As much as I hate to admit it, autumn is here and it’s time to clean up our gardens for the winter. I was reminded recently that I have an awful track record of predicting the weather and I won’t deny that. But according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, our winter is going to be wet. So, it’s pretty important to take that into account as we prepare our plants.
If we are going to have a very wet winter, we need to be sure our plants have excellent drainage. A layer of mulch and compost will help this for most soils. The mulch will also help hold in the warmth the soil has absorbed all summer. You might want to consider covering your shrubs with landscape cloth, cloches, or tents to protect them from heavy downpours, too. I would suggest this only if they are newly planted. If they have been in the ground for several years, this probably isn’t necessary. If your soil has a high clay content and you planted new trees or shrubs this fall, I hope you amended the soil to help with drainage before you planted.
I have been cutting back my Hosta as they start to brown. Boy, am I diligent about that! The first leaf that shows a little hint of die-back and all of them get wacked down to the ground. I don’t want to wait until those leaves get slimy. I am also careful to mark the spot where they are planted once they are cut back, though. Too many times I have gone to plant tulip bulbs in what looked like an empty spot and wound up digging up a nice hosta root instead. So I place a 10” stake at the base of the hosta which warns me something else is already in that spot. If I know the name of the Hosta and the date and place where I bought it, I write that on the stake, too. I used to use a marker for that, but I find that marks made by a number 2 pencil last longer in the rainy weather.
I have already pruned back my heather, too. Well, I guess technically they have not been pruned as I use the hedge trimmers on them. I used to prune them very carefully, cutting in just the right place. But they have now grown much larger and I find as a time-saver, only hedge trimmers will do. And since they bloom in the late summer, they will have plenty of time to recuperate over the winter and set new flowers. It’s not too late to do this in your garden, but I recommend getting them done before the end of October.
I also have already cut back my honeysuckle. This turned out to be a huge project as it has not been cut back for about 4 years now. I should do that every other fall at least so it won’t be such a daunting task next time. I will make a note of that in my current journal in the hope I will remember to transfer that bit of information into the journal of 2023-2024.
The crocosmia have been thinned out, as I do each fall. I have tried to get ahead of this project, too, but when I pull them out, I always seem to leave a tuber or two in the ground so they come up with vigor again in the spring. Not a bad thing, really, but they do have the propensity to take over the garden if I let them. This is a task I do every fall so I don’t need to worry about forgetting to do it next year.
My poor lettuce plants have given up for the season. The lettuce I planted in the hanging basket did really well this year. The baskets were high enough off the ground that the slugs left them alone. And I was able to harvest enough for some very nice salads.
As far as the roses go, I will be pruning them at the end of the month when they start to go dormant. This can be tricky as our winters are generally too mild for roses to go completely dormant. And we don’t want to spur on new growth at this point. So, I wait as long as I can and cut back to about 18 inches, knee-high. I also take out any canes that are less than a pencil width or are crossing each other. If the roses have long canes (climbers or ramblers) and are subjected to high winds, I gently tie the canes together with twine. This keeps them from whipping about and damaging each other with their thorns.
The last thing I will do to winterize my garden over the next couple of weeks again involves my journal. I will go around and make notes of all the changes I have already made this fall and ones I want to make in the spring. This is especially helpful as my memory isn’t what it used to be. And how I hate to admit that.
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