Getting your garden ready for the fast-approaching winter season
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With winter on the way, it is time to begin preparing and cleaning up the gardens for fall and winter to be ready to go when spring arrives. You’ll want to get started right after the first frost has killed off most of the annuals or when plants are fading and turning brown.
First, is the planning step for next year’s growing season. Take a notebook and pen and walk around to each garden in the yard. Make notes of what worked well and look just how you planned. Note what did not work out as expected, so you do not repeat next summer. Were there plants that always tried to overrun the entire garden? Did some have a new disease or other problems every other week? Were some not very appealing and did not fit in with the other plants? Did your local deer herd eat all of a particular plant every night they roamed in your yard? These are the things you need to remember when choosing what plants to be put in your gardens next year.
Next, comes the garden cleanup. Remove materials like tomato cages, stakes, trellis, etc. If you plan to use them next year, clean them with a two-to-one mix of water and bleach to kill any disease they may have on them. Remove the old plant material from the garden along with the dead plants or old fruits or vegetables. These can be composted as long as the plant material was not diseased. If the plant had a disease, dispose of it in the trash. Spread compost, composted manure or other fertilizer onto vegetable beds.
Continue watering your gardens year-round until the ground freezes because plants need water in the soil to replace the water lost through their leaves from winter winds. After the ground freezes, mulch perennials, trees and shrubs with a four to six layer of wood chips, straw, chopped leaves, etc. This helps keep even soil temperature and prevent alternate freezing and thawing, which can heave plants out of the soil.
Following a good garden plan in the fall will help keep your gardens healthy from year to year.
Penn State Master Gardeners will be having a free children workshop on “Digging for Buried Treasures” at 9:30 a.m. Oct.12 at Washington County Children Garden across from the Washington County Fairground entrance. For more information and to register, call Penn State Extension Office at 724-228-6881