One of my favorite times of the year is autumn and I love to clean up my gardens then. In the first place, it gives me an excuse to be outside on a lovely fall day. The weeds have pretty much been taken care of all summer, so what is left is the fun stuff to do. The garden starts to look a little peaked this time of year anyway, so I feel like I am doing it a favor by cleaning it up a little.
I find I work better from a list as I can prioritize the chores. I also can vary the tasks so I don’t get bored doing one thing all the time. Besides, it is so much fun to cross things off the list. I’ve even cheated to the point that I will write something down that I have already done just so I can have the satisfaction of crossing it off the list.
I like to cut back my hosta before they start to get slimy from the cold weather. Once the leaves start to turn brown and droop, I grab a fistful and cut as close to the base as I can get. The browning leaves means they have started to go dormant and cutting remaining leaves won’t bother the plant at all. I do find it interesting that my different varieties of hosta seem to die back at differing times. Some seem to be more tender, while others will hang on until a killing frost.
Because the ground is so warm from the mild summer, it’s a good time to mulch perennials to keep that soil warmer longer. This is even true for some hardier vegetables. I try not to mulch with leaves from plants that have a tendency toward fungal diseases, though. No sense giving those fungi a warm bed for the winter.
I also cut back the Euphorbia flowers to the ground. They will start blooming again in January and trimming them keeps them from getting too leggy. I am careful not to get the milky sap from a fresh cut on my skin, though, as it can be a real irritant. Long sleeves, long pants and gloves are necessary when dealing with this relative of poinsettia.
Cutting back any of the Hellebore leaves that look a little droopy is a good thing, too. These will also perk up and flower by the beginning of the year if not sooner. I will not bother the leaves that have sprouted from the base of the plant this summer, though, as they will protect the flowering stalks.
Speaking of cutting things back, lady ferns really do become unattractive about this time of year. And I think this happened earlier this year because of the very dry summer and fall we have had. I cut these back to the ground, too, as they go dormant. Sword ferns are a different story. I leave the browning sword fronds on the plants until March to protect the tender crowns from cold weather. Of course, in nature the brown fronds fall off when they are good and ready to do so, so we really don’t have to mess with sword ferns at all. But I prefer the look of the bright green fronds in the spring unhindered by the old ones.
I will wash and clean patio furniture and garden art before I put them away for the winter. The wooden furniture seems to last longer if it doesn’t have to withstand the winter rains and wind. Same for the yard art. I also clean and disinfect my terra cotta pots with a 1 part bleach to 9 parts water solution. After rinsing them well, I lay them in the sun to slowly dry and then stack the pots in the potting shed with layers of newspaper between them. The plastic pots are less fussy about being out all winter, although if it gets very cold and stays that way, they may crack as well.
The last thing I do in the fall is sharpen and clean my tools before I store them. A little sandpaper along the edges of pruners, loppers, trowels and shovels will help keep them sharp in case I need to do some “emergency pruning” this winter. I also rub them down with a little vegetable oil on a paper towel before I store them for the winter. This will help keep the tools from rusting. I know you can use about any kinds of oil for this purpose, but I do hate the thought of putting motor oil in the ground when I start to dig with these tools. So I use the less invasive (to my mind) veggie oil. I also wash and dry all my garden gloves and toss the ones with holes at the tips of the fingers.
After all that work, we deserve a nice break. Before we know it, those seed catalogs will be arriving in the mail!
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