“Can you plant anything in winter?" is a question that I’m asked at least once a day, beginning in November. The answer definitely varies depending on where you are, but Middle Tennessee is fortunate in that our winter weather is moderate by comparison and those who live here can get a lot done while the ground is freezing in other places. So what is a gardener or homeowner to do during the coldest months of the Tennessee year? I present to you :
The Top 10 landscape and garden things to work on while everyone else is trying to beat the winter blues!
10. Dormant Seeding.
No gardening list is complete without a mention about the best and worst thing in any landscape: grass!
Dormant seeding is simply sowing or over seeding fescue grass when the seed has no chance of germinating quickly. It can take two weeks and a lot of 40° F+ days for fescue seed to actually begin growing. Keep in mind that most people will have issues getting this to happen in October. Unfortunately, although it can be done during slower times, winter sowing of grass has been shown as slightly less effective than doing it in the fall.
9. Cole Season Crops.
Planting winter vegetable gardens is best done early in the winter or by mid fall, as recommended by the UT Extension agency, but you can put a handful of plants out when it’s cold outside and still harvest many of them all winter. (A sustainable supply of fresh lettuce and carrots all winter? Yes, please!). One last thing, although it may seem wrong, ‘”Cole” is the proper spelling of this term; a lot of people use the term “cool” season when it's really “Cole” season. (Where the term comes from is an entirely different story!).
8. Bulbs.
For spring bulbs, our long fall temperatures come into play. It’s best to plant your bulbs by Thanksgiving weekend, but you can still plant until the week after New Year’s (depending on whether or not you are able to dig). Seasonal bulbs, such as amaryllis, have other considerations this time of year.
7. Fruit and Shade Tree Care.
You want to prune now to shape up your trees and reduce fruit load on edibles (Remember, edible plants aren’t just for gardens and orchards!). The second week of February (as long as the temperatures are above freezing) is the best time for dormant spraying of your trees to help reduce pest and disease issues in the summer. Some considerations that will need to be made here will be for organic or greener options, but with these products you’ll still need to check the various vendors and their distributors for the best application times and rates as these will vary. All of this applies to fruiting vines and shrubs as well, but double check with your state extension service for specific varieties.
6. Research.
This goes hand in hand with planning. Cold days and colder nights are a great time to start looking up perfect varieties of plants for your yard, peruse seed catalogs for that perfect heirloom or rare organic vegetable, and also review recommendations for landscapers you’ll want to use for the planning and planting stages of your property. In the long run, proper planning of your landscape will help save time, money, and stress. Take advantage of this time off to look for what works for you. (Find out more about Perennial Solution's landscaping services here.)
You might even take a class sponsored by your local garden center or agricultural extension office!
If you haven’t done it yet, pick a warm day and get out there and clean up vegetable beds and clean out birdhouses to prepare them for spring. However, hold off until late March to prune back your perennials. Have a messy fence row? If you couldn’t find the time (or someone) to do it in the summer, now is the perfect time to get in there and clean it up. You won’t have to worry about bugs, snakes, or most of the other things that keep us from thinning it out the rest of the year. Speaking of thinning, did you know the first week of February is the time to cut your ornamental grasses? It is recommended to cut them back to four inches off the ground. This is just one of the many more things to be pruned during this time! For more info on seasonal work, visit our services page
4. Transplants.
If you want to be self-sufficient and grow your own vegetable transplants [ ](or if you are unsure that you have right starter plants for heirloom varieties), several warm season and lots of cole season varieties will need to be started by Mid-February(http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_agexcrop/45/)
Of course, that means you may have to set up a growing station. Then, just before it gets warm again in February, you will have the next best chance again to easily transplant trees and shrubs in your yard again. If you are interested in spring services to set up a garden in your backyard, please Email us to get started on a quote!
3. Planting trees and shrubs.
Honestly, in Middle Tennessee I only experience two times you don’t want to plant: when the ground is frozen (usually doesn’t last more than a couple days) or when we’re hot and dry (most of the summer). Given that information, extension services and I recommend planting the big and hardy stuff from Mid-October to Mid-January.
Why is this the best time to plant? Lots of moisture and cooler temperatures make it easier to establish plants (especially large trees) without stressing them out, like with high temperatures and too little water. So for a lasting yard, put the big stuff in when it’s cold!
2. Watering new plantings.
Yes, you have to water in the winter! Root systems are still growing and anything transplanted in the last year doesn’t have access to the moisture it needs to keep roots hydrated and evergreen leaves healthy through the freezing weather. Depending on size, slow pour between two and five gallons of water a week on these plants if we go a couple of days without heavy rain (especially when temperatures are in the teens for more than a couple of nights). See more here.
1. Planning.
If the weather outside is frightful, planning indoors is delightful. Now is the time to sit down and plan the views you’d like for next year, the planting beds you nagged yourself about all summer, or that vegetable bed that would make eating healthy so much easier. Sit down, put pen to paper, and come up with ideas you'd like to see come together and find someone with experience to help lay out your ideas. Your budget, sanity, and dreams will thank you now for looking ahead on this planning! Find out more about our landscape design services here!
There are a lot of things that a person can work on in the garden during the winter, and despite everything listed above there is even more that I can suggest be done. Winter can be a very busy time in the garden. So, yes, you can plant now and also stay busy during the winter-time!
Author: Richard
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