
Winter Is Still a Critical Season for Gardening. Here’s Your To-Do List.
How to set your garden up for success in the spring.

Savvy gardeners know winter is a slower, less showy, but critical season for setting up your landscape for success in spring.
Plant

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—Now is an ideal time to add succulents, such as agave, yucca, and aloe to your landscape. Try also adding prickly pear cactus (Opuntia spp.) into the mix as an unexpected culinary addition, whose pads (nopales) and fruit (tunas) are both edible.
—Consider planting lovage in your herb garden. It is a hardy perennial that can be used as a celery substitute and adds architectural interest when interplanted in raised beds. Flower stalks can reach up to 6 feet in height. Consider placement in the back of beds or in areas where you might want additional shade for future tender transplants.
—Take advantage of cool weather and lingering precipitation to transplant more natives, such as Ceanothus (California lilac), manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.), and red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) alongside your garden. These early-blooming shrubs will attract much-needed pollinators and native birds.
Harvest

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—It’s peak season for Meyer lemons, oranges, and grapefruit. Dehydrate leftover peels to make dried zest for tea blends or flavored salts, or make an infused oil by placing peels in a jar, covering with a neutral oil (such as olive or avocado), then covering with a lid and placing in a cool, dark place for a week before straining.
—When harvesting alliums, like onions, shallots, and leeks, leave a few behind in your beds to flower for exceptional firework blooms come summertime that will not only add a pop of personality to your garden but also repel a wide range of unwanted insects, including aphids, slugs, cabbage worms, mosquitoes, grubs, and nematodes.
Maintain

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—Spend quality time with houseplants before outdoor growing has you distracted. Cut back on that and turn your attention to your outdoor pots. Clean up any tired or yellow growth to promote a fresh flush and check the bottom of pots for escaping roots. Up-pot any containers that seem rootbound and offer a spa treatment of organic liquid fertilizer and beneficial microbial organisms to revitalize soil, such as Good Dirt PlantBiotics® or Instant™ Plant Support.
—Look for broken or dead branches and stems to trim on outdoor trees and shrubs. Pruning when plants are still dormant reduces the loss of sap from the wounds, allowing cuts to heal more quickly while preventing diseases. Be sure to complete before the spring nesting season so as to not disturb nature’s flow.
—Turn weeding into a zen flow-state meditation by tackling the task after a rain event. Soft soil makes pulling out plants’ roots easier, while mindfulness paired with repetitive movements can turn a chore into calming and cathartic self-care.
Protect

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—In coastal and desert regions, consider setting up temporary windbreaks to shield young plants from strong, drying winds. Temporary wind barriers can be made of burlap or other breathable material and fastened to bamboo poles or garden hoops.
—Installing a bat house in your garden can provide a roosting place for these beneficial nocturnal helpers who will typically consume 6,000 to 8,000 insects per night, including menacing mosquitos. Place bat houses at least 12 to 15 feet off the ground and in a spot that gets direct sunlight for part of the day.
—It’s go-time for slugs and snails on the hunt for young sprouting plants. For nontoxic protection, use copper barriers around tender plants, or experiment with scattering crushed eggshells around plants to deter intruders while providing a slow-release source of calcium for the soil.
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