Winter Gardening Check List
1.
Study garden catalogues and websites for new plant
ideas, and order seeds and plants.
Suppliers will ship at proper planting time for your area.
2.
Plant Hellebores as they become available at nurseries.
(They are one of the earliest plants available.) Keep in pots until ground can
be safely worked. Group them on your
patio for an “early spring”!
3.
Divide any overgrown Hellebores when the ground can be
worked.
4.
Start seeds indoors if you have room and proper light.
5.
Gradually increase water and apply liquid fertilizer to
houseplants as the days lengthen.
6.
Examine your garden border and patio areas and press in
any plants that have frost-heaved out of the ground.
7.
Prune back woody summer-flowering shrubs (butterfly
bushes, potentilia, St. John’s
wort, blue mist shrub). These can be
clipped back to 3 – 6 inch stubs.
8.
Do not prune spring flowering shrubs (bloom before May
15) except to remove deadwood.
9.
Cut back perennial stems that were not removed earlier.
10.
Cut back grasses.
11.
Put down some granular fertilizer – if you spread it
now rains will water it into the soil.
Use a low nitrogen value (1st number), such as 5-10-10. Low nitrogen regulates top growth.
12.
Jot down ideas from catalogues, websites, garden
magazines, HGTV, etc. useful in planning your summer garden.
