Timely Gardening Tips for where you live

(Page 3 of 3)

December/January 2003
By Carol Mack 
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Pacific Northwest

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Just when you thought you could shut down for a few months of armchair gardening, a burst of spring-like weather lures you outside. I often think of myself as a browser in the winter garden, picking frost-sweetened greens for the dinner table, cutting budding branches for forcing, and hunting around for rosebuds and berries to fashion into winter bouquets. Your freshly picked woody perennial herbs, including rosemary, bay and thyme, can contribute vibrant flavors to winter meals. If you don't have the perfect garden site close by, resolve to try container gardening. 'Window Box' Roma is the healthiest tomato plant I've ever grown. Lettuce in a garden sock (a tube filled with potting soil) is aesthetically pleasing and productive. And herb containers add aroma and eye appeal wherever needed. The best thing is you only have to take a few steps out your door to enjoy the harvest.

Southwest

The time has come to sit by the fire, paging through seed catalogs and dreaming of the next gardening season. Consider a New Year's resolution of planting something you've never grown. At lower elevations where nights are above freezing, continue planting leafy greens, begin direct seeding peas, and start brassicas and onions in flats.

At higher elevations, mark the New Year by starting onions in the greenhouse, with cabbage and broccoli soon to follow. Enjoy overwintering kales, which are now at their sweetest, and don't forget to dig any lingering beets, parsnips or potatoes.

Watch for spring cover-crop growth and begin watering dry ground as soon as the plants start to green. Enjoy warm Southwest winter days by cleaning up the garden, sharpening tools, fixing irrigation lines and preparing for spring.

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