The garden is entirely snowed under. The snow and a thick layer of leaf mulch protect the growing beds beneath, preventing soil compaction and keeping the earth a bit warmer.
You might think that means gardening is done for the season. If we’re talking planting, watering, and weeding, then yes, it’ll be a few months before we start back up again.
If you expand the definition of “gardening” to mean anything we do in, around, and for the garden, then gardening never ends, not even in December or January!
Late Fall and Winter “Gardening”
In November and December, groups of prospective gardeners for the following season visited for a walk-and-talk. The December visitors didn’t get to walk inside the garden, as the gate had frozen to the ground.
Less than a week earlier, when the garden was still accessible, a soil conservationist from our regional USDA field office checked under the snow and takes photographs to make sure we’ve mulched as per the garden’s contract with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Scoring enough leaves to cover a garden this size is a feat, especially since there are few trees dropping leaves on the land where the garden grows. Fortunately, the City of Montpelier Public Works Department delivers leaves that they pick up at homes around town. We’re grateful that DPW drops off dozens of bags at a time that we then spread them on the beds.
Got Coffee?
What covers the walkways between rows of crops? We have to put something in those narrow walkways. Leaving them as bare dug-out earth means they turn into mud during irrigation and on rainy days. We tried cardboard, but it was too slippery.
We spread wood chips in the wider walkways between growing beds. In fact, based on a gardener’s suggestion, and her and other gardeners’ hard work to make it happen, we’re replacing lawn sod in the wider garden walkways with wood chips.
But we can’t use wood chips to cover the walkways between rows in a growing bed. The cultivated rows get reconfigured season after season as we rotate crops, and wood chips are too large to integrate into the soil. They’d inhibit seed germination and crop growth.
So far, only burlap coffee bags do the trick. They stabilize narrow walkways and slowly break down into the soil. They’re easy to move and remove as needed. We had a good source in the past, but it dried up. After searching for more than a year, we have a wonderful new coffee bag supplier!
Oh my! Browse Brio’s offerings and sample some of these delectable roasts.
We offer many thanks and a hearty recommendation for the delicious coffee of Brio Coffeeworks, in Burlington! At the end of December, a gardener picked up the first load that the people of Brio saved for the garden.
Organizing and Managing
Soon, returning gardeners and new gardeners who are just joining will meet to plan the coming season. Other activities include inventorying seeds and other garden needs, ordering seeds and supplies, applying for grants, requesting donations, and more. Garden organizing and management happens all year long.
The garden never dies; it only sleeps.
Finally, there’s the parts of the garden we cannot see under the snow that do not die, but only sleep until spring.
The garlic planted in November will germinate in the warmer months. Perennials, including chives, Egyptian walking onions, French sorrel, horseradish, oregano, rhubarb, sage, and thyme, are not dead, just awaiting their cue to return. Volunteers will surprise us. Last season, an entire row of pole beans self-seeded from the previous season’s crop, and they were delicious!
We wish you health, joy, community, and ongoing gratitude for the only constant, change and renewal, as demonstrated year after year in the garden we’re so very grateful for.
