It's still Fall but Winter will be here before you know it. Make it much easier to enjoy and prepare your garden next Spring by doing a few things now to winterize it.
Cut back perennials.
Do some research for any perennial flowers you have on if they need cut back or how to properly winterize them. Plants like Mums are nice to cut for a vase inside your home.
Mulch where needed.
Some perennials like to be snug for the Winter and it's always a good idea to mulch around the bottom of them. Some people use straw and others just use dead leaves.
Weed your veggie garden.
Remove any remaining weeds and then till the soil by turning it so the bottom layer is at the top. This allows whatever dead plant material may be in the soil to get broken down more and it's beneficial to have for the next growing season.
Place potted plants together.
Winter comes with nasty winds at times so if you don't want anything to break, huddle your potted plants together. You can even bring them in the garage to overwinter them.
Use leaves as mulch.
Any dead leaves that blow into garden beds can be left there to breakdown and provide nutrients in the soil. Bonus is that it also helps cover the plants and keep them warm.
Bring in yard decor.
Winter can do a hurtin' on your decorative yard accents so bring them inside. I always make it a point to double check my yard too to make sure I didn't miss anything like yard stakes and lights that I don't want to get damaged over Winter.
Plan next year's garden.
Plan which annuals you will add to your garden and which veggies you'll grow and where. Some veggies should be rotated and not planted in the exact same spot year after year so it's always a good idea to draw a little map to plan it all out.
Note what went right and wrong.
Now's also a great time to make notes on things that didn't do so well this year and what you can do different next year. Sometimes the placement of plants is crucial and you may have had some failures because they were in parts of your yard that didn't get enough sun or even got too much sun. Gardening is ALWAYS a learning experience because you can't predict how the weather will be every year.
Hopefully when Spring rolls around you'll be ready to go!
What has your garden thrived with this past year and what are you doing different next year?
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