There’s nothing quite like the excitement of the first warm spring day when you can get out into the garden and dig your fingers into the soil.
I’m sure it’s not just me. Even weeding is fun in the springtime.
But before spring gets here, there’s an awful lot of winter to get through. Sure there are some garden tasks you can do during the winter in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but cool weather gardening it’s not quite the same as spring-time gardening. You’re still limited by the weather and choices of cool weather plants.
If your gardening urge is being thwarted by winter weather and you’re looking for cool weather garden to cope, these tips will help you get through.
Tip 1) Grow Cool Weather Plants
For those lucky enough to live in the southern parts of the United States, we don’t have to stay out of the garden all winter. North Texas is in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 8a. That means the 30-year average for extreme low temperatures is in the range of 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit. It can get cooler, of course, but most years you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect.
The National Weather Service records an average first-freeze date in Dallas-Fort Worth as November 22. The average date for last freeze is March 12. So from mid-November to mid-April, you’ll only want to grow cool weather plants that can tolerate frosts and below-freezing conditions.
Some of the cool weather plants are root vegetables like radishes, carrots, and beats as well as leafy greens like spinach, Swiss chard, kale, collards, and arugula are all great choices to plant for a winter garden. As an added bonus, many cool-weather vegetables taste best when grown over the coldest months of the year.
Tip 2) Plant for Winter Color
If you’re the sort of gardener who aims for year-round landscape interest, winter affords you a time to make sure your landscape is creating a winter wonderland. Now is the time when you’ll be able to identify gaps in your landscape design. Maybe you need more evergreens, which look good all year round. Or maybe you just need to add some winter-flowering plants to put more color into the winter garden.
Planting cool-weather annuals like pansies, violas, dianthus, alyssum, and primrose gives you color that will last through winter and spring. Some cool weather plants like dianthus and primrose might stop blooming if the temperature dips below 32 degrees. If you still want to grow them, just plant them in containers and bring the plants in if there’s a frost in the forecast.
You can also plant winter flowers that will come back year after year. The spring-flowering bulbs paperwhites and snowdrops bloom in December or January for Texas gardeners. Some shrubs also bloom in the winter, including leatherleaf mahonia, ‘Jacqueline Postill’ daphne, and winter jasmine.
Tip 3) Move Dormant Plants Around
Tending to the dormant plants in your landscape is another gardening task that can help you cope with the time before the spring season starts. Winter is the perfect time to trim many trees and shrubs. Just make sure you don’t prune spring-flowering shrubs or trees since that will remove the old wood they grow flowers on. Also, if you want to avoid getting sticky sap on your pruning tools, wait until summer to prune trees like birch, maple, and walnut.
When we’re having a mild winter you can trim any time the plant is dormant. If we’re expecting harsher weather, though, it’s better to wait until late winter to prune. You can prune dormant plants right up until the time before the buds break in the spring. When pruning, focus on removing weak, twiggy, and dead branches and shaping young plants.
Winter is also a good time to move plants currently growing in your landscape. If you need to move shrubs or trees to a new location, it’s best to move deciduous plants during their dormant season. Evergreens do best if moved in early spring when the soil is starting to warm up. Late winter or early spring are also good times to plant new shrubs.
Tip 4 ) Plot Your Next Garden
For the plants you can’t grow outside until the weather warms, winter is a good time to plan out what you’re going to do in the garden come spring. Take some time during the cooler months of the year to review last year’s garden. Which vegetable varieties grew well and which didn’t? Did you lose any perennials plants in the flower garden that you’ll need to replace? Are there any cool weather flower and vegetables that you want to plant for the next year?
For vegetable gardens, make sure this review includes notes on where you planted different types of plants last year. Crop rotation (planting different types of plants in new locations each year) is one of the best things you can do to increase soil fertility and decrease pests and diseases. May be consider to install a green house to extend cool weather garden.
After this review, write out a list of everything you want to plant next spring. This helps you plan out the garden space. Plus, browsing seed catalogs is a good way to beat the winter blues! Then, once you’ve decided what you want to plant, jot down a timeline so you’ll know when you need to start which seeds or what time to purchase each type of plant from a nursery.
Tip 5) Catch Up On Maintenance
I think most of us consider being in the garden and working with plants the most exciting part of gardening. But we wouldn’t be able to do all the gardening work we love without reliable lawn and garden tools and equipment. Winter is a good time to get caught up on equipment maintenance that can easily be neglected during the warmer months of the year.
Take the time to clean all your lawn and garden tools, including hand tools and powered equipment like edgers and tillers. Tools like pruners and trowels should also be disinfected (preferably between each use) to prevent spreading any diseases. You can do this using a solution that is 70–100% ethanol or isopropyl alcohol. Simply dip the tools in the alcohol or wipe alcohol on the tool, then let it air-dry.
Remember to add fuel stabilizer to the fuel tanks for your gasoline-powered equipment. This is also a good time to clean or change air filters if you haven’t done that already. And if your equipment needs more extensive maintenance or repairs, you can bring it in to our service department. We’re typically less busy during the winter so you’ll get a faster turn-around time than if you wait until spring.
If you follow these winter tips, you’ll get to keep busy with garden tasks even during the winter and you’ll get a head-start on spring. Have fun gardening!
