Popular magazines live and die by lists. Stand for more than two minutes in the supermarket check-out line and you will see at least ten different compilations of life-changing tips announced in screaming headlines. With titles ranging from “Sixteen Fabulous Ways to Transform Your Holiday Dinner” and “Top Twenty Hollywood Divas,” to “Five Easy Ways to Tame Your Inner Wild Child;” magazines stand ready to rescue you from needless toil, anxiety and expenditure in just about every area of your life.
I wish I had time to make all the improvements they suggest. However, I can only cope with a certain number of things. My holiday dinner will have to remain un-transformed, because I really must attend to my garden. In the spirit of helpful magazine lists, I have outlined ten things that you should do before winter—which officially begins on December twenty-first. Of course, in keeping with the spirit of consumer magazines, I will have to add on a dramatic title. I will call my list, “TEN HOT TIPS FOR PUTTING YOUR GARDEN TO BED.”
#1: Dig Those Dahlias: If you grow dahlias, either in pots or in the ground, and you want to save them for next year, lift them now. If the ground is already frozen hard, you are out of luck, but if it is still soft enough to dig, root up the corms and put them in an airy place on a sheet of newspaper to dry out for a couple of days. When they are dry, store them in a cool dark spot. Some people bury the corms in vermiculite or swathe them in sphagnum moss to help insulate them. Be sure and label the varieties as well as the container.
#2: Shelter Your Accents: Many garden décor items, including pots, small statues, garden gnomes and their kindred, and ceramic birdbaths will crack, chip or be destroyed by winter weather. Shield them from the elements in a garage or shed.
#3: Safeguard Tender Plants: In Western New York, where I grew up, many people wrapped their hybrid tea roses in yards of burlap every winter. I don’t grow any roses that I have to wrap, but this year I have a camellia and it is going to be swaddled like a baby. I’ll put three stout sticks in the pot, wrap it in plastic secured by staples and/or stout twine and fill the space between the plant and the wrapping with dead leaves. It will look like an apparition, but the plant should be alive next spring. Many people do this with fig trees as well.
#4: Plant remaining bulbs: If you have bulbs still sitting in the garage or storage room, get them in the ground now. If the ground is too hard for planting, install them in containers. You can plant the bulbs shoulder to shoulder and put layers of smaller bulbs over the larger ones in the same pot. Overwinter the pots outside in a protected spot.
#5: Force a Few Bulbs: Save a few hyacinths or crocuses for forcing. For good directions, go to [fill in]
#6: Cut Back Your Asters: Fall blooming plants like asters, boltonia and goldenrod have bloomed, matured and dispersed their seeds by now. You can safely cut them back to the ground–unless you like looking at their skeletons all winter. One man’s “winter interest” is another man’s untidy garden. The choice is up to you.
7#: Mulch It If You’ve Got It: Some pundits tell you to wait until the ground is frozen hard to apply winter mulches. I apply extra mulch as I do the garden clean-up and I don’t believe the plants have ever suffered because of it.
#8: Clip Whippy Rose Canes: If roses are still blooming in your yard, let the show go on. However, do cut back extra long or tall canes or shoots, so they aren’t damaged by winter winds.
#9: Deal With Hydrangeas: Hydrangeas, especially older varieties, have formed buds already, so vigorous pruning now is not a good idea, unless you need to do so to contain the size of the shrub. If the hydrangea has become a behemoth, cut back about one third of the stems to the ground. That will leave you with plenty of leaves and blooms next spring and summer. If browned flowerheads still cling to the branches, they can be clipped off at any time.
#10: Weed Until the Ground Freezes Over: Some weeds are so tenacious that I am sure they are able to surge up through permafrost. Right now in my yard, the onion grass and a few other tough weeds are still growing strong. If this is the case in your garden, keep rooting them out. If the gods of gardening mete out any justice at all, you will have fewer weeds in the spring because of it.
There you have it—ten hot tips that didn’t even require a trip to the supermarket. What could be better in this busy season?