Beginners Gardening Guide #12: What Steps to take as Winter Approaches

When your garden has given its best through spring, summer and fall, delighting you with lovely flowers, fresh vegetables and berries, and provided you with many hours of relaxing pleasure, it needs and deserves the respite that winter provides. Before you cover it with compost, saturate it with water, and tuck it in for a winter’s nap, use the time to make any changes you desire in the garden.

Step one involves evaluating your garden, and making changes to its composition or design. Consider what worked well, and what did not work at all. Move plants that need relocating, and remove plants that did not contribute to the garden as you had hoped they would. Choose this period to plant bulbs that will bring new varieties of glory to the garden next year. It’s also a good time of year to plant bare root bushes and trees.

Step two is to give your perennials and bulbs end-of-year attention. Divide perennials that you want to reduce in size, spread around for greater coverage, or share with a garden-growing friend. Cut back the remaining perennials to 6-8 inches in height. If you have bulbs with a reputation for not doing well after especially cold winters, remove them, dry them out for one day, and place them where they can spend the winter in a cool, dark place.

Step three is to fill in gaps in your garden. If you kept a log of what flowers bloomed in each part of the season, you’ll know where gaps exist in your garden’s productivity and coverage. Perhaps fall came, and with it only a few fall-blooming plants. Add bulbs or perennials now that will make for a more robust garden next autumn, or plan to do so in the spring, depending on planting instructions for the flowers you want to add.

Step four is to start composting, if you don’t already practice it. Purchase a compost bin and add all the fall cuttings and clippings to it, along with some leaves, to start turning into nutrient-rich compost for next spring. Avoid throwing weeds into the compost, as weed seeds may survive the decaying process only to take root in your garden when you spread compost in the spring. Also, keep diseased plants or branches out of the compost to prevent the disease from spreading.

Step five is to add a protective blanket to your garden. If you have trees on the property, rake a thick layer of leaves onto the garden. They will protect it against the harshest winter temperatures, helping to hold in some of the grounds geothermal heat, as well as breaking down and adding nutrients to the soil. If leaves are not available, and if you are already a compost-user, spread a layer of compost on the garden so that it will be working its way into the soil in preparation for next season.

Winter is the right time to get a head start on a flourishing garden for next year. These few simple steps will save you time come spring, and will enhance your pleasure in the garden by helping it to reach new heights of beauty, productivity and prosperity.

A-Z Beginners Gardening Guides

• Beginners Gardening Guide #1 : How To Start Your Garden
• Beginners Gardening Guide #2 : Steps for Designing Your First Garden
• Beginners Gardening Guide #3 : Choosing the Right Tools for your First Garden
• Beginners Gardening Guide #4 : How to Keep Pests Out of Your Garden
• Beginners Gardening Guide #5 : A Beginner’s Guide to Planting Flowers and Trees
• Beginners Gardening Guide #6 :How to Choose What to Plant
• Beginners Gardening Guide #7 : First Steps in Vegetable Gardening
• Beginners Gardening Guide #8 : Maintaining Your Garden
• Beginners Gardening Guide #9 : Lawn Care for Beginners
• Beginners Gardening Guide #10: Blossoms for Every Season
• Beginners Gardening Guide #11 : Your Garden During the Fall
• Beginners Gardening Guide #12: What Steps to take as Winter Approaches
• Beginners Gardening Guide #13: Preparing for a Great Spring Start