The Blog is Back! Battling the Blues with Winter Gardening Goals

Well, I’m ashamed to admit how long it’s been since I last wrote, but I’m back! Writing this blog is the perfect way to handle the blues I get when the growing season is over. Sadly, as I’m not really a big cool weather greens kind of gardener, for me, it’s over. Another way to beat the end of season blues is by setting winter gardening goals!

I LOVED the end of this season!

Thanks to the beautiful November weather we had in Colorado this year, I managed to squeeze in some last-minute gardening chores before our season really wrapped up. Life had been so busy this year that I was still trying to get through my spring gardening to-do list when we hit fall! The weather cooperated, so I took advantage of November and just kept on gardening! I finished transplanting and planting for the season, and finished removing sod from a bed I expanded.

But we just had a snow storm that I think kicked my garden into true winter status. The ground is likely frozen along the shady south side of our property, and most plants are fully dormant.

Winter Gardening Goals

To tide me over to the next spring, I like to have some winter gardening goals or plans lined out. This year, I have a couple of areas in my yard that I hope to keep working on over the winter. My youngest son will be graduating from high school next May, and I’m already thinking about how I want the garden to look for his graduation party, and what that will take. And it will take winter work!

Sandbox under Autumn Purple Ash Tree

First, I plan to partially clean up the old sand box area under the ash tree in the back corner of our yard. This area has become a dumping ground for yard waste and things that we don’t quite know what to do with. And it looks really ugly right now! I won’t clean up all the yard waste because I like to leave a pile of branches each winter to provide additional shelter for wildlife. But, come April, things will be warming up, and it will be time to toss out the rest of those branches and the sod I dug up this fall.

Ideas for Area Under Ash Tree?

Once the mess is cleaned up, I really hope to make the area look pretty for spring. But I just don’t know what to do with it. I’ve thought about turning it into a yard sized chess board. The boys really enjoy playing chess, and I just loved the garden chess boards I saw when visiting Wales years ago. The old sandbox is a perfect sized square framed with 6×6 wood pieces. I thought of alternating squares of crushed marble and thyme. But the area is really shady now, and the mosquitos love it. I don’t think anyone will be willing to sacrifice their blood for a game of chess at this point.

Thanks to the mosquitos, any type of sitting area is out. Do you have ideas of how to use a shady, mosquito infested corner of a garden? Please leave ideas in the comments! I would love help figuring this area out!

Tame the Potting Area

My second winter gardening goal is to clean up my potting area. Anyone walking into the back yard through our gate passes right by the potting area. And right now it looks awful, with towering stacks of plastic pots leaning here and there. I have way too many pots to fit on the shelves. I really can’t imagine there will come a time when I need hundreds of plastic pots, so it’s time to go through and throw most in the recycle bin!

How About You?

So here’s a question for you – what gardening goals or plans do you have for this winter? Or do you just completely take a break from the garden until we move into spring? I tend to always have a few winter chores planned out. Still, I have to admit that most years, once we hit January, I’m inside until mid-March. At that point, the unfinished winter chores become spring chores! Even so, I keep planning out those winter gardening goals each year because it helps me accept the end of the season and start looking forward to the next!

Moving Efforts Indoors

Once I’ve given up on the outdoor tasks, my effort goes entirely into planning the next season. I usually spend January and February evaluating the previous season. I think about what I want to add to my garden, what I want to modify, and what plants I want to move. Sadly, I am a plant mover extraordinaire! I typically move plants at least two to three times before they end up in their forever home. Even then, there’s no guarantee I won’t move them again. After all, sunny areas can become shady areas, plants may grow bigger or smaller than expected, etc. Around the time I settle on the next season’s plant shuffle, it’s time to start seeds! Woohoo! At that point, spring is in sight!

Well, gardening friends, I hope you all had a great 2023 growing season. I look forward to hearing about what you plan to accomplish before the next growing season begins! Be sure to Click Here if you want to learn how to beat the winter blues by attracting wildlife to your winter garden!