Tis the season of stillness
In our little community garden this month, much is still. Amid our year-round growing season, even our cool-season crops have slowed their growth. Our soils are still heavy with the moisture from our recent rains — even the evaporation process has slowed with the cool weather.
We are at the solstice, the time when the winter days are shortest. Plants grow quite slowly at this point in the year, from mid-December though mid-January. This is the season of resting in the garden.
But if your garden fingers (like ours) are itching to “do something,” now is the time to OBSERVE. Think back over what worked and what didn’t work in your spring/summer garden, or in your autumn garden. Make notes, drawings, record your ideas for the future.
OBSERVE - Notice where the deepest shadows fall right now. Which areas are still shaded at 10am? Take photos or draw garden maps. These areas will likely have colder microclimes within your garden. This is good to know for Autumn 2009!
PLAN - Think ahead. Right now in this time of stillness, take a breath. If you had an autumn cool-season garden, what will you add in a few weeks to create a bountiful early spring?
In our community garden there are several open patches which could grow lettuces. Some of the peas need reseeding into the gaps. One potato bed never quite got planted. Here are our projects for mid-January – sprucing up our cool season garden as soon as Nature is again ready to grow.
SOIL BUILDING - In a year-round garden, we’ve always got to be thinking of the soil. What organic materials do we have for the newest compost pile — it too has slowed but will soon reawaken. What finished compost is available to turn into the beds? Earthworm castings? We found some for sale at a nearby farmer’s market. (More on soil building here.)
Mid January would be a great time to seed a soil-building “cover crop” of legumes (in cool season, this usually means peas), plants which bring nitrogen-capturing benefit to our soils.