Winter garden tips for a beautiful spring

While most of us take a break from major gardening tasks in winter, there are still some garden tasks you'll want to complete to keep your garden healthy. These gardening related activities will help ensure your garden is beautiful in the warmer months.

Gardening tools

Once you’re done with outdoor tasks, it’s time to check on your tools. People always say “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This adage certainly applies to your gardening tools. Cleaning off rust and sharpening shovel, lopper and pruner blades will not only make your tools last longer, they’ll also be easier to use. For more information, check out the K-State's step-by-step guide for cleaning and sharpening garden tools.

Winter watering

Just when you thought you were done watering, I’m here to tell you to keep it up! Even though trees and shrubs aren’t actively growing, they still need some water to mitigate damage that shows up in spring. You may not want to drag the hose out after you properly drained and stored it, but there are other options. Take a 5-gallon bucket, drill a handful of 1/8” holes in the bottom, place it near your trees or shrubs, and fill the bucket. The small holes make the water drain slowly, which allows the soil to take the water straight to the roots. Doing this once or twice a month, especially when there hasn’t been much precipitation and the ground isn’t frozen, can help the tree make it through winter without injury.

Planning for a low-maintenance lawn

While lots of people enjoy the look of grass lawns, it’s not for everyone. Grass lawns can be expensive, with water, chemical costs and also time. However, there are some fantastic alternatives that are comparatively low maintenance and can provide many benefits to the home ecosystem.

While winter isn’t a good time to plant an alternative to a grass lawn, it’s a great time to make a plan. Master gardener Caroline Seals will discuss lawn alternatives in your home landscape at the library Thu, Jan 9, 7-8:30pm. Lawn Gone! by Pam Penick and Beautiful No-Mow Lawns by Evelyn J. Hadden are also great resources for more information.

Master Gardeners

Our monthly presentations at the library might be your “in” with the Master Gardeners, but they do much more.

• They maintain eight demonstration gardens around Topeka
• interact with youth at a number of activities,
• and most of all, help the community with their gardens, lawns and landscape by providing research-based solutions to solve their problems.

Master Gardeners come from a variety of backgrounds and careers, which makes the organization all the richer! Master Gardener Kathy Wade will talk about Extension Master Gardeners in Your Community on Thu, Feb 13 at the library. If you’d like more information on joining the Master Gardener program in Shawnee County, call the Extension Office at 785-232-0062 or send me an email at lwwiens@ksu.edu.

I also invite you to join the Master Gardeners in our Facebook group “Friends of the Shawnee County Extension Master Gardeners.” The volunteers post regularly about the activities we’re working on and helpful tips for the garden, lawn and landscape.

Guest Writer: Lane Wiens
Shawnee County Horticulture Extension Agent