Winter in my herb garden is quiet.  My backyard has been resting under a blanket of snow.

My head is not resting though – anything but 🙂  

When the gardens are covered in snow, or waterlogged from an occasional unseasonal warm spell, it’s a time to reflect on last year’s growing season and plan for the upcoming year.

If you keep a garden journal, it is so helpful this time of year to jog the memory of last season’s challenges and successes.

Here’s a link to my post ‘How To Use A Garden Journal To Improve Your Garden‘ if you want tips on garden journaling.

Looking back on my growing season:

My biggest realization is:  I want to grow more parsley – a lot more!

I use parsley a lot!  That’s one herb that everyone in the family will eat. And I love throwing parsley into just about everything 🙂 

All summer, I was constantly concerned that I was over-harvesting my parsley herb plants – and I probably was.

I remember my dad would plant an entire row of parsley in our garden. We picked as much as we wanted and had more than enough to share with neighbours and friends.

Now, that’s want I want:  More parsley than I could possibly use!

Parsley in the garden, parsley in the freezer, as much parsley as I could possibly pick and eat with plenty left over to nurture the plants and share with friends 🙂

So come spring, I will be looking for an area in my suburban backyard (or maybe even front yard – who knows)  to grow a ton of parsley 🙂

Other growing notes from last season’s garden:  

I severly cut back my rue herb plants — just got tired of them.

Initially I planted rue to deter a neighbourhood cat from using one of my garden beds as its litter box  (argh!)

The rue herbs grew just fine after this drastic pruning, so I will prune it back again this spring.

 

 

Last couple of growing seasons, I didn’t plant dill at all.  But we do enjoy it.  So this year, I’ll plant some dill weed.

Over the years, dill just hasn’t taken off in my garden – nor in my neighbour’s garden either 🙁   Doesn’t stop us from trying though 🙂

 

 

 

I  might add more chives.  Before I go out buying chive herb plants or seeds, I will check my garden for self-sown chives than I can transplant.

There’s often a couple of volunteer chives that pop up.  I just need to get out to the garden to save them before they get stepped on or overgrown by other plants.

 

 

I also want to tear out about half the lemon balm at the side of the house.  I want to do a better job of reining it in than I have in previous years.

 

My next garden project:

I’ve been eyeing a somewhat neglected corner of my backyard that I want to work on this summer.

It’s a garden space in the back corner of my yard — sloped with cedars towering up along the property line, and cedar roots everywhere!

I’ve got raspberries growing along the back of the garden – although they have wandered and seem to like other parts of the garden instead of where I want them to grow 🙂

There’s also rhubarb, chives, garlic chives, sorrel, lovage, and horseradish growing in this garden – most of it planted some fifteen to twenty years ago.

Along with a patch of volunteer Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), and a host of vigorous fast-growing weeds.

My garden project for this year is to tackle this garden space.  Maybe changing the layout of the garden, and making it more productive.

How is winter in your garden?  I would love to hear your garden challenges and plans for the upcoming growing season 🙂

Happy Gardening 🙂
Barb

PS – If you are starting any plants from seed this year, check out Richters free lecture series:  Success With Seeding