Eight tips on how to winterize your garden

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Fall garden. © GIVEN PHOTOGRAPHY 2021

Are your flower beds starting to look a little droopy? Or maybe they are covered with leaves and other detritus. These are definitely signs that it’s time to get your garden ready for winter. But where to start? Here are a few simple tips that I pulled from an article I wrote for our local newspaper a while back.

  1. FIRST THINGS FIRST. Before plants turn to mush, start your winter prep by pulling out your annuals and cutting back or dividing perennials. Dividing up perennials helps manage their size, enhance their growth in the spring, and gives you an inexpensive way to add more plants to your garden.

  2. ADD COMPOST IN PREPARATION FOR THE COOLER MONTHS. Applying two to three inches of compost to your soil will help improve its texture because compost breaks down all winter long. It also insulates plants, reduces evaporation, and maintains even soil temperatures. Come spring, this will make your soil fluffier and more nutrient rich. Also, continue to watch for weeds. Nursery professionals say pulling any new weeds will give you a head start come spring.

  3. PLANT BULBS THAT PRODUCE BLOOMING FLOWERS IN THE SPRING. Tulips, daffodils, and iris bulbs are good choices. Plant them in groups of five or seven rather than one or two. Add a mixture of compost and bone meal to your dirt when planting.

  4. IF YOU HAVE ROSES, DON’T CUT THEM BACK. Cutting back promotes growth, which can cause mildew and other winter diseases. Deadhead them, but nothing else. To keep roses happy during winter, dig a two or three-inch deep trench about three inches away and fill with some type of booster soil. 

  5. DON’T FORGET TO PREP THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. All vegetables should be harvested before the first frost. Vegetables are really heavy feeders taking a lot of nutrients from the soil. After they are picked, amend the soil with a thick mulch of four to six inches or plant a cover crop of annual rye, clover or vetch.

  6.  WONDERING WHAT TO DO WITH UNRIPE TOMATOES. Here are a couple of simple ways to save them. Put them in a sunny window or fry green tomato slices with garlic, olive oil and a little sea salt for a delicious side dish. 

  7. APPLY A GOOD LAYER OF MULCH. If you live where tons of snow is predicted this winter, applying mulch will go a long way toward protecting your plants from the snow.

  8. YOU STILL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO ESTABLISH HEALTHY ROOTS FOR PLANTS BEFORE WINTER. Even though you are taking steps to prep the garden for winter, nursery experts will tell you that you can still plant shrubs, perennials and trees. Even better, you’ll find lots of great bargains and sales at most nurseries during the fall season.

With a little winter prep and a bit of fall planting, your garden will be well on its way to spring bounty. And after you’ve finished, you’ll feel so good about clearing out the old and making way for the new in so many ways.