Winter Gardens
A quiet garden doesn't mean a quiet gardener. Winter's slow season is the perfect time to handle tasks that are easy to skip once spring's rush of planting and weeding starts.
Plan and Build
With the beds bare, it's much easier to see a garden's actual bones — where a path should be redirected, or where a trellis or arbor would add height. Sketch out redesigns in a garden notebook, noting what worked last year and where a bed felt empty. It's also the right time to order from seed catalogs — by spring it's often too late to start many varieties from seed at all.
Get a Head Start Indoors
Starting seeds indoors — even just a repurposed egg carton on a sunny windowsill — lets you grow varieties the nursery doesn't carry, and saves real money on perennials. A nursery perennial in a 4-inch pot often runs $3–6, while a packet of seed that yields 100 plants might cost $2. Shasta daisy, black-eyed Susan, coneflower, and coreopsis are all easy candidates to start this way.
Check your tools and supplies now, not on the first warm day of spring — a broken spade handle or worn-out gloves are much easier to deal with before you're eager to get planting.
