Winter Garden Planning Tips

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With snow and ice on the ground in many parts of the country, winter is considered the garden planning season. Here's a few tips.

• Using the winter to plan next year's garden can be as easy as participating in a few topical breakfast, lunch or dinner conversations. Rather than reading the cereal box in the morning, try browsing through seed catalogues to discover new and old varieties of favorite vegetables or flowers.
• Take a bird's eye view of your garden and mull over some minimally evasive disease and insect management options. Some birds are insectivores. Insects love gardens. Making your garden bird friendly by planting near their favorite spots might help control the insect population.
• Take a ground eye view of the garden and think soil, it hosts not only your garden plants, but also many of the insects and diseases that harm plants. In areas not affected by frost, physically removal all old garden plants, especially the diseased ones.

• Get your soil tested. Most local Extension Service offices and garden stores provide soil tests to help with planning which types of plants are best suited for your garden.
• Spend a few hours during the off season reviewing and updating garden records, noting any disease or insect incidents linked to particular patches of soil. For example, if you've planted vegetables in the cole family such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower or turnips, and encountered disease or insect problems, altering the planting plan for that area to include a member of the legume family such as beans or peas might prevent the reoccurrence of cole family related problems.
• Clean and sharpen garden tools so they are ready to garden when you are ready to garden.

© 2000-2008. Patricia A. Michaels