Whatever type of garden and plants you decide on, it’s crucial that you have a plan for its upkeep and maintenance once it’s up and growing. You should consider questions such as: How much time do you have to devote to essential maintenance tasks like weeding? Do you need mulch to help your garden thrive, and if so, what type? How often should your garden be watered?
Begin Seed Starting
After planning and shopping are completed, you’ve arrived at seed starting. If you have a sunny south-facing window, you can get seeds started indoors where you can keep a watchful eye on them during their first weeks.
Sow your seeds in some starting medium from the lawn and garden center, either in small peat pots, egg cartons, or paper cups. Make sure you keep them moist but not sopping, and watch the green sprouts arrive one by one. A small green squiggle in a sunny window truly feels magical after a long, cold winter. These sprouts, once they grow into something a bit stronger, can be hardened off and planted outside when the weather becomes kinder toward young plants.
If windowsill gardening isn’t your thing, or if you want to add another element to this early stage of your garden, you can plant some of your early crop seeds directly in the ground. Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts tolerate the cold pretty well, though if you foresee temperatures dipping too low, you may consider using a cold frame when planting outdoors, at least before mid-March.
Some lovely flowering plants that are great additions to landscapes that can be planted in the cold are chicory and poppies. A once-popular method for planting poppy seeds was to scatter them on top of February snowfall, allowing the melting process to press the seeds into the ground and water them in simultaneously.
These steps, starting with flipping through catalogs, all the way up to planting sprouts you grew yourself, will help you make the most of the entire growing season. By the time the weather warms and we have more minutes in the sunshine, you’ll already have plenty of plants ready to go. Let this early work help you get a great start on reaping the rewards of this year’s garden.
