You know how when you have a good night's sleep you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the new day. Putting your garden to bed in the fall helps your garden get a good winter's sleep. Sounds super cheesey, right? It's true.
For whatever reason, this year I am moving slower. I have just started closing up the garden. Yes, the veggies and herbs have been taken care of, but the front yard is a disaster zone! We've been busy, it's been too nice outside, we've been lazy...whatever the reason it has to be done. If we don't clean out the garden we could be creating the perfect environment for diseases and pests to over winter. And guess what, if they get a good winter's sleep then they get stronger and more invasive next year! Yikes!
The bottom line is that I have work to do.
You might remember that all of my gardening knowledge comes from my mom. She helped me design, plant and maintain the garden at our house. Since she passed away, 2 years ago, I have tried to keep up with our original plan. Every time I head into the garden I think "what would she do?" Seriously, my mom was a master gardener. She left me a stack of books, that I should read, but haven't. For now, I kinda wing it, go with my instincts and hope for the best.
My mom believed in leaving plants in the garden for the winter if they would add some winter interest. In Toronto we have long and grey winters. We don't always get a ton of snow...but we always have a ton of grey days. Looking outside at a garden that has nothing in it but dirt can be a little depressing. So, we leave dead flowers standing. The best candidates for this are echinacea, rudbeckia (Black Eyed Susan), ornamental grasses, hydrangea, sedum and hostas. Last year I wrote about "winter interest" on my other blog Reading with my Mom. The idea inspired my friend Veronica to leave plants standing in her garden...take a look at her post and pictures of how beautiful a little snow can look in your garden.
What I do clear out are any plants that pulls out easily when I pull on them. Generally speaking if the plant pops out with a light tug...take it out. If the plant wants to stay until the spring, then simple clean out any debris and leave it. Yes, in the spring you will be cleaning out soggy plants...but you have to do a spring clean-out anyway! I find this works especially well with irises and lilies. I would say about 50% of the leaves slide right out and 50% hold tight. The leaves that hold tight can be wrapped or braided together into small bundles...adding more winter interest. Just use one of the leaves to do the tying. Easy.
We live on a corner, we don't have a tree...but somehow we end up with a huge pile of leaves and an accumulation of garbage. We do one good raking and then any leaves that fall after that are left in the garden as a form of winter mulch.
The last thing we have to clear out are our containers. Time to switch out the summer flowers for some winter branches and holiday decorations. We can't forget about our little fairy gardens. The popsicle houses won't keep our fairies very warm this winter...time to make our fairies some new houses. Here are our original houses - next week we'll show you the winter houses!
Cleaning out the garden is one of those "short term pain - long term gain" sorts of activities. Have you closed your garden yet? Or, do you live on the other side of the world...where you are starting to plant some seeds?
