(Chelsea Update would like to thank Jennifer Fairfield of The Garden Mill for this column. This is part 2 of Get Gardening. Part 1 ran yesterday.)
Vegetable garden – A little time spent now will make getting started next spring easier. Pull spent plants and weeds. Add compost and lightly till it in. Heavy tilling causes more damage than good, but a light tilling will get the compost worked into the soil, and will expose insects that have bedded down in your garden to birds that will remove the insects for you, and appreciate the meal!
There are also a few things you can plant now in order to have early crops next year. Spinach and peas will generally overwinter well and come up earlier than ones you plant in the spring. Those early to rise plants can stand a bit of frost in the spring, or you can cover them up with row covers if it gets too cold once they have peaked their heads out. It’s also still a good time to plant garlic. Like flowering bulbs, garlic can be planted anytime up until the ground freezes.
Lawn and leaves – You may want to do one more mowing before you put your lawn equipment away for the winter. Your lawn should not be too long going into the snowy months, as this can lead to disease problems. If you still have leaves on your lawn, you’ll want to get them up (or mulch them in) before the snow really starts coming down, too.
Tools – Once you have finished all your other chores, be sure to clean off, sharpen, and lubricate all of your tools before putting them away. Leaving them dirty for months can shorten their useful life, and having them clean and sharp at the beginning of the season means you won’t be slowed down trying to get them cleaned up, which is much harder to do with dirt caked on them from months ago.
Also, put your watering equipment away. Hoses should be emptied of water and rolled up for storage. Putting all of your tools away in one place now will make it much easier to find them in the spring, too.
Birds – If you have birdbaths that can be damaged by ice, as long as the days are still above freezing, fill them up during the day and just empty them out in the evening. Birds need water all year long, so the longer you can provide it for them, the better off they will be. If your birdbath is impervious to the cold, consider adding a heater to it so the birds have a source of water all winter long.
Feed them. Providing food for the birds is not only good for them, but also it can give you hours of entertainment. I’m sitting watching all the birds in my feeders as I write this, and it looks sort of like an airport out there, with all the flying in and out. I think they need an air traffic controller though, since I’ve seen a few near-collisions.
