I have been looking back at last year’s gardening columns. What a difference a year can make! This time in February 2024, the snow was rare to non-existent. This year, the ground has been covered for weeks in snow or ice.
Overall, that frozen cover is good for the perennials, trees, and shrubs. The cover keeps things frozen until sunlight and temperature combine to wake the plants up for spring. Never fear, you can find blooming spring bulbs in pots at your favorite garden centers.
With all the plowing and salting this winter, you may have salt damage on plants in the spring. The snow plow down your street, sidewalk, or your driveway usually piles snow into the same spot. Note where salt-laden snowmelt collects and monitor those areas for salt injury in spring. If severe, you may want to choose different, more salt-tolerant plants for those locations.
Without much to do outside, I finally had time to set up my new LED lamps for the seed-starting shelves and I started bunching onions. These onions are quick growers and can be planted in succession for months of produce. However, I started them now because I like to have a few to put outdoors in the garden by the end of March.
A seed-starting shelf can be a table with a light stand over it or a series of shelves and light units suspended on chains. I use two shelves to start the seeds, and when plants get larger, I move the trays to bright locations without the bottom heat. That makes room for more seed trays. I adjust the height of the lights by moving the “S” hooks up or down the chains. The ideal height is three inches above the plant/soil. Each shelf has a seed-heating mat connected to a thermostat. The thermostat helps maintain the soil temperature.
The lights are on a timer that keeps them lit for 16 hours or so. The electrical draw is very low with the LED lights, so everything can be connected through one outlet. I have repurposed some plastic produce boxes as miniature greenhouses to minimize the space needed and the quantity of seedlings. Plus, one box contains one seed type. Since the seeds grow at different rates, I can move the one seed type to a new location once the seeds germinate.
I like to sort my seed packets into groups by indoor start date. They won’t necessarily go in the garden at the same time, but I will want to have seedlings growing and ready to transplant in April through May. For example, you could sow dill and cilantro indoors now and perhaps use the small plants for cooking before planting out the remaining transplants in early May!
Seeds are inexpensive compared to purchasing the same volume of produce. Make a plan to start some favorites this year! I have many beans saved from the last few years. I know I want to have more space for bush beans for an early harvest and then include a space for climbing pole beans that ripen from mid to late summer.
As I was cleaning up my seed-starting shelf in the basement, I discovered multiple brown paper bags of drying dill, tarragon, winter savory, oregano. and thyme, maybe? My advice: Don’t throw all your herbs in one bag. I don’t usually, but I must have been in a rush. Best strategy is to carefully dry one type of herb in each bag. When the leaves dry up and fall off the stem, you will know what herb you have.
Part of the weekend’s activities included sorting through the dried mass of herb and trying to decipher what was oregano and what was thyme. Still not sure I got it right.
I opened the bags and found nicely dried herbs. I strip the leaves off the stems in a quick gliding motion or I roll the stem in my hands to release the leaves.
I like to keep the leaves as whole as possible, preferring to crush them immediately before use, because the herb flavor will be stronger that way. I have finally contained the dried herbs in airtight jars to store in my pantry for cooking throughout the year.
Dried up stems and pods that remain get shuttled off to the compost pile. Even though we have had below-freezing temperatures every day, my compost pile stays loose because I turn it frequently, ideally every time I add kitchen scraps. I open the bin and create a hole in the middle of the pile. I dump the fresh kitchen waste into that hole and cover it with the surrounding material plus a few forkfuls of leaves from my stored leaf pile. Does this lazy gardener turn the pile every time? Well, more often would be more effective. With regular turning, the pile will continue to break down through the winter.
Another positive side to the cold and frequent snows would be less tick activity. Warm-ups can bring out ticks as I said last week. One guy who wouldn’t mind a few ticks is an opossum. Opossums are one of the few critters that will eat ticks! Instead of ticks, an opossum visited our yard to clean up the bird seed around the feeders. I hope he will stick around and keep after the ticks as days melt into spring!
Lastly, investigate all the winter opportunities to learn more about gardening. This weekend, on February 16, is The Winter Lecture from Berkshire Botanical Garden; The Mad Gardeners have a symposium on March 1; Ward’s Nursery has some classes coming up in March, and the Western Mass. Master Gardeners have a series of symposia in Berkshire, Hampden, and Franklin Counties.
I call myself the Lazy Berkshire Gardener because I don’t want to work too hard in my gardens. I want to enjoy them. I find it easier to observe my landscape and let the compost happen, the water pool up, or daisies to self-sow. I look for ways to do the minimum task for the biggest impact. For example, mulching is better than spraying and much better than weeding all season. I look for beautiful, low-maintenance plants that thrive in or at least tolerate my garden conditions. Plus, I am willing to live with the consequences if I miss something.
