I am dragging my behind trying to put my garden to bed for the winter. I didn’t plant any bulbs or throw any mulch around, didn’t clip, snip or weed anything yet. The general clean-up of dead garden debris is crying out to be done. Well if it doesn’t snow this weekend, I guess I’ll have no excuse not to. I’ve noticed an increase in the indoor spider population lately and am having visions of pouncing brown spiders again. I’m shuddering even thinking about them. I hate to admit that spiders are very beneficial to the garden… if only they’d Stay in the garden. I’m not going to dwell on spiders or how beneficial they are, cause I hate them so much. You’re on your own to figure out the spider thing, but it’s time to review the fall clean up “to do” list again.
Time to rake your lawn and watch for dormancy, after which point you can apply fertilizer, preferably organic. If you haven’t had to mow your lawn in a couple of weeks, it’s probably gone, or going, dormant. Mound mulch up around the base of your less hardy shrubs when the temperatures start to go below freezing at night. This will protect the roots and stem base of your shrubs from damage due to temperature fluctuations. Don’t cover your perennials over with mulch until the ground freezes – they need to breath up to that point. Right about now you can prune your spirea and potentilla shrubs by cutting them down by half, and prune out dead and thin straggly branches. Any ripened sunflower seed heads should be brought inside for drying now. Put them individually in brown paper bags and poke a few small holes in the bag for air flow. Once thoroughly dry, you can use them in your bird feeder or save them for planting next year.
I’ve been contemplating what I’m going to talk about in the winter when most of us here in the Northern Hemisphere can no longer garden outside and need to content ourselves with indoor “gardening”. Now take me for instance. I have tons of gardening books and magazines and would be what you typically call an ‘armchair gardener’ in the winter months. Most of us don’t have a heated greenhouse, nor a whole lot of room to turn our homes into a sea of greenery. That doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of fun things to try out though. Here’s some things you can consider for the next few weeks… Forcing bulbs indoors (Narcissus, tulips, grape hyacinths, etc)… Cactus (especially Christmas cactus) which are ideally suited to the dry air conditions found in most homes in the winter. Orchids, which aren’t as hard to care for as one might think and how about bonsai? As we get closer to the Christmas season, I’ll give a few tips on how to use the elements from our ‘bare ‘ gardens in Christmas wreaths and arrangements and how you can do this while pruning your dormant trees and shrubs.
But make sure you check out any harvested bounty for big brown spiders who are just waiting to pounce!
~Callie
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