First off, let me say that I don’t like the expression “putting the garden to bed.” It sounds too final. The fact is, there are still plants out there that are wide awake and, believe it or not, some plants that react to winter with renewed energy. But there are some specific tasks that we can do to prepare for the winter. Here’s my list.
Lawns. Apply an organic fertilizer and lime this month. Bonide Infuse is a good product to control red thread (and yes, even the Whistling Gardener has red thread in his lawn this fall).
Fruit and flowering trees. As we move into November it is a good time to apply a dormant spray containing sulfur or copper combined with horticultural oil to control present and future insects and diseases.
Vegetables. Clean up the beds and spread an inch of compost and some lime to keep the weeds down for the winter.
Bulbs. Plant them if you haven’t already and don’t forget the bone meal.
Flower pots. There is no need to look at empty containers all winter long. Either move them out of sight or plant them with cold hardy stuff (surprisingly, there are lots of choices).
Berries. For raspberries and blackberries, it’s important to remove the canes that produced fruit this year (except for ever-bearing varieties). The remaining canes can be shortened up a bit and secured to a wire/trellis system. Blueberries need just a light pruning to remove any dead wood and to shape them. Wait to mow strawberries down until February.
Grapes and kiwis. Wait until February to prune.
Roses. When it comes to pruning roses remember the saying, “hip high in the fall, knee high in the spring.” Climbing roses need to be secured to their trellis and the long canes shortened up just a bit. These long canes will produce your first crop of flowers next spring. After pruning and thoroughly cleaning around the base of the rose, apply some lime and then pile up some mulch about 10 to 12 inches high to protect the graft union from a really ugly winter. A couple of bucks for mulch is a small price to pay for ensuring that your roses are going to survive the winter.
Perennials. When I think of perennials, I tend to put them into two camps: sticks and mushers. The mushers are the ones, like hostas, that mush to the ground at the first frost. These are easy to clean up at that point. Sticks are the ones, like asters, that turn brown but remain woody. Cut them halfway back to the ground and in the spring, as the new growth emerges from the base, remove the rest of the old growth. There is also a third camp, which would be the evergreen perennials like bergenia and heuchera, which just need some grooming to keep them looking good all winter. After cleaning up the perennial beds, broadcast some lime and spread an inch of fresh compost over the soil to control weeds and insulate the ground from hard freezes.
Again, this is a brief list of chores to not only help our gardens survive the winter, but to get them off to a great start next spring.
Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached online at info@sunnysidenursery.net.
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