It might be winter in San Antonio, but there is still plenty of things to do in our edible gardens. Take a look at some winter garden tasks that you should be taking on through January and February, in order to have a successful spring edible growing season.
Winter Garden Prep and Indoor Seeding
Don’t delay prepping your soils in your garden areas. Mix in a good 2″ of compost, or quality soil conditioner into the top 5-6 inches of raised garden beds. A pre-dose of granular fertilizer can also be worked into soil at this time. Spreading mulch over the beds until you are planting will keep weeds at bay. Pull mulch back before planting.
If you aren’t planning on planting veggies or herbs until late March/early April, please consider planting a cover crop, or Ebon Rye to avoid leaving your soil lying fallow. You can then turn these cover crops into the soil for a great nitrogen source.
Cold soil means less microbial activity is happening in the garden. If you have cole crops planted, make sure you fertilize them once a month to keep them fed.
Buy warm weather veggie seeds in winter while we have them in stock. Start them indoors in January in a bright lit area so you can have healthy transplants ready to go into the garden at the right time in spring. (Tomato and pepper plants need around 6-8 weeks to reach transplant size for planting in the garden no later than March 15th, so get those seeds going. See our BBPP method here.)
Indoor seeding tip: use your hand to brush over the tops of seedlings when they are up and going, to create strong transplants.
As seedlings come up, and have 3 or more leaves, you can water soluble fertilizer that has been diluted to ½ or ¼ strength when you water them.
Not enough light to grow indoors? Purchase grow lights.
What Edibles You Can Plant in Winter in San Antonio
Plant Hardy Fruit and Nut trees, and berries now so that they can grow strong roots over winter, preparing them for their first brutal San Antonio summer. (Thousand Oaks currently has our best supply of fruit tree in stock.)
Plant another round of cole crops like: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, collards, Swiss chard, mustard, onion sets, asparagus, artichokes and seed potatoes. Water transplants in with diluted water soluble fertilizer at planting.
You can direct seed lettuce, spinach, and arugula, as well as, cool season peas, and root crops like carrots, beets, turnips, etc… Do not crowd winter root vegetable seeds; allow enough space for the mature bulb to develop. If you do need to thin out plants, use sharp scissors and cut the seedlings off at the soil line, rather than pulling them out.
Remember that any new plantings can be damaged by a freeze. Cover them with plankets, or other cloth material. Never plastic (garden cloche are exceptions for covering single plants). When the sun comes out the following day and temperatures are rising, be sure to uncover plants so they don’t get baked. N-Sulate is a frost cloth that is lightweight and white. It offers about 5 extra degrees of protection (you can double it up), and rain and sunshine can still penetrate through, so you don’t have to worry about taking it off for awhile.
Maintaining Winter Edible Gardens
Treat hardy fruit trees with Horticultural Oil to prevent scale, or to smother overwintering pests in January to mid February. Do this in winter as it is easier to see scale pests on the limbs of these deciduous plants. You also want to treat fruit trees before they burst into blooms to prevent injury to visiting pollinators.
Prune young fruit trees and berries in winter before the onset of new growth, this allows for strong structure development and maximum fruit production. When peaches, apples, and pears develop into marble-sized fruits, start thinning them. Apples and pears should have two fruits per cluster, while peaches should be 4-6 inches apart on the limb.
In February you can spray apples and pears with copper spray to control the disease fireblight.
Let’s Do This!
~The Happy Gardener, Lisa Mulroy
