Late Winter Garden Prep Is Underway

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by Texas Homesteader ~

It’s early in the season and most of us aren’t even thinking about dropping seeds or plants in the garden. Here in Texas planting zone 8 we typically don’t risk planting until Easter when in all probability the danger of the last frost is past.

I’m not gonna lie, I jump the gun with my planting dates sometimes. There are times I get away with it, and other times I have to start all over…

But there are still garden tasks to tend to even though actual planting time is still weeks away. Come see…

Even though it's only February & cold outside, there are still garden chores to be done. Come see how I'm preparing the veggie garden. #TexasHomesteader

Preparations: Planning The Garden

I’ve already done my easy Garden Planning using this spreadsheet. I formatted it in Excel, noting planting row layouts, perimeter size, etc.

Each gardener’s planting layout will look different. So I suggest you use a program like Excel to layout the specifics of your garden. You’ll be able to use the layout year after year so it’s certainly time well spent now.

Using my personalized excel document allows me to see what I planted last year & where so I can rotate my plantings to help keep pests at bay.

I also included a quick note about companion plants. That way I can make sure veggies that are planted close can play nice together.

I use this Companion Planting Chart from the Farmer’s Almanac as my guide.

Vegetable garden planning spreadsheet. Even though it's only February & cold outside, there are still garden chores to be done. Come see how I'm preparing the veggie garden. #TexasHomesteader

Planting Heirloom Seeds Inside

Now that my vegetable garden planting plan is all laid out, it’s time to get some seeds started. I have an easy way to jump the gun here too, as opposed to waiting until the date indicating the danger of the last frost is past.

I refer to it as my Indoor Greenhouse. I like to use heirloom seeds, but I still like putting actual seedlings in the garden in the spring. This step lets me do both! 

My setup is just a clear lidded tub. The lid helps keep the humidity level right for my seedlings. I’ll plant seeds in little pots and place everything inside this clear tub. 

Then I’ll place the tub in a south-facing window to allow sunlight and warmth for my little seeds.

Indoor Greenhouse to plant garden seeds. Even though it's only February & cold outside, there are still garden chores to be done. Come see how I'm preparing the veggie garden. #TexasHomesteader

Seed-Starting Pot Options

I used to use repurposed plastic yogurt containers and such for planting my veggie seeds. But I really loved the convenience of those little biodegradable pots where you can drop pot & all into the ground when it was time to plant.

In a typical #UseWhatchaGot moment I decided to was repurpose used cardboard to make my seed-starting pots.

It was FREE & it was easy – a few quick snips & folds is all it took. Now I can plant the seedling, cardboard and all, right into my garden when spring arrives.

The cardboard decomposes and actually feeds the earthworms. Win/win!

Repurposed cardboard pots to plant garden seeds. Even though it's only February & cold outside, there are still garden chores to be done. Come see how I'm preparing the veggie garden. #TexasHomesteader

 

Late-Winter Weeds

But we recently got an unseasonably warm day for February so you bet your socks I was out in the garden.

The early spring weeds have already started to rear their ugly heads. Weeding is my least favorite garden thing to do.

But if you weed early and often you keep smaller problems from becoming big problems. I discovered on this day that some problems are bigger than others…

Now I don’t know what type of plant this beast is, but it grew alongside a weed barrier which kept it from getting its roots very deep into the ground.

So I was able to get it pulled out roots and all. DANG! This helps me understand why it’s such a struggle to keep the weeds at bay – look at that massive root system!

Massive root system on garden weed. Even though it's only February & cold outside, there are still garden chores to be done. Come see how I'm preparing the veggie garden. #TexasHomesteader

Solving The Shade Problem

Our driveway runs alongside our garden on one side. When we moved here we planted a row of gorgeous Crape Myrtle trees along our driveway. They run from our front gate all the way to our home. It makes for quite a lovely entrance.

But the Crape Myrtle trees next to my garden fence grew so tall over the years that they shaded the garden much of the day. That shade coupled with the drought last year kept my garden from producing at all. We just can’t have that now can we?

It’s frowned upon to hack back a Crape Myrtle tree in these parts. But my only two options are to hack a couple of them into a shrub from a tree and keep them that size or dig them up completely. So I opted to lower their height instead of ripping them out.

Although I love the look of the row of gorgeous blooming trees along the driveway, I asked RancherMan to cut the height of a few of the trees next to my garden fence to only 3-ft high.

They’ll sprout and grow this spring of course, but my hope is that we can keep them trimmed to around the height of the fence.

If it doesn’t work we’ll have to remove these four trees all together next spring. I hope it doesn’t come to that though. I love the look of them. Even the ones that are now bushes instead of trees. 

Quick Weeding Trick

Now that the trees around the perimeter of the garden have been trimmed, let’s get in the garden & do some prep! 

My favorite garden tool this time of year is the stirrup hoe. When the soil is damp like it is now, the stirrup hoe cuts weed roots just below the soil’s surface.

I first cleaned up the planting rows by removing any remaining dead vegetation from last year’s garden. Then I used my stirrup hoe to clean up early-spring weeds that were trying to grow in my rows. Just a few swipes and BOOM!

Here’s a before & after for ya. This bed that I typically reserve for garlic and my 3-sister’s garden was taking a weed beating!

But using the stirrup hoe I weeded it in 4 minutes. Yeah, I love this thing!

Weeding the garden with a stirrup hoe. Even though it's only February & cold outside, there are still garden chores to be done. Come see how I'm preparing the veggie garden. #TexasHomesteader

It doesn’t help me much in the heat of summer when the ground is hard as concrete. But DANG it sure makes fast work this time of year.

In the coming weeks I’ll go pick up several loads of Free Bark Mulch and re-mulch my walkways. That will help to make sure they stay weed free too. Work smarter, not harder I always say!

Late Winter Garden Prep Is Underway. Even though actual planting is still weeks away, there is much to be done now, even in the cold winter months. I use this late-winter garden checklist to keep me on track. #TexasHomesteader

I’m so anxious to get in that garden. I’m dreaming of that bountiful harvest it’s bound to provide us once again this year. But I know it will be time to plant before I know it!

~TxH~

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My favorite gardening hacks all in one place. #TexasHomesteader

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