Putting Your Garden to Bed for Winter

Putting Your Garden to Bed for Winter

With fall here and winter being not far behind, it will soon
be time to put your garden to bed for the winter.

Houseplants that have been luxuriating outdoors for the
summer need to be brought indoors when nighttime
temperatures drop below fifty degrees. Many houseplants
come from tropical regions and they won't appreciate cooler
temperatures. Before bringing them indoors, carefully
examine the leaves and the pots for any insects that may try
to hitch a ride inside your house. A couple of good douses of
insecticidal soap applied a few days before the plants are
brought inside will eliminate many pests before they can
infest your home.

Fall is a good time to plant perennials. Fall-planted
perennials should be thinly mulched after planting. More
mulch should be added after the ground has frozen to prevent
the newly established plants from heaving out of the ground
from repeated freezing and thawing. Mark where all of your
perennials are planted so you'll know where they are once the
foliage has died back at the end of the season.

Tender bulbs and tubers such as gladiola and begonias
should be dug up after the first light frost and stored over winter
in a cool, dark place that won't freeze.

Stop fertilizing your trees and flowering shrubs as fall
approaches. This will allow the new growth to harden off
before winter and will help prevent winter damage to your
plants.

Clean out all weeds, plant debris and unharvested vegetables
from the vegetable garden. Compost can be added to the
vegetable garden now, and you might consider planting a cover
crop of winter rye, oats or clover. Cover crops help keep
weeds down and prevent erosion in the garden. Come spring,
the cover crop is tilled in to enrich the soil.

Putting the garden to bed can be a sad event for gardeners,
but it also reminds us that another glorious season of
gardening will be here soon.


(personal stuff about Mike and Pam, more added all the time)
http://www.freeplants.com/stuff.htm

Have a great week!
-Mike McGroarty

P.S. The message board is here:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/519353/






McGroarty Enterprises Inc.
P.O. Box 338
Perry, Ohio 44081