How to Winterize Your Garden

Your garden is probably in full bloom now but soon cooler weather will be arriving. To keep frost and freezing from damaging your garden you need to be ready to winterize your garden. For new gardeners it is especially important to remember that just because your garden has stopped growing for the season your work is not done. Here are the important steps for preparing your garden for winter.

Cleaning
To winterize your garden start by removing any debris. Remove any finished annuals and seasonal vegetables. Give your garden one final thorough weeding and rake and leaves. Trim any perennials to an inch or two above the ground and remove the top portion. You should also divide any perennials that have a clump in the center that no longer grows. In most areas this needs done ever three of four years.

Prepare the Soil
While you winterize your garden is a great time to test your soil so you have an idea of what it might need in the spring. If you have it available, put a layer of compost over the whole garden so that winter and spring rains and draw the nutrients from that into the soil. If you do not have a compost pile then mulch will work as well.

Plant Spring Bulbs
Before the ground freezes and gets to hard to work you can plant your stronger spring blooming bulbs as well as cool weather vegetables. If your garden tends to have rodents then when you winterize it add a gritty gravel planting holes to keep them away from your bulbs.

Store Tender Bulbs
Probably the most important thing to remember when you winterize your garden is that some bulbs will die completely from the cold. Summer plants including caladiums, cannas, tuberous begonias, gladiolus and dahlias fall into this category. When fall hits and the foliage turns brown it is time to dig them up and trim off the remaining growth. Air dry them for a week and then store them paper bags with vermiculite or peat moss. Keep the bags in a cool, dark location like a basement. However, if your basement is humid be sure to dust the bulbs with the organic fungicide sulfur.

Tools
When you winterize your garden it is important not to forget your gardening tools. Quality gardening tools are expensive and you don't want to have to buy new ones every spring. Start by removing all dirt from them and then rinse and dry thoroughly. Sand off any rust and sharpen and metal tools. Then cover metals with a light coat of vegetable oil. Cover any wooden handles with paste wax or linseed oil to prevent cracking and splitting.

Sources:
Sarah Stefanson, "How to Winterize Your Garden" Suite101.com
"Winterize Your Garden" Reader's Digest
"How to Winterize Your Garden" eHow.com
Alison Rogers "How to Winterize Your Garden Tools" Mother Earth News