You may have just spent the entire summer tending to your garden and enjoying being in the outdoors, but that doesn’t mean that gardening is done for the year. There is still work that needs to be done because if you don’t do it now then your garden will not be preserved through the winter. You may not think you need to take care of tasks in the later part of the season, but if you do them, your plants and your soil will stay healthy, and your garden will be ready for action when spring kicks back in again. Let’s take a look at some of the things that you could do in your garden before winter sets in.
- Dig up the root vegetables. Most root vegetables can handle going through a frost or two and still get harvested in the best possible condition. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dig them up now while you can. Make a point of digging up the potatoes, parsnips and rutabaga in your garden and you’ll be able to enjoy them for your dinner and in your soup during the winter season.
- Call in the tree experts. Try and ensure that you cut back on tree roots so that your roots are not going to damage your soil or any other plans before the end of the season. A tree company can even cut back on leaves and hanging branches so that you don’t have any damage to your roof for your garage. When you do this, they will be happy to help and your garden will look fantastic for the remainder of the year.
- Start covering up your plants. If you want to protect your perennials and succulents in the corner of the garden, you need to protect their stems and their leaves. You can do this with frost cloth, or you can even buy cheaper burlap sacks to cover and wrap your plants. Perennials can suffer damage to crowns and roots, and this is true of clematis and grape vines. When perennials have finished flowering, you can give them some love and divide them down so that they are safe and sound for the winter season.
- Next perform a general clean-up. Sometimes you just need to clean your space to have your garden organized and it will help to keep your plants healthier and return the soil to the right homeostasis when you do this. You could even potentially protect your plants from harmful fungi and larvae that like to overwinter in the detritus of the rotting vegetation. Some of the important jobs that you need to take care of include deadheading and trimming down your shrubs and perennials and removing any plant debris from the soil beds. You should also make sure that you cleaned down and remove any hose nozzles and sprinkler heads so that you can put them in for storage.
- Tender your flowering bulbs. Making sure that the bulbs that you have planted are in good condition and all ready and stored to survive the freezing temperatures is a smart move. This means that come spring, you will have your summer and fall flowering bulbs ready to go. Discard any of them that are soft or damaged and store the rest in ventilated containers. Make sure that you have loose materials such as crumpled newspapers and sawdust.
- Plant some cover crops. There are some things that are planted in the late summer months that will rejuvenate the soil. These can include things like barley and alfalfa, oats and even peas. Once the harvest is finished, you can remove dead and spent plants and weeds and make sure the soil is slightly tilled.
- Plant your spring bulbs. Whether you have full garlic or bluebells, daffodils, great hyacinth or tulips, those can be planted now. If you get them planted by early November, the roots will have more than enough time to form before the winter sets into the ground.
- Prep the flower beds. If you want to have an easier time of it in the spring months, now is the time to prepare the flower beds by moving all of the dead plant material, and freshly digging up the soil. If you turn the soil lightly, you will expose any bugs or larvae and you’ll be able to get rid of those, so they don’t eat through the roots of other plants while your garden is hibernating.
- Prune any fruit plants. Strawberry plants can often tolerate a light frost, but they don’t have very deep roots and therefore can be damaged if there is a long cold spell. Printing your plants now and protecting them with the three to five inch layer of clean straw or leaves will help keep it protective when the frost lays.
- Look after your compost. If you have a compost pile in the garden, then you need to look after it during the colder months. You have to keep the microbes in the compost as active as possible, and that means you have to keep your temperatures above freezing. turn on water the compost pile one last time before the winter and pile on some insulating material. Cardboard is a good option here but you can also use sawdust or straw full.
The winter months can be pretty harsh to your garden, but all of these tips should help you to look after it well. From making sure you have your bulbs planted to covering up your existing Bushes and flowers, you can make sure that your garden is going to look fantastic come spring. you may even have some plants flowering by then, and that can help your garden to flourish. This is not a job you want to skip out on, because your garden means a lot to you and if you have spent most of the time in the year looking after it then it’s time to make sure you do it through the winter as well.