7 Winter Garden Chores You Can Do To Prepare For Next Summer

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After all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it’s always a relief when January hits and life slows down. The garden catalogs start coming in the mail, and I’m always ready to get back in the garden. It seems like most of the year I’m knee deep in gardening chores, but I really miss my garden in the winter! The problem is here in Ohio there’s usually several inches of snow on the ground. That doesn’t mean you can’t do anything for your garden this time of year. There are quite a few winter gardening chores you can do.

winter gardening

Here are 7 winter garden chores I do to prepare for  the summer gardening season.

  1. Pruning– Many fruit trees, bushes, perennials, and shrubs need a good pruning. Check the information on your specific plant for their exact pruning requirements but many of them can be pruned in late winter to prepare them for the next summer’s growth.
  2. Map out your garden and landscaping for the summer. Think about what kinds of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers you want to grow in your garden this summer. Create a tentative diagram of what you want to grow, and where. Do you love tomatoes, or green beans? Set aside more space to grow your favorites.
  3. Order those seeds. This is my favorite winter gardening chore! I love to browse through the seed catalogs this time of year and dream of my summer garden.
  4. Start planting and growing plants you’ll need  indoors, like flowers, tomatoes, cabbage, or peppers. This is a great way to take car of garden fever, and to get something growing!
  5. Sharpen your gardening tools. Winter is a great time to sharpen all your garden tools and get them prepared for next summer. While you’re at it make a list of anything you need to repair or replace.
  6. Clean up your garden space. If you haven’t cleaned up from last year’s garden now is a great time to do that. You might want to start planting in early spring, and believe it or not that’s only a few weeks away.
  7. Apply compost to your garden, or any other fertilizers or soil additives you’d like to work in this spring.

What winter garden chores do you do to help take care of your winter gardening fever, and to prepare for next summer?

6 thoughts on “7 Winter Garden Chores You Can Do To Prepare For Next Summer”

  6. I keep debating about starting a garden as I do not have a green thumb. I live in the desert so I tend to overwater I think more than underwater. I think it would be neat to have a garden and then actually eat food that came out of it, but I am not sure about the time/effort it takes. I was thinking about a square foot garden to start with just a few things in it.

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