Eight Gardening Tips

It’s fall. My favorite time of the year. A time where life has a chance to settle down a bit between all the back-to-school responsibilities and endless activities and celebrations of the winter season. Before your hectic holiday schedule begins, take a moment to breathe. That right, get outside and take in that fresh, crisp autumn air. And while you’re at it, take a look at your garden. This is the perfect time to protect and winterize your surroundings with eight gardening tips.

Spending that time in the outdoors—prepping, treating, and maintaining your property—will surely get you in the spirit to decorate. The holidays are right around the corner, so let’s get started.

Prep for winter with these eight gardening tips:

1. Take the bulbs (which are not hardened and resistant to winter’s freezing temperatures) out of the ground. Some of these types of bulbs are dahlias, begonias and gladiolus. Once removed, put them in a box with some peat moss and store in your garage.

2. Time to cut your perennial herbs and clean them out for the final time this year. In other words, cut them out and back. Also, remove whatever annuals you have left.

3.  Don’t dig in your garden. Digging at this time of the year can interrupt the natural composition of the soil and life in the ground could be damaged. Save it for spring.

4. Bring your potted plants into the house to protect them from frost. Store them in a room where the temperature do not fall below zero. Consider your hallway, basement, garage, or tool shop. You can keep your plants in a darker room and water them only once a week. (Watering your plants any more than that will only confuse them—thinking they have to produce.)

5. Treat your trees and bushes for diseases and cut them back.

6. Clean out your garden and flower beds from branches and leaves and add mulch. I prefer to mulch in the fall, rather than the spring, because it helps protect the plants, bushes, and trees— which need all the help they can get before frost and freezing temperatures start to set in.

7. Clean, sharpen, and oil (if necessary) your gardening tools. Keeping them in good shape and properly stored in a dry place will only help them last longer and be more effective. Plus, when spring rolls around you’ll be ready to go.

8. Unfortunately, you still need to mow the lawn until your grass stops growing. When it does, consider having your mower and other power equipment serviced. In the spring, everybody in town will want maintenance on their machinery. Expect delays. So, act now.

Congratulations! The exterior now looks amazing. Ready to decorate?