Key Takeaways
In late fall and early winter, remove old plants, test soil, take stock of tools and garden notes.Midwinter is for ordering seeds and supplies, creating a garden layout, and starting slow-germinating seeds indoors.Start more seeds, prep soil, plant hardy crops, and harden off transplants in late winter into spring, depending on your climate.
Many gardeners think spring is the time to start their vegetable gardens. But if you want your veggie beds to be easier to maintain and more productive than ever, there’s a lot of planning and prep-work that you can do long before the spring planting season begins.
Whether you’re starting a brand-new vegetable bed or sprucing up an existing garden, here’s a step-by-step timeline for planning and organizing your veggie plot so you’re well prepared for a bountiful harvest next year.
Late Fall to Early Winter
Clean up an existing garden: If you’ve been growing vegetables in your garden during the year, make sure to pull all of those dead and dried vegetable plants out once they’re killed by frost. This will keep pests and plant diseases from overwintering and infecting next year’s garden, but it will also reduce the likelihood that animals dig up your beds in search of food during the winter.
Get ready for a new garden: If you’re starting a brand new garden, fall is also the best time to test your soil to see if it needs amending before you plant. Late fall to early winter is also a good time to decide if you want to grow plants directly in the ground, in raised beds, or in pots.
You can also use the autumn season to prep for a new vegetable garden by smothering grass and weeds in your new planting spot with sheets of cardboard topped with compost, grass clippings, and other plant and kitchen leavings. Known as lasagna gardening, this is an easy way to get rid of weeds and build new soil so it’s ready for spring planting.
Other prep work: The months of October through December are also ideal for taking stock of your garden supplies and tools, and noting what needs fixing and replacing. You may also want to research new plant varieties that you’re interested in growing, review your gardening notes to determine what did and didn’t work during the past growing season, and order catalogs from your favorite seed companies, which are usually mailed out in December or January.
Credit: Illustration by Mavis Augustine Torke
Mid-Winter
Order seeds and plants: January and February can be a slow time for gardeners, but there’s still much to do to prepare for spring. This is the time to place your seed orders and to order bare-root plants, like strawberries and asparagus, as well as spring soil amendments.
Plan your garden: You may also want to plan out your planting schedule and sketch your future garden layout, including the location of walkways and where you’ll plant veggies in relation to each other to ensure that each plant gets enough space and light.
Get supplies and materials ready: If you’re planning to make big garden changes, like installing a drip irrigation system, mid-winter is the best time to order your supplies and make a general game plan of how you’ll lay out your hose lines when spring comes. You may also want to craft new plant labels and trellises, sterilize seed starting trays, clean gardening tools, and line up other planting supplies that you used last year.
Start seeds that are slow to germinate, such as onions, celery, and herbs like lavender, oregano, thyme, and chives, in mid-winter to get a head start on the growing season.
Credit:
Matthew Benson
Late Winter to Early Spring
Start seeds indoors: From late February to the end of March, most gardeners do the majority of their indoor seed starting. This is the best time to start pepper and tomato seeds, as well as many other veggie and herb seeds that prefer to be transplanted, rather than directly sown in the garden.
If you haven’t done so already, this is also a great time to plan out next season’s crop rotation schedule so that you don’t accidentally plant crops in the same locations that you planted them last season.
Prep the soil: Depending on where you live, you may also want to spread compost over your garden beds, and potentially some slow-release soil amendments too. If you started a lasagna garden in the fall, you can use this time to assess and turn your new soil and make sure it’s ready for spring. If it’s warm enough, early spring is also the time to check your outdoor compost bins and to start turning compost more regularly.
Credit:
Photo: Peter Krumhardt
Spring
Test your soil: It is recommended to test your garden soil every 2 to 3 years to check nutrient content and pH levels. Fall is ideal because it gives you the chance to amend the soil and let it sit over the winter. However, if you haven’t done a soil test in a while, doing it in the spring is better than not doing a soil test at all.
Plant hardy crops: Once the weather warms and the ground thaws, you can plant cold-hardy veggies like peas and beets directly outdoors.
Mulch: Once your early-season veggies are planted outside, add mulch to keep weeds in check and preserve soil moisture.
Harden off transplants: Many seedlings that you started indoors can be transplanted outside once the risk of frost has passed, but they need to be accustomed to outdoor conditions by hardening them off. Heat-loving plants like tomatoes and peppers shouldn’t be moved outdoors until nighttime temperatures are consistently above 55°F.
Remove winter protection from strawberries: If you winterized your strawberry plants with straw, remove the straw when temperatures reach 40°F, and the first new leaves start growing.
Make repairs: If you are using irrigation lines, take advantage of the warm spring weather to make necessary repairs or install new irrigation lines.
Comments are closed.