September

This is a great month to plant trees and shrubs, divide perennials, and renew your lawn. With the heat of the summer past, and cool autumn nights, the newly planted can settle in and make good roots before the winter. Just do not fertilize anything you transplant! Water every day for a week, then every other day for a week, then weekly until the ground freezes.

October

There is still time to plant evergreens; and some gardens are still producing veggies. This is usually the month we get a first light frost, so it’s time to bring in tender perennials, or houseplants that may still be enjoying the weather. It’s not too early to add limestone and manure to leach in over the winter.

November

It’s time to complete winterizing the garden…Clean up the veggie refuse: either chop it up and add to the compost, or, if the plant was diseased (like tomato blight), bag it up and throw in the trash. This is when I empty my compost bin onto the veggie garden, and fill the empty bin with leaves vacuumed up from the patio and lawn – in preparation for next year. In the perennial border, remove any diseased or damaged plants; you can cut back stems of flowering perennials, or leave them with their seed heads so the birds will have a winter food source, and tiny critters can hibernate in the dried stems! Some plants, like peony and some clematis, should be pruned to about 6” – 12” from the ground.

Hold off on any winter mulch until the ground freezes.

December

Early in the month, pick evergreens for Christmas arrangements. (If you already haven’t done so!) All varieties of needled evergreens can be kept fresh by keeping them in a large plastic bag, with a cup of water poured in, and stored in an unheated shed/garage. This is also time to put any plant protection devices in place: tying shrubs that may otherwise bend with a snow load; spreading mulch to protect plants from direct cold, and to keep the ground frozen during winter thaws. A layer, about 2”, of hay, straw, pine needles, or bagged (undyed) mulch will do the job.

January

Ah, seed catalogs! Dreaming of summer….My imaginary garden never looked better than in January!

Ordering seeds. Planning the summer garden – what veggies this year? A lot of cool varieties are only available as seeds; nurseries and big box stores sell the most popular varieties, not necessarily the exact rare variety one is salivating for! A new shrub? New herbaceous perennial?… Meanwhile, the houseplants enjoy a monthly shower in the tub to rinse off any dust and give them a brief respite from the dry indoor air.

February

Time to start some seedlings if you have space and light to grow on the seeds that take some time to sprout (12 – 16 weeks). [Disclaimer: Lacking good growing light and proper space, I have never successfully brought on any seed I planted too early. They get really leggy from poor lighting and too warm a spot, and flop over before ever getting started. But that doesn’t ever stop me from trying!

At any rate, it’s a good month to gather supplies and check that tools and such are in working order. If you hadn’t forced any bulbs in the Fall to enjoy now, do head to a nursery and indulge yourself. It’s February after all!

March

If there wasn’t time to add soil amendments last fall, this month is the “drop dead” time to do so. As Jim Crockett (Crockett’s Victory Garden) wrote once, “..nothing matters as much as soil preparation”.

If the garden soil is ready -– that is, crumbly like cake when you squeeze some in your hand – peas, lettuce, onions, other cool weather crops can be planted outside.

Late winter (mid Feb. – early Mar. before the sap rises) is also the other best time to prune trees and some shrubs. Be careful, though, no pruning flowering shrubs until after they bloom*, unless you intend to reduce the plants volume. (Those folks with tiny yards like mine know what I mean!)

(*there are exceptions, as always)

April

Ready. Set. GO!  In between rainy days, April sees gardeners in full gear, planting, transplanting cool weather veggies, trees and shrubs, as well as herbaceous perennials. And potting on those tender seedlings indoors- tomatoes, peppers and such.

When the Forsythia blooms is the time to prune the roses, if they need pruning. (Note: not the “old” roses that bloom on last year’s wood)

Busy. Busy. Busy.

May

Along with April, May is the busiest planting time. In our climate zone (6a), tender plants can go in the ground when night temps are in the 50s…and earlier with some protection. In my cold back yard, it was fruitless to try early planting with “protection” – as the earlier awakening, and starving, slugs and cutworms did a number on the poor plants. Now I wait till the end of the month when most of these critters are out of the soil (not the slugs…but that’s another story. They like beer.)

June

IT’S SUMMER! I plant a lot of herbs, both perennial and annual. They are my favorite plants, mainly because they are so useful, and not difficult to grow. And they’re pretty. And mostly they grow fast – I’m already eyeing the basil – counting down the days to a batch of pesto for dinner!

Our gardens are planted, the days are getting longer and warmer..and even though weeding and mulching and harvesting, and more planting for the hard-core set, keep us busy, let’s also make time to sit, and smell the roses, and the peonies, and Iris..and…