Gardening Chores

Granny Miller has a feature on her blog called "Ask Granny", where she answers questions about food, gardening and farming.  I compiled a list of her gardening chores month by month.  For her original post, go here.

Gardening Chores from Granny Miller - Zone 5

 

Month	Chore
January	Spend January looking through garden catalogues;         Read and plan!
February	Start spinach or lettuce in a couple of pots on a sunny windowsill.         Ordering seeds, fruit trees or nursery stock
March	Ensure garden tools & equipment are clean and in good working order.         Prune apple trees, brambles and grapes.          Start cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts in a cold frame.
April	Spray Apple trees with oil dormant spray.       Sow oats.       Clear farmyard and garden of debris.       Rake and burn debris.       Divide and move perennial flowers.       Plant onions and peas as soon as the vegetable garden is dry enough.       Plant cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach, radishes, lettuce and kale.       Plant new asparagus beds and fertilize old ones.       Plant new strawberries in April and bare root fruit trees and roses.       Check herb garden for any winter die off.  Cut back plants.  Chives   are first!       Plant sweet peas       Enjoy the daffodils.       Clean out fishpond.       Plow in the middle of April.       Start tomatoes, peppers or any other tender vegetable or flower annual from seed indoors or in a hot bed, the middle to end of April.
May	Continue with basic garden chores         Apple trees begin to bloom.         Tulips and lilacs bloom in May         Grass first needs to be cut         Make sure that strawberries, onions and asparagus are well mulched.         Pick first asparagus in May.         By the middle of May the garden gets well rotted horse manure and is tilled.         Roses are pruned in May.         By the last week of May the garden has warmed up enough to safely plant corn, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, melons, winter squash, summer squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, wax beans, beets, carrots and green peppers. Some years I will plant celery.         Plant marigolds in the garden for pest control and annual flowers for cutting. Sunflowers are planted for the winter birds and any annual herbs are planted at this time too.
June	First strawberries are ready to be picked by the middle of June         Asparagus are still being harvested.         Make yearly pantry list.         Start canning and freezing.         In June weeding and tilling are the main garden chores.         Lettuce, radishes and spinach need to be gathered and sometimes peas are harvested by the end of June.          Apples are sprayed every week.         Vegetables are sprayed every other week         Keep a close watch out for cutworms and other garden pests.         June is the time for hatching out chicks and ducklings.         Hay is first cut in June.         June is often when deer become a problem in the garden and the garden needs to be fenced with electric fence.
July	July brings cherries, blueberries, broccoli and cabbage.         Weeding, spraying and pest control continues.         Green beans are often ready to start picking by the middle to end of July.         Dig the first sweet onions         Pick summer squash.         Cucumbers come ready and so do the very first tomatoes.         Cattle are bred in July for April calves and hay is cut again.         Harvest garlic.         July can bring a bumper crop of blackberries.         By the end of July canning season really begins to pick         Many herbs are ready to be harvested during July         Grapes are beginning to form on grape vines.
August	If I intend to plant turnips, spinach or lettuce for the cool weather I sow them at the beginning of August.         In August the annual flowers that were planted from seed are blooming.         Sometimes it is dry here in August and certain flowers and vegetables will need extra water.         Check for insects and plant diseases - late July and August brings trouble.         Continue to spray during August and take particular care with the grapes         Sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, carrots, beets, spinach, lettuce, melons and new potatoes can all be harvested.         By the end of August cucumbers are beginning to play out.         Cabbage should be harvested before they begin to split.         It’s important to keep the seed beds well watered - it's so hot in August it’s easy to kill cool weather vegetable seedlings before they have a chance to get started.
September	Watermelons are ready.         It's the end of most vegetables in the garden.         Sometimes hay is cut for the third time.         Tomatoes and peppers are still producing heavy and summer squash and green beans are mostly over unless I planted a second crop.         Sometimes sweet corn is still harvested.         Harvest and dry certain herbs like sage, rosemary, fennel and basil.         First apples are picked in September         By the end of the month some of the winter squash and pumpkins are ready.         As the vegetables are finished, begin to clear out the weeds and old plants.         Collect tomato, pepper, corn and other types of seed on dry, sunny days in September.         Allow all the chickens into the garden to help me clean up.         Move the ducks temporarily to the garden so their manure can be added to the soil.         September is when meat chickens are slaughtered and market lambs are sold.         By the end of September we usually have a killing frost. Kale and Brussels sprouts always taste better after a good frost.         Concord grapes are harvested after the first couple of frosts.
October	Sow winter wheat in early October.       October is time to remake the garden and to plant garlic.       It is also time to transplant and mulch strawberries.       October is the best time of the year to transplant trees or shrubs and is when tulips, daffodils and other spring flowering bulbs are planted.       It is also the time I collect flower seeds for next year's garden.       Apples are harvested in October and the orchard is cleaned and made ready for the coming winter.       Often the garden is tilled or re-plowed in October.       Sheep are bred in October for March lambs and kale and Brussels sprouts are first picked.
November	In November field corn is harvested.         Brussels sprouts are also harvested and any garden debris is cleaned up.         Sometimes a single rose will bloom in November         Often the weather turns cold before the garden can be put right before winter.
December	Life begins to turn indoors again.         Parsley, sage, chives and other herbs can still be harvested.