With temperatures between -10 and -30 Celsius but less snow cover than usual, I have been looking for tasks well suited to this "time niche".  It's too early to start up the greenhouse, but longer sunlight hours have begun to kindle the gardening bug in me and I need a productive outlet for this motivation!

I contacted a local horse-owner and offered to clean out the frozen horse manure from her corrals.  She is happy to have the corrals cleaned, and I am happy to have the manure for my compost, since I'm installing several new raised beds this year.  Win-win; as it should be!

Shovelling manure in the spring can be a miserable task...messy and heavy work, to boot.  THIS time of year, however, the task is relatively simple, and about as pleasant as it COULD be.  The manure is conveniently frozen, dry, and shovels easily once broken up a bit with a pick.  Not only that, but it doesn't leave a smelly mess in the box of my truck once I've unloaded it!  The work is heavy enough that it is easy to stay warm, even at -25C (today's high), and there are no flies trying to land on my face.

For several hours of work, I'll be well on my way to building this year's supply of compost for the garden; plus I have a grateful neighbour!

Another task well suited to this time of year is cleaning up rotting wood debris from down around the stream.  Ordinarily, access is tricky down there, with a tangle of vegetation and a periodic stream making it nearly impossible to walk, never mind wield a saw and haul material out.  Now, however, the lack of foliage makes visibility excellent, and the thin snow cover is just enough to permit me to haul unmanageable log weights with a sled.

This punky, high-carbon material is ideal (in our climate) for water-retaining hugelculture beds, which also makes it a lot easier to create higher raised beds without having to find a lot of additional soil for bulk.

Gardening "work" need not wait for warmer weather... Here's a short list of other tasks well suited to this time-niche:

-Making cardboard "planters" out of recycled boxes for use in the greenhouse

-Building an extra bee hive

-Organizing/indexing seed

-Starting sweet potato "slips" on the window sill

-(...and what ELSE?...)

Tim