more pleasurable and productive. Review each chapter
to see which tools are recommended.
We also encourage you to start thinking about learning
how to save seeds, as buying seeds for a backyard garden
easily accumulates a large annual expense. In addition,
as you learn to save seeds, you are saving the seeds best
adapted to your own microclimate. Seed-saving can be
very satisfying, but the space needs to be added into the
design of your garden. On the average, it takes just 3%
more area to grow all the seed for next year in this year’s
garden!
THE TEMPERATE CLIMATE GARDEN YEAR
Winter
- Plan the garden.
- Order open-pollinated, untreated seeds (remember to
allow time for seeds to arrive!) and/or clean any saved
seeds that are left over from the previous season for
this purpose. - Make flats, trellises, mini-greenhouses, and shade-
netting units.^1
Spring
- Plant flats so seedlings can mature while the soil is
being prepared. - Start new compost piles with weeds, grass clippings,
and mature compost crop residues saved over winter.