Winter Garden Checklist

Keith: [00:00:00] Hey, Keith Ramsey with garden supply company. People are always asking what to do in the wintertime in the garden. And there's, there's a long list of, to do's in the winter. Not many people want to go out because we've got such cold weather. One of my favorite things to do while it's cool is spreading mulch.

It requires a minor cleanup picking up sticks and debris, raking the beds out, and getting everything ready for spring. You usually want to cut your perennial plants that need cleaning up or pruning. And there's lots of pruning.

That can be done during the wintertime, so once you get through some of those projects, we'll touch back on pruning further down, but Once you get all the beds cleaned out. Mulching is a hot process. The mulch itself [00:01:00] creates a lot of heat, and when it's cool out, it's a nice thing to you'll go out with a heavy coat.

And, as soon as you get into that mulch pile, you'll be shedding layers. And so it's something I like to do, it's probably not a bad thing this time of year because I don't know about everybody else, but I had way too many calories over Christmas. And that's a calorie-burning project for sure.

Get you out, do something good for your heart, and burn calories. Mulch also holds moisture in the ground, and it contains a lot of heat in the ground. So it's good for plant roots. We say our plants repeatedly, but winter, fall, winter, and early spring is the time to plant.

You can plant 12 months out of the year. There's no, no better time than when the plants are dormant. But you get a plant in the ground, and it's in the middle of winter, and you put mulch on it. The reason it places this stuff in the ground in the wintertime is so good is that we've got the plants will [00:02:00] grow roots all through the winter.

And, but when you mulch it, you're adding heat to the heat, to the ground. You're going to grow a lot more roots, a lot faster. It knocks the edge off of the cold for the plants. So it's an excellent thing for the plant in the wintertime and then suitable for weed control. You're getting ahead of the head of the schedule your molten and things that you might get to germinate that are on the surface.

And then the cold weather is going to kill them out. When I'm cleaning up prepping for mulch, a lot of the debris that we have, I've got a fire pit, so I'm picking up sticks and stuff like that. I drop them in the fire pit, and I'm prepping myself. I'll break them up and build a fire at the same time.

And it's an excellent way to get rid of that kind of stuff if all, and, or take it, taking it out to the street. But sometimes, when we're working in the yard, depending on the time of the year, if it's cool, I will fire up the fire pit and keep dropping the Dixon or pinecones in as we're working in the yard, makes it a little more enjoyable.

And then compost piles. If you've got a, you're raking up leaves and debris, and cutting [00:03:00] perennials back North Carolina soil needs compost probably more than the heavy clay soil benefits from top dressing or digging compost in. It's worth every penny by the bag when you're planting because you don't have.

A decent amount of compost and good soil. Plants aren't going to do as well as they could. They'll probably live, but they're not going to do as well as possible. But when you got compost, that's just coming out of your compost pile. A, it's probably more alive than a bag of soil.

But B, it's free. And it gives you it's a shorter walk. You don't have. Package it up in a bag and put it at the curb where it has to go to a composting facility, and then you're buying it on the other end. When you start a compost pile, that's a good winter project if that's something.

I usually use a little bit of nitrogen in there. Nitrogen-fixing organisms are what break down the compost. Adding just a handful of any fertilizer or just a nitrogen-

Episode Transcript

Keith (00:16):
Hey, Keith Ramsey with garden supply company.
People are always asking what to doin the winter time in the garden.
And there's, there's a longlist of, to do's in the winter.
Not many people want to go outbecause we've got such cold weather.
One of my favorite things to dowhile it's cool is spreading mulch.
It, it requires a little cleanuppicking up sticks and debris and

(00:37):
raking the beds out and gettingeverything prepped and ready for spring.
You usually want to cut your, perennial plants that just
need cleaning up or do pruning.
And there's lots of pruning.
that can be done during the wintertime,so once you get through some of
those projects and we'll touch backon pruning further down, but Once
you get all the beds cleaned out.
Mulching is a hot process.

(00:58):
The mulch itself creates a lot of heatand when it's cool out it's a nice thing
to you'll go out with a heavy coat.
And, as soon as you get into thatmulch pile, you'll be shedding layers.
And so it's something I like to doit, it's probably not a bad thing
this time of year because I don'tknow about everybody else, but I had

(01:18):
way too many calories over Christmas.
And that's a calorieburning project for sure.
Get you out, doing something that's goodfor your heart and burning calories.
Mulch also holds moisture inthe ground and it it holds
a lot of heat in the ground.
So it's good for plant roots.
Our plants, we say it over andover, but winter, fall, winter and

(01:40):
early spring is the time to plant.
You can plant 12 months out of the year.
There's really no, no better timethan when the plants are dormant.
But you get a plant in theground and it's in the middle of
winter and you put mulch on it.
The reason that it putting this stuffin the ground in the winter time is
so good is that we've got the plantswill grow roots all through the winter.

(02:01):
And, but when you mulch it, you'readding heat to the heat, to the ground.
You're going to grow a lotmore roots, a lot faster.
It knocks the edge off ofthe cold for the plants.
So it's a really good thing forthe plant in the winter time
and then good for weed control.
It's, you're getting ahead of thehead of the schedule your molten
and things that you might get togerminate that are on the surface.

(02:21):
And then the cold weatheris going to kill them out.
When I'm cleaning up prepping for mulchA lot of the a lot of the debris that
we have I've got a fire pit, so I'mpicking up sticks and stuff like that.
I just drop them in the fire pit andI'm prepping my I'll break them up
and build a fire at the same time.
And it's a nice way to get rid ofthat kind of stuff if all, and, or
take it, taking it out to the street.

(02:42):
But and sometimes when we're working inthe yard, depending on the time of the
year, if it's cool, And I will fire up thefire pit and just keep dropping the Dixon
or pinecones in as we're working in theyard, it makes it a little more enjoyable.
And then compost piles.
If you've got a you're raking up leavesand debris and cutting perennials
back North Carolina soil needs compostprobably more than, the heavy clay

(03:04):
soil just really benefits from topdressing or digging compost in.
It's worth every penny bythe bag when you're planting,
because if you don't have.
A decent amount of compost and good soil.
Plants aren't going todo as well as they could.
They'll probably live, but they'renot going to do as well as they could.
But when you got compost, that'sjust coming out of your compost pile.
A, it's probably morealive than a bag of soil.

(03:26):
But B it's free.
And it gives you, it's a shorter walk.
You don't have.
Package it up in a bag and put itat the curb where, it has to go
to a composting facility and thenyou're buying it on the other end.
When you start a compost pile,if that's something, it's,
that's a good winter project.
I usually use a littlebit of nitrogen in there.
Nitrogen nitrogen fixing organismsare what break down compost.

(03:48):
Adding just a handful of anykind of fertilizer or just a
nitrogen based fertilizer is good.
Good to get a compass fired up and hot,and then some sort of compost starter,
like a stoma has a great compoststarter and a few cups of that to the
pile as you're adding stuff debristo, it will just speed the process.
And then every spring I have some freshworms too, we always order in worms and

(04:11):
having red worms in your compost pile.
We'll we'll certainly speed theprocess of breaking stuff down.
The other thing this time of yearI started looking at is I'll start
collecting seeds, looking at the seedrack and figuring out what I'm going
to grow something new for this year.
Seeing what's available, just making surethat some of my favorite varieties are
available and they seeds in the last fewyears have been really hard to come by.

(04:33):
The the availabilityjust hasn't been there.
I like to get my seeds in early and havethem sitting on the shelf ready to go,
and I can plan out my garden at that time.
Soil testing is somethingthat I always think, winter,
time's a good time to do it.
The state does it for free.
It's probably the single bestthing you can do for your soil.
Figure out where you're at with pH sothat you can do some adjustment to the.

(04:54):
And then knowing what it's lackingin micronutrients and then nitrogen
phosphorus and potash so that youcan make those adjustments in your
plant really is getting what it needs.
Lime is inexpensive to add to the soil andit really just makes a huge difference.
So in the winter time, if, even if youdon't get a soil sample out, just lime in
your landscape line, lime in your gardengetting lime out on your grass people

(05:18):
usually come in and buy one or two bags.
It's probably something in mostcases where people need three to five
bags, bigger lawns need 10 to 20.
It takes a lot of lawn toreally make a difference.
And when you're addinglime, you're adding calcium.
In the garden, that's going tobe beneficial to, or tomatoes or
peppers and that kind of stuff.
And that gives it time tobreak down and it's actually,

(05:39):
readily available in the soil.
And your stuff's goingto do a whole lot better.
We just, in the last fewweeks have started looking at.
What we've started preppingfor putting some bags together.
People that don't, that don't havethe space or if you don't have a big
garden outside planning, lettuce bagsthere's all kinds of fabric bags now
that you can buy seeding those indoors.

(06:02):
You can start to harvest themindoors or you can move them in.
They're small enough, they produce a fairamount and you can stagger that crop.
So you could plant lettuce everyweek if you wanted, and in five
or 10 bags and then just cyclethrough them as they're ready.
And we talked about pruning, the onething about pruning as you can see
into the plant, and you can see whereplant, where branches are crossing

(06:24):
over and you need to remove those.
You also see the overall shape of theplant, so you can start to shape it.
If the plant needs to be reducedin size, you can cut the plant.
Structurally pruning things thatare, we're a limbs getting too heavy.
You can take some of the weightoff of it and it's just all there.
And it's all visual in the wintertime.
It's the other time.
The other thing that I'm looking atout while I'm looking at pruning is,

(06:46):
the hard part of the garden the thebones of a garden, and figuring out,
structurally where we're missing stuff.
You can all things that needto be screened or a neighbor's
window that you could block out.
It's a good time.
You.
To see that stuff.
And, you get used to it as the wintergoes on, but if you take a good hard
look putting a plan or two in thistime of year, a year or so from now,

(07:08):
you're not looking at your neighbor'swindow or they're not looking into your
backyard or side yard, or if you'vegot an eyesore trash cans and that
kind of stuff that you want to screenthat's a good time to figure it out.
And sometimes you got a deciduousplant there in the springtime.
And it's covered up and you're not lookingat it and then, or deciduous tree and

(07:28):
you can't see it and then wintertimerolls around and you remember it.
And then you forget about it as longas the tree leaves that back out,
but that's a good time to transplanta deciduous plant and then come back
in and come back in and do something.
That's evergreen that you'regoing to have year round.
Just figuring out the bones and the gardenand taking care of some of that stuff.
We'll see you next time.