January
While most plants are sleeping away the cold weather, you likely have time on your hands. To satisfy that pasky urge to do some gardening, use that extra time completing these winter tasks:
By now all the seed heads you so lovingly left for the birds have been picked clean, so think about putting out some suet cakes. They love them and the fat is important for their metabolism which helps to keep them warm.
Clean up all those empty pots that sit around collecting pests and bacteria! Wash each one with a gallon of water and a tablespoon of bleach. Dry them off and store them out of the elements. You’ll be glad you did when you want to pot them up in the spring!
Buy a bag of sphagnum moss and add it all around your plants in pots. It protects the soil from erosion and compaction and serves as an insulator for the root system.
Clean up and sharpen all those gardening tools. Dirt covered tools collect all manner of disease organisms and introduce it back to your plants when the tools are used in the spring. Wipe off all dirt, clean with a disinfectant (10% bleach works well), and sharpen cutting edges (there are any number of YouTube videos that will show you how). As a last step, put oil on a soft rag and gently wipe their surfaces.
If you have a open compost pile, be sure to cover it with cardboard or a tarp, as soggy compost not only creates a stink, it pushes out the air and kills off the microbes we need to make the compost.
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