Biboon has arrived
In the 1980s, my sister sent me a red sweatshirt for Christmas, and I’m wearing it now because it’s cold, and I’ll be exploring deeper into the cold weather department of my closet because this is Sunday and forecaster types say the coldest weather is yet to come.
This season is called biboon in the Chippewa family of languages. Biboon is a time of reflection and anticipation for gardeners, and for direction and enlightenment. Gardeners could sit in the middle of the garden and converse with the ghosts of last season’s plants. It’s quiet and cold down there, and there’s a lot you can learn if you don’t try not to.
When soil you’ve worked so hard to develop freezes, water cannot be released and the soil hardens and while frozen, becomes waterproof. Worms, pill bugs and millipedes must relocate deeper. Roots near ground level languish, and it’s hard to be mycelia at times like this… unless the gardener has prepared ahead of time.
For example, some plants might ask to spend the winter indoors. A sweet pepper plant and I agreed it should move inside for the winter, and now it’s blossoming! Plants are amazing! I moved garlic chives inside so I wouldn’t have to go outside to get them, and rosemary and lavender like the living room window better than 18°.
Plants still in the garden will need protection. Chard, lettuce, kale and Asian greens might survive with adequate protection. Water them when you can. Clever gardeners might add mulch of every variety around the plants plus construct mini-greenhouses that will help up to a point. Truth is, temperatures in the teens or lower might simply ignore your well-intentioned greenhouses. We do the best we can.
Empty garden beds also need attention in biboon because they are like family, and here come nights colder than snake snot. So, if it’s your style, you can gently stir into the top few inches slow-dissolving amendments like dolomite, rock phosphate or greensand (if you need them and it’s your style – everybody’s different). Regardless, proceed with the following.
Add leaves. Not just 42 oak leaves arranged in a paisley pattern but a happy abundance and variety inches thick of all the leaves you can gather. Straw is good too if it’s chemical-free, and so are grass clippings if they’re chemical-free. Don’t stop yet! Add compost a-plenty and bags of soil conditioners – they’re an investment in the future condition of your soil.
As the caretaker of the soil, you are the agent that sets the stage for miraculous natural processes to occur. Leaves and grass clippings and worms and minerals in the soil know what to do. Give them a chance by putting the components in place, and, in return, your plants will live their lives in friable, fertile soil that never needs tilling.
Watering your plants early in the day will give them a better chance to survive the cold, and this might obligate the devoted gardener to haul pails of water to the garden because not everyone has frost-proof irrigation systems in place. Me, for example.
I take 47 steps from house to garden gate and 14 more to the center of the garden. I knew folks who carried buckets of water from creek up a hill just to get by, so I have no complaints. Gardeners do what needs to be done.
When it’s this cold outside, plants focus on surviving, and water helps by moderating soil temperature. Empty beds are still alive also, and adequate moisture along with blankets of mulch make for a productive, purposeful biboon. Only 82 days ‘til spring.