For many of us in the Northern hemisphere Gardening season is just around the corner and as we prepare our seedling and start to eye up those piles of leaves, we need to keep in mind that most yardwork should be left until it is a consistent 10 degrees centigrade. Why, you might ask? Because many bugs and insects are still hibernating and growing under those leaf piles and damaging their lifecycle can have very real impacts on our environment.
What can we do in the meantime with our itchy green thumbs? Try starting some seedlings indoors, just find yourself a night bright window and follow the instructions on the seed packs. Seeds often like to be kept moist but not so wet that mold grows. If you don’t have a good window for this, LED grow lights are a low footprint option and caring for these little babies can be a great mood booster while we await the earth mother’s thawing.
Photo credit: onecreativemommy.com
Another fun thing to do is plan and research for your gardens. You can look up Square Foot Gardening if you have a small bed and make it a challenge to see what you can get out of it. Square Foot Gardening is a process by which you divide your small space into square sections (typically 1 sq foot). The idea is to line up your crop rotations and increase the yield for the small space. Or start planning larger yields with some Companion Planting Research. Companion planting matches up plants that leech differing nutrients from the soil in order to see that both plants get as much as they need while not drawing from others. It also helps with pest control, pollination and of course crop productivity.
If you just HAVE to get out and clean the yard, pick up litter, grab the fallen sticks and get them out before you have to deal with all the leaves. Start moving your pots around, pull out the old rain barrels or yard toys/furniture. But hang tight, gardening season is just around the corner.
Another fun thing to do is to start to catalogue what trees you have on your property; you may find you have a use for some of the fallen sticks in your magical practice. If you use herbs in your practice, start looking at local versions you can grow in your yard. For example, I don’t grow White Sage but there are many Sages I can grow in my yard so, I do and I VERY much enjoy making my own saining bundles and gifting extras to friends. I also grow rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender and a few varieties of mint. I use these both in my practice and in my kitchen. Best of luck with your yard this year and Blessed be.