Winter Garden Maintenance

In my last post, I talked about resolving to spend time working in my garden every week--even if just for a few minutes. Well, there's not much going on in my garden right now, and there's probably not much going on in yours. The only things noticeably growing in my yard in this cold weather are the camellias and pansies. You might be wondering: what does one do in the garden in the winter time?

One of my neighbor's camellias that I
can see from my yard.

Well, to keep my pansies blooming, I'm feeding them with some all-purpose Miracle-Gro water-soluble fertilizer every couple of weeks. I brew it slightly on the weaker side just to safe in this cold weather--there is  such a thing as too much fertilizer. Better too little than too much. I also keep them deadheaded (pinching off the faded flowers) to keep them blooming. I water them occasionally, but it really depends on how the weather's been and how the soil feels. The weather has been really erratic this month--we had really warm weather a couple of weeks ago, followed by really cold weather, and raining off an on. I probably water them once a week on average to keep them from drying out. My little violas stopped blooming for a few weeks, so I took a closer look at them and discovered they were covered in aphids. I broke out an insecticidal soap I had and sprayed them down yesterday. Hopefully they will be covered in blooms again by next week.

I continue to build my compost pile, alternating kitchen scraps with leaf litter from my yard. I water it occasionally when it looks dry (it breaks down faster when it's damp). I don't turn it, though--turning it just slows it down this time of year by letting all the heat escape.

Cuttings on my windowsill

I held on to two of my cuttings that didn't root when the others did, but still looked healthy. One was a scented geranium and the other was a hydrangea. They're covered in roots now! Even though it took them probably twelve weeks to root (twice as long as the other scented geranium and hydrangea cuttings), I didn't mind them sitting in their pretty little glass containers on my windowsill while I waited. I finally got around to potting them up this weekend.

If you're looking for a garden project, it's not too late to plant pansies here in Middle Georgia. This past week I saw they still had plenty of 6-pack plugs of pansies at Home Depot, but I don't recommend planting those this late. Head out to your local garden center and look for pansies in individual pots--3" pots or larger. If you buy plugs, they will stop blooming for a few weeks while they try to put out roots in their new home, and who wants to wait another month to have flowers in your yard? The pansies in larger pots will already have enough roots to keep blooming happily until summer.

Garden Goals for 2013

Well, the excitement of the holidays is over and the dreary winter weather has fully set in.  While not much is going on in the garden, it's a good time of year for planning. After all, everyone has New Year's resolutions, so I am making garden resolutions for 2013.

1. Work in the garden once a week (even if just for a few minutes). Even when the weather's cold, the pansies still need to be watered from time to time, and branches need to be picked up after storms. In the heat of summer, it will take extra motivation to get out there to pull weeds, but my garden will thank me. Plus, working in the garden is therapeutic for me.

2. Propagate more shrubs. I was surprised this last year how fun and easy it was to root cuttings at home, and I have a lot of yard to fill. There are some gorgeous camellias growing on the border of my property, and I have a lot of shade in my yard (camellias like shade). They look so pretty this winter, I would love to spread the winter beauty to other corners of my yard. Also, I love the new hydrangea I bought this fall, so I thought I'd try to get a few more shrubs out of it to plant here and there.

The camellias in my garden brighten my day in the wintertime.

3. Finish the flower bed on the east side of our front door. I started this project this past fall, pulling out the existing shrubs, planning the layout, and planting what I could find. This spring, I hope to locate the rest of the flowers I want for it and show you the finished product!

4. Create a flower bed on the west side of our front door. After I see the results of the east bed (what dies, what thrives, how it looks after it fills in, how much trouble it is to maintain), I will have a better idea of what I want to do with the west bed. There are currently plain, boring, green shrubs there. I'd like to do something with a similar look and feel as the east bed, but not necessarily identical. After all, my house isn't symmetrical, so I don't think my garden should be, either.

5. Start a vegetable garden. I have never really done much vegetable gardening beyond growing a few things in pots. I have always dreamed of having a beautiful vegetable garden, though. When I was bored in high school I would doodle possible garden plans for my eventual white-picket-fence kitchen garden, complete with flowers lining the outside of the fence, herbs growing just inside the fence, and raised beds full of tomatoes, carrots, and squash. (When I was a kid we had a vegetable garden one year next to our white picket fence...maybe that's where I got the inspiration!) For 2013, I think I'll start small--maybe a 4' x 4' garden, just enough to grow a few vegetables for my husband and I.

My first experience with
vegetable gardening, age 7.