What do you do in the yard in the winter?

[tomf]

In the winter my biggest job is mostly storm clean up. This year I have some plants to move, some trees to trim up the branches to let in more light on my rhododendron garden, and a few smaller ones to thin out. I am going to work the ground on the berries and put down more mulch. I still have some raking to do before I put the rake away, it is still on the back of the tractor. I mostly come here in the winter as I have more time to read all the how to information, and there are a lot of people I like that post here. So what do you do in the yard in the winter?

[digitS']

Next to nuthin', Tom.

The ground is frozen to at least 12". I was digging before we had the subzero weather and it was frozen about 8" down. Using the Polaski wasn't much fun so that November digging came to an end.

The rain this morning melted off the skiff of snow . . ! Totally shocked to see the rain and went out in the dark to try to determine if this was an ice storm. Nope. It was 34°f. If there is much rain over the next couple of days, there will be flooding because the water will run off.

A little rain is probably a good thing. Looking out from indoors, the lawn grass has looked green & nice on sunny days. Outdoors, it looked like it had been hit with a blow torch!

I was just thinking that I wanted to do some more work on the shed-attached hoophouse that I built last March. However, I may decide that I should wait until March of 2014. There is a section of board fence to take down and I don't want to pull it down and end up working in a snowstorm or subzero weather trying to hurry up and get a new one put back up.

I am gonna be living vicariously with news of your garden activities and those of gardeners south of here.

Steve

[imafan26]

I unfortunately have to weed whack more when it rains. And the weeds grow, well, like weeds.
I have plants to move that I want to move to more light and I am still harvesting some broccoli, kale, peppers, papaya, and eggplant has slowed down, but I need to harvest the ginger and araimo soon. I have done some cuttings and I still have some transplanting to do. Many pepper seedlings have to be up potted and I have to find them a home.

Clean the gutter, prune plumeria, continuing to harvest lemons, mandarins, calamondin and beets. Some citrus are flowering so they need to be fed.

Plant out roses, thin agapanthus, trim ti, chop the neighbors invasive hedge that is invading my side of the fence. Planting seeds and transplants of cool weather crops lettuce, spinach tatsoi, cutting celery, kale, cilantro, parsley, joi choi, and kai choi cabbage.

Get out early to water and catch snails and slugs.

I went out to water around 7 a.m. yesterday and my older cat opened the door and let my kitten out. I called for him, but you know cats rarely come when they are called by name. They only know their name at dinner time. Luckily he did not go far and he was meowing at the door for breakfast this morning.

So, I have a lot to do and it is supposed to rain the next few days, which means the weeds will grow again and I get to start all over. Well, at least it is cooler to work out in the yard this time of year.

[rainbowgardener]

You don't HAVE winter, imafan!


I don't do much outdoors this time of year. Sometimes we have warm-ups even in the middle of winter, where we get some days that are sunny and above freezing, maybe even in the 40's. If those happen to coincide with days I'm not working then I try to take advantage of them to cut a lot of perennials back/down and run the wood chipper to reduce the brush pile. By late winter I can start pruning shrubs.

It's not outdoors, but of course in Jan the first seeds will be planted inside under the lights and by mid-Feb, the seed starting operation will be well underway. Once I have a bunch of trays full of seedlings, that takes up a lot of time too - mixing up potting soil, and transplanting/ up potting seedlings. I start 500 - 600 plants from seed and all most all of them are transplanted twice while under the lights.

[jal_ut]

Well today I went out to the shed and got the snow blower out and cleared the walks and drive. Tomorrow if it quits snowing, I will go out and take some pictures and feed the birds. Other than that, I will likely stay inside and look out. Really not much interest in playing in the snow these days.

[rainbowgardener]

Right, there's always snow shovelling and bird feeding. In the winter, we fill the bird feeders almost every day.

[imafan26]

You are right Rainbow, instead of winter, I have the rainy season. But the last few years there has been that much rain. When it does come, it comes all at once or over the course of a week. Then, everything gets greener. Even the mountains get greener when the haole koa which looks brown and dead in summer bursts in new leaf with the first good soak. So, while you have a white Christmas, I will have a green and weedy one.

There is snow in Hawaii at the tops of Mauna Loa and Mouna Kea and sometimes at Haleakala, and there are people who will trek up there to go skiing or snowboarding. It is a picture of contrasts, with snow at the top of Mauna Kea and warm tropical beaches below.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/1 ... de=2842555

[Aida]

I'm growin', plantin', and pickin'!

[Francis Barnswallow]

Usually absolutely nothing. I dream about this time of year while I'm mowing my yard every 4 days in the oppressive heat and humidity during the summer/early fall months.

[imafan26]

It rained last week so yesterday I weeded, pulled out my dead 24year old red simplicity rose. Put in some fertilizer and compost and planted a baby blanket rose, cuphea, alyssum, and replanted the glads that I unearthed while digging up the rose and weeds. I also fell off my rocker(garden seat in the process).

[tomc]

Set up my last pot to cold stratify pecan (nuts).

[imafan26]

I have to harvest my broccoli and beets from my veggie plots. Peppers and roselle so far are staying above the weed and I have a lot of seedlings I have to plant after I evict the weeds.

[Ohio Tiller]

The only thing I do in the yard this time of year is refill the bird feeders and pick up dog poop! Snow blow the walks now and then and spilt fire wood!

[Cola82]

Yeah, bird feeders! The bird feeder gives me something to look at apart from mushy frost-murdered grass.

I rearranged my patio, pulled all the dead plants, stacked pots, and unscrewed my hose from the faucet for winter. We did have a spell of unusually bad frost this year, but no snow (we rarely have snow). Mostly it rained and everything in my yard died except the crab grass.

[imafan26]

I used to have bird feeders. The bird sentry would call everyone to dine after I filled the feeder and the finches would line up on the mid-rib of the banana. I stopped though when I found out they pecked out the attic vent screens and started nesting in my attic.

[PunkRotten]

I am harvesting a few peppers here and there. I've actually been neglecting my garden. I've been letting weeds grow and the wind from few weeks back knocked around some stuff and I just left it. Couple days ago though I did a little weeding and threw away some junk. I ordered some supplies and seeds to get started on plants for the year. Other than that, I have been adding compost and trying to build my soil up for Spring.