Winter Garden Tips for 2020
Jack McKinnon
Still sheltering in place, still wearing masks, still socially distancing and still gardening. In gardening we take seemingly stable inert ingredients add water a plant maybe some colorful pot and a bit of fertilizer and, voila, beauty or beauty and food.
Sometimes our potted plant idea even makes it into a magazine or YouTube video. The concept of control over nature lives even as nature in the form of a pandemic tries to alter our lives and our livelihood.
Where the human condition comes in and adaptation takes place is of note in that we can create ways of not only surviving the pandemic but of flourishing while it is taking lives and disrupting our whole culture. When restaurants close, market prices go up and supplies of luxury items go down, we can learn new and different ways to prepare our own food, grow our own high quality flowers and vegetables for our shelter in place. We can also learn to appreciate our environment more while visiting places in nature rather than crowded cities.
This season’s winter tips below look at ways to interact with our gardens, other gardens and even professionally relate to gardens in order to mitigate our lower income due to the pandemic. Here are the tips.
Good gardening
Jack McKinnon is a Garden Coach and worked for Sunset Magazine for 12 years. He teaches Garden Coaching and can be reached at 650-455-0687.
Jack McKinnon
Still sheltering in place, still wearing masks, still socially distancing and still gardening. In gardening we take seemingly stable inert ingredients add water a plant maybe some colorful pot and a bit of fertilizer and, voila, beauty or beauty and food.
Sometimes our potted plant idea even makes it into a magazine or YouTube video. The concept of control over nature lives even as nature in the form of a pandemic tries to alter our lives and our livelihood.
Where the human condition comes in and adaptation takes place is of note in that we can create ways of not only surviving the pandemic but of flourishing while it is taking lives and disrupting our whole culture. When restaurants close, market prices go up and supplies of luxury items go down, we can learn new and different ways to prepare our own food, grow our own high quality flowers and vegetables for our shelter in place. We can also learn to appreciate our environment more while visiting places in nature rather than crowded cities.
This season’s winter tips below look at ways to interact with our gardens, other gardens and even professionally relate to gardens in order to mitigate our lower income due to the pandemic. Here are the tips.
- Do big cleanup jobs now. Clean up debris, old dying plants, bed soil and other messes around the garden.
- Now is the time for winter pruning especially deciduous bushes and trees.
- Prepare beds for winter planting by taking out last season’s plantings, amending with compost, raking out the soil and fertilizing.
- Plant winter plants such as Snapdragons, Primula, Pansies, Violas, Cyclamen, Iceland poppies and Chrysanthemums.
- If you have bulbs plant them now. If you don’t, check nurseries and buy them when they come in.
- Replace soil in planters and plant with flowers or veggies like lettuce, peas, sweet peas, kale, artichokes or greens like arugula, mustard, wasabi and parsley.
- Gardening for others is and has always been a friendly pastime. Ask if you can volunteer to help. It’s good if you know what you’re doing.
- Want a new profession? Weed pulling pays $25 an hour and goes up from there!
- Learn landscape design by taking some classes and practice. It pays $100 per hour once you get your business going.
- Garden coaching is for master gardeners who relate well with homeowners and other gardeners. That starts at $150 an hour and goes up in proportion to how much you help the client save money.
Good gardening
Jack McKinnon is a Garden Coach and worked for Sunset Magazine for 12 years. He teaches Garden Coaching and can be reached at 650-455-0687.
