The Shortest Month
February Chores and a Hankerin' for Spring
An Ozark winter is short and scattered with bursts of warm, sunny days on which the pond frogs and tree crickets emerge. These creatures egress from slumber only to be sorely disappointed by another bout of frost in no time. Even so, the end of February brings the first real signs of spring: buds on trees, small blooms of purple nettle, henbit, and steady spring rains. Winter brings more time to focus on rest and indoor activities, but chickens must have special winter accommodations met (despite laying very few eggs for us), general maintenance must be done, and the garden must be planned.
This winter seems to have flown by, but we have accomplished some important jobs already. The chickens have been keeping warm with lots of extra hay and snacks. The garlic was planted back in early November, its green tops now peeking through the mulch. We have maintained our compost, and it even feeds some small birds who find their way into it for a winter feast. New garden beds are being prepared, and we’ve saved seeds of kale, zinnias, sunflowers, pumpkins, and more to plant when it’s warmer.
The Year (So Far) in Review
January began with trying out a holiday gift from my dad: a food dehydrator. I used it to preserve some vegetables that were about to go bad, as well as some surplus food from a giveaway at our local community center. I was happy to be able to put away some food that would have otherwise become compost (not a bad alternative, both eventually providing sustenance). Mushrooms, bell peppers, ginger root, and bananas were my first dehydrator experiments— with great success.
While mastering the dehydrator, I began my ascent into becoming a better cook to convince myself to eat at home as often as possible rather than succumb to a quick meal during the work week. My new year’s resolution was simple: eat more plants and less processed food. To do this, I had to learn to cook vegetables to be tastier than the typical sauté-in-olive-oil-and-salt or steam-on-the-stove methods I often used. Using Rainbow Plant Life’s vegan cookbook, I learned a lot about creating complex flavor profiles using only plant-based foods. While I was uninterested in limiting my diet through veganism, I did want to eat more vegetables without food becoming extremely boring. Learning from a vegan cook helped a lot, and I’ve spent most of my spare time in January in my kitchen.
Unplanned, I had some store-bought organic sweet potatoes (from before we harvested ours last year) that sprouted slips without my intervention. I decided to take advantage of this and go ahead and root the slips in water in my kitchen windowsill. Since then, they’ve grown extensive roots, becoming great candidates for this fall’s sweet potato harvest.
We had one of the most beautiful snows I’ve ever seen in the Ozarks in early January. We were lucky to spend those snow days at home, by the fire, and playing in the snow with family who live nearby. A perfect January, really. However, even the seemingly longest month must come to an end, followed by the shortest month— February.
Projects for the Shortest Month
1. Plan Your Garden
Whether you’ve got a balcony container garden or several acres, take some time to plan your garden design. Deciding what you’re going to grow and where you’re going to put it all is half the fun and excitement of gardening, but there are a few crucial things to consider when planning yours.
What do you like to eat? Growing foods you don’t like is a massive waste of time because you probably won’t eat them. Only grow foods you love (or that you’re willing to learn to love).
Which crops thrive where you live? It’s important to do some research about which types of crops do well in your area. Research online and talk to practiced gardeners near you– they usually have the best insights and advice that’s region specific.
Where is the sun? It’s crucial to know how much sun your garden gets throughout the day. If this is your first year and you’re just establishing your garden, make sure you choose a spot that gets at least 6-8 solid hours of sun. Many crops appreciate a bit of shade during the hottest part of the afternoon, even if they are “full sun” crops.
Consider companion planting. We use companion planting as part of how we determine where we put certain plants. For example, I know from personal experience that tomatoes, basil, and marigolds grow really well together in my garden. I’ve also seen that peas and oats like to grow together so that the peas can climb the oats. You may be familiar with the Three Sisters method of growing corn, beans, and squash together so that they benefit from one another. This method has been used by indigenous peoples including the Navajo, Iroquois, Cherokee, and more, for a very long time (and still today). All of these are examples of companion planting and can give your crops an extra leg up.
Sketch it out! You don’t have to be an artist to sketch out a rough garden plan. This will help you visualize how things will fit into your space.
2. Start Seeds
There are lots of seeds that can be started in February, both indoors and outdoors. When determining the best time to start seeds, consider the days to maturity of the plant and your last frost date. It can get confusing, but there are many tools out there to simplify it. Johnny’s Seeds actually has a seed starting calculator that I find useful.
Colder Climates: Start herbs from seed! Herbs like thyme, oregano, sage, mint, lemon balm, and parsley take a long time to germinate. If you have a small indoor setup for seed starting, even if it’s just a sunny windowsill, you can start these herbs now. You can direct-sow them outside as well, but be very cautious when planting anything in the mint family in the ground. They can very quickly colonize a garden. In warmer climates with later last frost dates, you can also start leafy greens and brassicas this month, as soon as the ground isn’t frozen.
Warmer Climates: Now is the time to plant brassicas and leafy greens. These cold-loving crops tend to struggle in the heat of summer, so giving them a head start now is ideal. Start those cabbage, kale, broccoli, chard, radish, and salad green seeds (you could direct sow peas too, though it might be a little risky this early). Indoors, you can start seeds of onions, peppers, tomatoes, and annual and perennial flowers like calendula, zinnias, marigolds, and chamomile.
3. Prepare Your Garden Beds
Add soil amendments: compost, mulch, etc.
Terminate any cover crops before they go to seed. You can do this by mowing them, cutting them with a scythe, sickle, or similar tool, or you can cover them with a tarp until they die back. Though they’re not necessarily at risk of going to seed in February as it’s still cold in most places, I added this task because if you’re planting greens, brassicas, etc. directly, the cover crop will need to be terminated and can serve as your mulch.
This is a good time to give the garden a bit of a spring cleaning, gathering any fallen branches, sticks, or debris and piling them up for later use. You can use these as the base layer of a raised bed, create a wildlife habitat, use them to build a trellis or stake for the garden, and for other creative projects.
4. Compost Maintenance
Check your compost to see how it’s faring at the end of a long winter. It may be in need of water, or it may need to be turned over so that it gets aerated and in good shape for use in spring beds. If it’s already wet from the winter thaw, don’t add more water, just turn it over. Add some green and brown material to the pile (about 3 parts carbon and one part nitrogen, see our previous post about compost for details) to wake up the microbes after a sleepy winter. If you don’t have a pile of compost to use for your spring beds, it isn’t too late to start building it.
Having your own compost as a reliable resource of organic material is incredibly helpful for your garden and wallet. Our previous post about composting that I mentioned above has lots of details about how to build your compost. In the meantime, you can check with your local waste management service for cheap (sometimes free) compost to use right away. The risk with cheap compost is that it may be contaminated with pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides, so check with your local waste management first to make sure you trust the source.
5. Prune Trees & Shrubs
Pruning in winter while the plant is still dormant accomplishes a couple of things. It makes recovering from the damage easier. This results in better, healthier flowers in spring. Winter pruning also ensures that the plant focuses its spring energy on new growth.
Late winter is the prime time to prune shade trees such as maple, sweetgum, and oak. Evergreens like cedar, pine, and winter holly can also benefit from some light maintenance in February. At this time, these trees are still dormant but will soon begin to have new growth. Pruning them just before that new growth begins is ideal. Other trees and shrubs to prune in late winter include dogwood, hibiscus, roses, lilac, serviceberry, and stone fruit trees like peaches, nectarines, plums, persimmons, and paw paws.
6. Learn a New Skill
February is rarely regarded as an exciting month. For many of us it’s the last full month of winter weather and it can seem to drag on until spring. By the end of winter, we may be feeling tired of being cooped up indoors and missing the green of spring. Despite the urge to dust off the cobwebs and go full force, you can make use of the slower pace of wintertime by learning a new skill you’ve been curious about. And don’t clean up your garden until it’s consistently warm! Let the pollinators sleeping in the leaves and mess rest there until they emerge in spring, ready to help combat garden pests.
Fermentation - Winter is a wonderful time for fermenting things like sauerkraut, curtido, kimchi, and kombucha. Our houses tend to be a bit cooler (or quite a bit colder if you’re in a drafty old farmhouse like us) during the winter, making a great environment for fermentation.
Make Soap - You all may know that I did this for the first time a couple of years ago. I had put it off for years because of how intimidating it seemed. However, when I actually got to work, it was so much simpler and gratifying than I expected. Soon I’ll try my first batch of goat’s milk soap.
Craft an Herbal Remedy - or just start by learning about them. I’m currently making a batch of calendula infused oil that will be used later to make a salve using the infused oil and beeswax. You can use a variety of different dried herbs to craft infused oils, tinctures, lotion bars, salves, balms, tea blends, etc. It’s another skill that is more simple and straightforward than you might think.
Brew Kombucha - All you need is a SCOBY (get one from a friend or grow your own from store-bought kombucha, just make sure it’s the “original” flavor with no added fruit juices), sanitized jars, black tea, sugar, and water. There are plenty of tutorials out there detailing how to grow your SCOBY and make your first batch of kombucha.
Sewing/Mending - This is a skill I want to work on in the coming year. Mending and repairing items can save you a lot of money while also keeping clothes and other household items out of the landfill.
7. Plan for New Farm Animals
Are you bringing home new creatures this spring? Chickens, goats, cows, rabbits, and other farm friends require tons of planning and preparation. I only have experience with chickens and guinea fowl, but these birds require a lot of pre-pickup work: making sure you have supplemental heat for chicks, planning where they’ll live as they grow (and they grow fast!), building a brooder and a pen for them, as well as researching breeds. We did not purchase any new birds last year, but this year we’ll be bringing home some baby chicks and trying out an incubator for the first time.
8. Feed the Wild Birds
The best way to feed wildlife is to grow native plants that they’ve adapted to eat to survive winter. As is the nature of native plants, they’re different depending on where you live. I plan on sharing a series all about native plants in the future, but that’s quite a large project to tackle, so for now, I recommend that you rummage through used bookstores and do some online research to learn how you can feed wildlife in your area. Right now, our native birds are feasting on seeds from the field grasses, possum haw (also known as deciduous holly) berries, and juniper berries to name a few.
You can also make birdseed ornaments– a very easy project. All you need is birdseed, peanut butter, string, wax paper, and cookie cutters or mason jar lids for cutting them into shapes. Mix the birdseed with peanut butter and roll it out on the wax paper to cut into shapes (make sure to poke a hole near the top to put the string through), then leave it for a few hours or overnight to set. Hang the birdseed ornaments outside, perhaps on a tree branch where the birds have a spot to land and have a snack.
9. Spend Time with Friends
Take time to commiserate with trusted friends and loved ones. Any winter can be difficult mentally and physically, and this one especially, considering national and world events. Game nights, dinners together, forest hikes, and seed starting parties are a few examples of fun ways to restore your mental wellbeing with others. It’s becoming clearer and clearer that leaning on community is more important than ever.
Longer Days, Shorter Nights
I know it may not feel like the end of winter, especially for those of you in colder climates. But, regardless of where you are, the sunlight lasts longer from now until the summer solstice. I hope this list is helpful in finding the motivation to get started on whatever it is your garden, farm, or home needs during this cold and dreary end-of-winter. February 1st was the night of midwinter, the halfway point between winter solstice and spring equinox, so we haven’t long to go.
Tell me, what chores are on your list for the coming weeks? Are you ready to get started or do you wish for a longer winter? Until then, I’ll be working on projects, writing, and going to the forest to stare at moss.
With warmth,
Allyson
*I would be greatly indebted to you if you felt so inclined to share this post! Thanks, friends!