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Let’s Get Gardening – Part II

File Photo of Jennifer Fairfield, owner of the Garden Mill.
File Photo of Jennifer Fairfield, owner of the Garden Mill.

(Chelsea Update would like to thank Jennifer Fairfield of The Garden Mill for the information in this column. Part I published yesterday.)

Flower Beds – There is still time to get bulbs like tulips, daffodils, crocus, and other spring-bloomers in the ground. You can plant them up until the ground has frozen, but the sooner, the better. Right now, the soil is still warm enough to allow the roots to get going before winter truly sets in.

When your annuals are finished for the season, pull them out and compost them. Also pull weeds out of your beds to give you a head-start on spring.

As with trees and shrubs, add mulch to your flower beds once the soil has cooled down.

You can cut back perennials and ornamental grasses once they have gone dormant, or leave them until spring.

I like to leave mine up for a few reasons. First, because standing grasses and flowers can catch drifting snow and leaves and hold them in place. Second, I like the look of the plants in the snow – it breaks up the vast expanses of white. Lastly, those plants can provide shelter and food for overwintering birds, and I like giving those guys any advantage over the cold I can.

Do cut back, or remove any diseased perennials to reduce disease risk in spring.

Vegetable Garden – Pull out spent plants and compost them, as long as they are disease-free. Cold-weather composting doesn’t generally produce enough heat to kill off any diseases, so you will just re-introduce those problems to your garden next year if you put them in your compost pile now.

Remove weeds, and do a light tilling to expose weed seeds and insects to hungry birds (yep, I’m finding more ways to feed the birds, while helping out my garden)

Add compost to the garden to help improve the soil and add nutrients.

Plant spinach now for an early crop in the spring.

Plant garlic now for the best tasting garlic you’ve ever had next summer.

If you have perennials like thyme or sage spending the winter in your garden outside, give them a good layer of mulch.

Consider sowing a cover crop, such as annual rye, to help prevent erosion and to add organic matter and nutrients back into the soil in the spring.

One other task to consider doing at this time is a soil test. Doing it now will give you time to make any necessary adjustments to the soil before planting time comes back around.

Tools – Clean, dry, sharpen and lubricate your garden tools before you put them away, so they’ll be ready for all the hard work you expect them to perform in the spring.

Did you know you should even sharpen your shovels? If you don’t, you’re working harder than you have to when using them.

Empty your hoses, roll them up, and tie them before hanging them up for the winter. I like to connect the ends of each hose to keep spiders from using them as nesting places. I also like to put my sprinkler heads and wands all in one place, so I don’t have to remember what I did with them next year.

A small trug or bucket works well for this. If you have rain barrels, empty them and put them away, too.

Birds – Leave your birdbaths out as long as possible. Birds need sources of fresh water all the time, and winter is one of the hardest times for them to find it.  If you don’t have a de-icer, as long as the daytime temps are still above freezing, you can empty your birdbaths each evening and fill them up again in the morning.

Or, find a birdbath that is impervious to the weather. They won’t keep the water from freezing, but they also won’t crack when it does.
From now to next spring is the best time to feed birds, if you don’t feed them year-round, as I do. During the warmer months, the biggest source of food for most birds is insects. As it gets cold, and insects aren’t available, birds turn to vegetation for their food. But they need to eat a lot more to get the same amount of protein, and they need at least as much to help them get through the cold days and nights. This is where you come in.

When you provide food for the birds, you help keep them from using up precious energy trying to find food. And don’t forget to clean the feeders every now-and-then.

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