Articles on Gardening | Topics: gardening, gardens, garden
by Nathan James
Winterizing your Water Garden – Fundamentals to Follow before the First Frost
Summer is the time to cut the fading stalks, weeds and leaves and clean up your garden. By removing debris from your water garden it will reduce your problems in your future. If you leave spent foliage to just flop around on the pond then it can cause more problems in your pond. Here are just a few things you will need to do to prepare your garden:
Remove debris, weeds, and invasive plants
Divide perennials
Test and prepare your soil
Dig up and store tender bulbs
Fertilize the lawn
Plant spring-blooming bulbs
Water all plants and protect the weaker plants with burlap, mulch, etc.
Make sure to prep your tools for next year.
Remove weeds, debris and invasive plants.
The fall season is when weeds seem to grow the most. Make sure to get rid of all extra weed and debris as soon as they start to grow. If you can't sweep up, then get the debris with a shop vacuum. Throw away all debris in the trashcan and not your compost pile. If a plant has taken over your garden, dig or pull it up from its roots and throw them away. You can also spot treat the overgrowing plant with an herbicide.
Divide perennials now to ensure a trouble-free spring.
Fall seasons are the best time to divide your perennials. The perennial is growing dormant and won't be hurt by chopping, transferring, or cutting. Spring is better for dividing when you live in the colder climates. The way to tell if a plant needs to be divided is if bare spots appear on the center of the clump of flowers.
Prep your soil to give plants a head start in spring.
After removing all the debris, invasive plants, and weeds, it will be easy to prepare your garden for spring. Top your garden off with three to a four-inch thick layer of compost and then leave it alone. The winter rains will leak nutrients into the soil to give your plants a good head start in the spring.
Fertilize the lawn.
The fertilizing the garden is not recommended for plants that are heading into the winter season. If you live in a mild climate and your grass just went through a hot summer, make sure to fertilize it in mid-fall. However, if you are cooler regions, fertilize in late summer or early fall. The bagged lawn fertilizer is for fall and stimulates root growth.
Plant spring-blooming bulbs.
Fall is the best time to plant hardy, spring-blooming bulbs. Buy large, firm bulbs and plant them in the amount of soil recommended by the nursery. A rule to live by is to sink them to a depth of two to three inches their diameter. If you have a problem with little animals digging up your bulbs, try and sprinkle gritty gravel into the planting hole. You can also encase your bulbs in a hardware cloth before you plant the bulbs.
| Historical Quote |
Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps.... I derive more of my subsistence from the swamps which surround my native town than from the cultivated gardens in the village.
| —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) |
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Dig and store tender bulbs and corms.
In areas with a cold climate, fall is the time to dig up the bulbs and corms and tend to some of the summer plants. Some examples are cannas, dahlias, and caladiums. These plants will freeze and die if they are left in the ground through the wintertime. Try and dig them up as the foliage turns brown, trim off the remaining foliage, and let them dry for a week or so. Store them in a cool, dry, dark place such as a basement. Make sure to check the bulbs monthly and to throw away any that is discolored and bad.
Water and protect vulnerable plants from winter stress.
The frozen ground can lock up the water. It creates a drought situation and can injure or kill plants. So, make sure to give all your plants a long soaking before the winter weather freezes your soil. In cold climates, heavy four to eight inches of organic mulch is needed and recommended. A winter mulch works as a blanket, by protecting the plants from freezing winds and heavy frost. If you live where there is nonstop snow, then the need for mulch is not as needed for your lawn. It is great practice to place some evergreen boughs or loose hay over the low-growing plants. If the winters in your zone are bitter or you have shrubs or roses, there are many things you can do to protect them. You can wrap them loosely in burlap, make a fence-wire cage around them, or form hinged plywood sandwich-board tents over them. If the winter is windy, try and apply a waxy, leafy coating, called an antidesiccant spray. These sprays are available from your garden centers and catalogs and have the added advantage of making evergreens less appealing to deer.
Prep your tools for next year.
Once the growing season ends make sure to get your tools ready by:
Clean your tools, using warm, soapy water. If the tool is hard to get clean, then soak it and then scrub it down.
Rub off all rust with very fine sandpaper or try a fine steel wool soaked with kerosene.
Make sure to dry the tools with a rag or paper towels. If there is dampness still on the tools, it can lead to rust or spoil moving parts.
Sharpen cutting edges with a file or some whetstone. But file from the outer edge toward the center. Use strokes moving downwards and at an angle. If you can't sharpen it, try getting it professionally sharpened.
Wipe all metal surfaces with an oiled cloth.
To stop the drying out of wooden handles, apply a light coat of boiled linseed oil and buff the handle.
Tighten all screws and put a drop or two of light machine oil on all moving parts.
Make sure to store all tools out of reach of children in a dry, cool place.
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