By Jennifer Fairfield
Boy, did we have a serious case of weather whiplash between November and December.
November was one of the coldest on record around here, and the area had approximately 10 inches less of snow than normal in December, and was above average in temps.
And have you been listening to the reports for the next few weeks?
“They” are saying that we should be enjoying this trend of warmer than usual temperatures and no accumulating snow through at least the middle of the month here in Southeast Michigan.
I am not sure how I feel about this.
On the one hand, it was great that I was able to plant my garlic so late (Dec. 16), since I just hadn’t had the time until then. However, the lack of real cold means that there are pests and diseases that might survive the winter, making gardening even more challenging this spring.
Of course, just because the averages are expected to be milder doesn’t mean we won’t get some real winter weather around here at some point.
It is Michigan, after all.
January is mostly about making plans for the upcoming gardening season, though there are a few other things you can also be doing now, both inside and out – depending on the weather.
Let’s Get Planning:
Vegetables
Curl up with some hot cocoa and go through the seed catalogs that have already started to arrive.
Now is a good time to begin to think about what you want to plant this year. What did well in your garden last year? What didn’t do so well? Do you want to plant the same things again, or try something new?
Consider whether there was anything you grew too much of and therefore went to waste, or that you wish you had grown more of because you just didn’t get enough. Go through your seed packets to determine what you have left over and what you need more of.
By planning now, you can be ready to get what you need as soon as seeds come available locally. (The Garden Mill generally starts getting its seeds in the store by about the first week in February).
While you’re thinking about how your garden produced last season, also think about what issues you had with pests and disease, and what you might want to do to prevent those issues this year.
There are lots of options for dealing with both insect pests and disease, and thinking about those now can help you get a jump on them in the spring.
(Part Two of this column will publish tomorrow.)
