Garden Blast- February 14 - 28, 2023

What to Do, When

February 14 - February 28, 2023

This time of year the important thing is to keep the weeds pulled or reduced around the area of the plants. Find out what weeds you have here.
Remove old vegetables from the fall!
Start planning and planting what you want to grow in your late-winter garden! I recommend keeping it simple and focus on 1-3 different crops. Check out the planting calendar.
Free Online Veggie Care Class
Check out the USDA’s SNAP-Ed Seasonal Guide: Coordinate it with your copy of “Growing Minds Farm to Preschool Toolkit” guide we gave out at the whole-center training.

For Educators- Tell a Garden Story

It is time to clean up the winter garden! Any plants that are looking gross or are not producing, it is time to rip them out. It is important to remove old vegetables to make room for new plants, and to get rid of the material because disease/sickness could stick around to make your new vegetables sick. There is so much you can plant right now! Do you compost at your center? Put the weeds and leftover vegetable material in the pile and cover with leaves!

For Children- Have a Garden Interaction

There are some seeds you need to start from seeds (like carrots and radishes). The veggie guide tells you what the best way to grow the desired vegetable is (seed or transplant, how close they should be). You can get some seeds for vegetables that can be planted directly in the ground and plant them as a class. Talk about measuring, and use a ruler or yardstick to measure where the holes should go. Let the children “poke” holes at the right spacing as the class counts together!

For Parents- Bringing it Home

The warm, sunny days of February make Spring seem just around the corner, but the official start to Spring is not until March 21st! You will start to see the spring-flowering trees, like red maples and cherries, starting to flower. As you are driving around town or walking around your neighborhood, point out trees that you see color on. Talk about the color of the flowers or leaves (are they pink or red or yellow or green?). Ask your child how the sun feels on a cool day and see if they would open their flowers on warm day like the trees?

Looking Ahead

Most local nurseries will have late winter-early spring vegetable starts in the next couple of weeks. To prepare, check out the planting calendar to see potential crops that will be ready to go in the ground.