If the ground hasn’t frozen yet, there are still things you can do in the garden in cold-winter zones. By cold winter, I mean areas where the ground freezes rock-solid for winter and doesn’t soften up again until spring.
Today’s theme: what to do with all those plants.
Plants that are in the dirt:
All the dead annuals should be pulled up out of the ground when they turn brown under the first overnight frosts. Leaving them in the ground all winter is asking to have mould and other diseases come spring.
When annual beds are clear of plants and the soil is still workable is a good time to dig finished (i.e., rotted down) compost, aka humus, aka well-rotted/aged store-bought manure, into the beds. Spread the compost on the surface maybe 3 inches deep and turn it under with a spade. Hard work, but good exercise, and very satisfying to stand back and think how much good it will do next year’s plants.
Perennials also turn brown under early frosts. The ‘perennial’ part means that the underground parts of the plant survive the winter, although the above-ground parts are dead after frost hits them. That’s when you cut them back so there are sticks (the stems) about 4 inches tall left sticking up out of the ground. Rake away any dead leaves and whatnot until the ground between them is clear. Then spread around some compost, making sure it doesn’t touch the stems. Because the perennial roots are still there in the ground you can’t, of course, dig in the compost, but spreading it around on the surface is very beneficial – worms will drag it underground. No, really, it’s true.
The pulled-up annuals and cut-down perennial trimmings should be composted, if you have space. If not, they go in the garbage. Remember, the more you chop up, say, long tomato stems before composting them, the faster they will turn into usable compost.
Important: whatever you’re going to do with them, do it the same day you pulled them up/pruned them back. If you leave the trimmings in a heap on the lawn for ‘next time’, ‘next time’ could be a week later, when the pile of trimmings has turned into a ghastly pile of black ooze. Did I learn this the hard way? Do you need ask?
Container plants:
Some outdoor container plants can be kept alive indoors through the winter. I had good luck with oleander, geraniums, bougainvillea and plumbago (pictured above) when I lived in Zone 3. In all cases you want to prune the plant back hard before bringing them in, to save space indoors. When to bring it in? When below-freezing temperatures are predicted. Leave it in its outdoor pot and put it in as much light as you can manage. I used to have some 48 inch fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling in the basement when I lived up north. They were on a timer, 18 hours a day. No need to buy expensive grow-lights. Regular cheapo warm white will do fine. Water sparingly through the winter. The plants looked pretty bad come winter’s end, but once all danger of frost was past I’d drag them out again and in 3 or 4 weeks they’d perk up and start to grow and flower. This is a good technique to try with shrubs that are too tender to put in the dirt in your area.
Here’s the QOTD part: got any questions? Give me an idea of what climate zone you’re in, and I’ll see if I can help.
