden Over the Winter

This is the time to review the past year’s successes and struggles, to plot strategies to outwit your garden’s enemies next year, to dream about the changes you want to make, and to start planning to make it a reality. Think about which new gardening tools and supplies can make your work easier or your garden more productive. Pore over seed catalogs and make notes; do online research for the perennial plants you want to add, to ensure they will be a good fit in your garden.

Maintenance

If you haven’t done so already, winter is a great time to do maintenance work on your gardening tools and hardscaping. High quality gardening tools can be expensive, so it only makes sense to maintain them properly. Light rust can be removed with 80-grit sandpaper. Use a wire brush on heavier rust. Inexpensive motor oil wiped on metal with an old cotton cloth will insulate the steel and prevent it from oxidizing. Wipe it dry with another clean cloth. Most tools can be sharpened with a hand-held mill file by drawing the cutting teeth in one direction over the edge being sharpened. For pruning shears and knives, diamond, ceramic, or high-carbon steel honing devices are available, but many people prefer a simple oil stone. Directions should come with whatever device you choose.

Wooden handles should be wiped down with linseed oil on a clean cotton cloth, and then wiped dry with another clean cloth. This will help keep the wood from drying out and splitting or cracking. Painting wood tool handles or shafts a bright color makes them easier to find at the end of your gardening session.

Winter is also a good time to make repairs to trellises, arbors and other hardscaping elements that may be obscured by foliage in the summer. Making repairs while the plants are dormant is also less stressful for them.

Garden Journal

You should consider starting a garden journal, if you haven’t done so yet. This can be as elaborate or as simple as you like. The main purpose is to track your gardening successes, failures and challenges to make it easier to improve your garden from year to year. Information you may want to track, particularly with vegetable gardens, includes when and where to plant, how long until germination or harvest, fertilization schedules, when specific plants need tip pinching to encourage branching and more vigorous growth, amount of rainfall, and yield. You can make note of pests and diseases that attack your plants, the measures you take to combat them, and how successful they are.

By keeping pictures of your garden at various stages throughout the growing season in your garden journal, you’ll have a visual record of which areas need more color or oomph. You’ll be able to plan the rotation of your food crops more easily, including second and third crops for succession planting.

By examining your garden journal over the winter, you’ll be able to make better choices – or at least different mistakes – for the coming growing season.

Seed Catalogs

Use the winter downtime to study the seed catalogs that flood your mailbox. Choose plants that will thrive in your hardiness zone. Make note of their light and space requirements. With vegetables and herbs, it’s easy to get carried away and order more plants than you can easily manage, so if you’re new to gardening, limit yourself to ten or twelve varieties of plants so you’ll be encouraged by your success rather than become overwhelmed by all the work.

With long-lived woody perennials, it’s wise to do some independent research before buying plants. Find out what pests they are prone to in your area, and what measures can be taken to prevent or treat them. How long will it live; how big will it get; how much shade will it cast on nearby plants? Does it require annual pruning? Can it be grown organically, or does it need regular pesticide sprays? Research can spare you from some costly mistakes.

Garden Grids

Garden grids are especially helpful if you’re planning a vegetable garden. You don’t need anything more elaborate than graph paper with your garden beds plotted out on them to scale. Use it to decide where to plant vegetables in rotation, to avoid growing things in the same area as the previous season so as to avoid pest and disease infestations that may be dormant in the soil. Ideally, you shouldn’t plant any vegetable in the same area for at least three growing seasons.

By taking advantage of the winter slow-season to do maintenance and planning, you’ll be able to get a jump on the hectic spring planting schedule with clean, sharp tools, a planting diagram, and the confidence to deal with the inevitable challenges and setbacks nature throws your way that comes with learning about the plants in your care.

To learn more about the basics of vegetable gardening, please read A Beginners’ Guide to Caring for Your Crops.