Fall Garden Cleanup Starts This Weekend

It’s been a long year in the garden-not just for you, but for your plants. They are yawning and settling down to rest until spring. With a little help from you now, your garden will be set up for a good start next year.

It helps to understand that your garden probably contains three general types of plants.

Annuals, such as petunias and marigolds, live their whole lives in one season. They bloom until a hard frost kills them. Most herbs and vegetables also are annuals.

Trees and shrubs live for many years, as long as they are of species that are hardy in your region’s winters.

Perennials, such as coneflowers, black-eyed Susans and daylilies, have a root system that lives for years, though their flowers, stems and leaves shrivel up and die each fall. Lawn grass is perennial too. Here’s the tricky part: In places like Chicago, spring-with its sudden warm spells followed by sharp, killing freezes-is more treacherous for plants than winter. Brief warm-ups can trick plants into sprouting before it’s really safe. So we want to keep the soil good and cold and the plants dormant until the danger of a freeze is past.

Your tasks:

Rake leaves: Left on the lawn, they will cut off sunlight to the grass and trap moisture, encouraging fungus diseases. But don’t discard them if you have a place to start a compost pile. Shredded and broken down for a few months, they are prime organic matter to improve your soil.

Spread it if you got it. If you already have a pile, spread finished compost on perennial or vegetable beds or on the lawn to enrich the soil and make room for the new crop of leaves. Half-finished compost should go back in the pile with the leaves as well as spent annual, perennial and vegetable plants.

Weed. Weeds may die when frost hits, but their seeds survive. So pull all you see and discard them in the landscape waste, not the compost-seeds may not break down and you could spread them all over your garden.

Tidy up. Any plant you suspect might be diseased should go in the landscape waste-including diseased tree and shrub leaves. Otherwise, removing the stalks and foliage of perennials is a matter of taste: Cut them down if you are the neat type, or leave them if you like the look. Most people leave ornamental grasses standing.

Clear out the vegetable garden. Put diseased plants in the landscape waste and the rest in the compost. Dig composted manure or other organic matter into the vegetable bed so by spring planting time it will be nicely broken down in the soil.

Prepare to mulch. After the ground freezes spread a 1- to 2-inch layer of shredded hardwood, shredded leaves or other organic mulch over perennial beds and the root zones of trees and shrubs to insulate the soil and keep it safely cold in early spring. But by the time the soil freezes-usually around Christmas-most places will be sold out of mulch, so buy it now and stockpile it. (Keep it in the garage or cover it with a tarp so it doesn’t get wet and freeze solid.) One of the best mulches is free: leaves, if they are shredded so they don’t pack down to a waterproof mat. for more info about wilmington nc real estate visit http://www.buddyblake.com

Resist pruning. Pruning trees or shrubs now might stimulate tender young growth that would die of cold. Wait to prune deciduous trees and shrubs that need shaping until late January or early February, when the plants are thoroughly dormant.

Water. As dead as they look, trees, shrubs and perennials are alive all winter and they need water in their systems to survive.

So keep watering until the ground freezes. Evergreens and trees or shrubs that have been planted within the last two years are especially vulnerable to dying of thirst before spring.