Low temperatures and falling leaves signal that it’s time to start getting your garden ready for winter.
Katie Bach, horticulturist and part of the sales team at Cedar Grove Composting, says to start your winter prep by pulling out your annuals and cutting back or dividing your perennials. “Soon, they are going to start looking like mush,” she said.
Dividing up your perennials helps manage their size, enhance their growth in the spring, and provides you with an inexpensive way to get more plants in your garden.
Bach also recommends adding compost to the garden in preparation for the cooler months. Applying two or three inches on top of your soil will help improve its texture because compost breaks down all winter long. Compost also insulates plants, reduces evaporation and maintains even soil temperatures. This is especially important for the fluctuating temperatures that are typical this time of year.
“In the spring, your soil will be fluffier and loose, with more nutrient value,” she said.
Don’t forget to weed thoroughly before putting down any compost, and continue to monitor for weeds throughout the fall, she said.
Even though you are taking some steps to prepare the garden for winter, you still have time to get healthy root systems established for plants before winter. “Now is a good time to plant shrubs, perennials and trees,” Bach said.
It’s also a good time to plant bulbs that produce blooming flowers in the spring, such as tulips, daffodils and irises. Bach suggests looking around your garden now for places where spring-blooming bulbs could make an impact. Plant them in groups of five or seven rather than one or two. She recommends adding a mixture of compost and bone meal to the native soil when planting.
If you have roses, don’t cut them back, she cautions. Cutting back promotes growth, which can cause winter diseases such as mildew. “You can deadhead them, but nothing else,” Bach said.
To keep roses happy over winter, Bach recommends digging a two- or three-inch deep trench about three inches away from the plant and filling it with some type of booster soil with diverse nutrients. If you are not sure what type of soil to use, Cedar Grove Composting has trained staff at the company’s Everett location to help you choose the right product for your plants and soil.
As you are prepping for winter, don’t forget the vegetable garden. All vegetables should be harvested before the first frost. Once they are picked, cover the garden with a thick mulch of four to six inches, or plant a cover crop of annual rye, clover or vetch.
“Vegetables are really heavy feeders that take a lot out of the soil, so you need to amend the soil,” Bach said.
You might be wondering what to do with all those unripe tomatoes still on the vine. Bach offers a couple of tips. “Tomatoes that are not ripe can be picked and put in a sunny window to help them get ripe,” she said. Or, you can fry green tomato slices with garlic, olive oil and a little sea salt for a wonderfully delicious side dish.
Remember the tons of snow we got last winter that destroyed many of our plants? Applying a good layer of mulch will go a long way toward protecting your plants from heavy snow in the garden this winter, Bach said.
With a little winter preparation and a little fall planting, your yard will be well on its way to spring bounty.
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