Obtained the Gardening Winter Blues?

by Emma Murphy, Grasp Gardener

Final night time I dreamed of inexperienced, lush tropical gardens. It was yet one more signal I’m affected by the February winter blues or as I name it “Backyard Deficit Dysfunction”.

Sure, the times are getting slightly longer with each dawn, and we’ve got had a good bit of solar over the previous month (which helps quite a bit) however I’ve greater than half a metre of snow blanketing my gardens whereas my English cousins are sending images of snowdrop drifts after their ‘lengthy winter’.

I do just like the winter season, if for no different motive than my ageing physique wants a relaxation from the backyard. But it surely’s additionally the one downtime I’ve to plan for subsequent 12 months’s backyard, order seeds and attend backyard workshops, as a result of I do know as soon as spring arrives I cannot have a minute to spare.

So I’ll provide up a number of gardening associated actions for the wintertime that will show you how to by means of the blues…

Browse these Seed Catalogues

Whether or not you get paper copies or simply take a look at them on-line, seed catalogues will carry a smile to your face, even should you don’t purchase something. The fantastic of us at Seeds of Range have put collectively an nice map of Canadian seed firms. A few of my favourites are Northern Wildflowers (Sudbury), William Dam Seeds (close to Dundas), Floribunda Seeds (close to Peterborough) and Hawthorn Seeds (Mount Forest).

cartoon showing someone in bed with seed catalogs — Credit score: Joseph Tychonievich

Catch Up on Your Studying

Winter is the one time (and my favorite time) to cuddle up with my latest backyard guide, whereas having fun with lovely images and deciding which new vegetation shall be my backyard subsequent 12 months.

In case you’re excited by native vegetation I extremely suggest The Gardener’s Information to Native Vegetation of the Southern Nice Lakes Area (I did a guide evaluation right here) and A Northern Gardener’s Information to Native Vegetation and Pollinators: Creating Habitat within the Northeast, Nice Lakes and Higher Midwest by Lorraine Johnson.

One other favorite I’ll be drooling over (it’s visually gorgeous) is Planting – A New Perspective by Piet Oudolf and Nigel Kingsbury.

Or perhaps a fictional guide involving gardening makes me comfortable – extremely suggest The Final Backyard in England by Julia Kelly.

Purchase a New Houseplant (or 2, or 10)

Whereas I like seeing vibrant houseplants over the winter, our harsh inside circumstances (furnace warmth and low humidity) aren’t best for them. I’ll confess – I’m a a lot better gardener exterior than inside, plus I’ve the extra problem of two cats that wish to nibble. However do some analysis and discover the proper plant to your house, or should you’re not prepared for that funding, simply choose up some recent minimize flowers to brighten your day.

Evaluate your Backyard Photographs

On boring winter days I attempt to evaluation and manage the zillions (okay perhaps a slight exaggeration) of backyard images on my cellphone (I also have a gardening folder). I obtain the images to my laptop and manage them, all of the whereas simply having fun with the recollections and seeing the color! It’s fantastic that digital cameras and our good telephones now make it a lot simpler nowadays to seize our gardens in all their glory.

Right here’s one among my chipmunks munching on some Inexperienced-headed/cutleaf coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata) buds this summer season.

Attend a Seedy Saturday or Sunday

In case you’d like some extra social interplay with likeminded gardeners and even just a few recommendation, discovering an area Seedy Saturday or Sunday is ideal. They happen throughout Canada, largely in February and March. Seeds of Range have a complete listing – use the menu on the proper of the web page to filter by province. Peterborough’s Seedy Sunday is March ninth.

Discover Gardening Seminars (on-line or in particular person)

If I can consider something constructive in regards to the pandemic, it’s that all of us transitioned to extra on-line studying, and platforms like Zoom made it straightforward for backyard specialists to achieve massive audiences. Whereas it’s all the time fantastic to see audio system in particular person, on-line shows imply I can watch gardening specialists that I would in any other case by no means have the possibility to see in particular person.

Our Gray County Grasp Gardeners provide a nice collection, as does Mississauga-based Blooming Boulevards, and I’ve additionally been attending the Residence Gardening seminars supplied by the Iowa State MG Program and a few by the Wild Ones group within the US.

An upcoming in-person gardening occasion in Peterborough is the extremely popular A Day for Gardeners – save the date!

Gardening Blogs and Web sites

Personally I are likely to observe those that have related rising circumstances to me (Zone 4b, harsh winters, Central Ontario) however I do have a number of (together with a number of within the UK) which I like to only view and luxuriate in.

You need to after all signal as much as obtain the weekly Peterborough Grasp Gardener weblog, delivered straight into your e-mail on Monday mornings. Our members cowl numerous subjects and points which shall be of curiosity to gardeners, and you can too search older blogs for particular info utilizing the search perform.