Getting Your Landscape Ready for Cooler Weather

Even though the bulk of your gardening for the year is done, there are important tasks which still require your attention. In fact, fall is one of the busiest seasons of the year with barely enough time to get everything finished. There are some primary things that are crucial to settling your landscape safely in for the winter months and preparing it for a successful growing season next spring

It may not be obvious, but we need to continue mowing with a sharp blade until all new growth in the lawn stops. End the season with the lawn at a normal mowing height (2 ½ to 3 inches) since allowing it to grow longer and fold over for the winter does more harm than good. Tall grass does not protect the lawn and can trap moisture inviting fungus disease problems.

To prevent the lawn from spreading too far, edge planting beds and areas. This keeps the grass where it belongs by stopping underground runners from growing into your specially prepared flowerbed soils. Simply use a hand or motorized tool to strike a line up to four inches deep between lawn and beds. You need only to slice the ground severing adventurous grass plants from the mother plant and then pull up the offenders. It is not necessary to dig a ditch.

It is also important to keep fall leaves off the lawn. If not, the leaves cut off light and can cause suffocation that breeds fungus diseases. Whether you rake, blow or use a mulching mower, keep the leaves picked up. You can turn them under in your garden or add them to the compost pile for convenient, environmentally sound disposal with a useful end product. If you have a good mulching mower, you can allow a good bit of the mowed/chopped material to remain on the lawn - but, be careful of excess.

If you only fertilize once a year, fall is one of the most important times to do so. Wait until late October or mid-November so that you do not push the plant into new above ground growth; but by all means fertilize. This is best done for lawns and woody plants.

Mulching is the next step to insulate plants against rapid freezing and thawing. The appropriate depth around almost all plants is two inches using your choice of a suitable organic material. Roses, though, should be mulched (hilled) to a depth of 18 inches after the potential for “Indian Summer” has passed and several frosts have occurred, to guarantee that the above ground parts are completely dormant. If the plants have long ungainly tops, either cut them back or tie them to avoid wind whipping.

To further protect plants against rapid temperature changes, it is critical to continue watering late into the season, but deeper and less frequently. If precipitation is low and the soil has truly become dry, water through December and into February. Also pay special attention to plants under overhangs or in raised planting beds. Water these throughout the winter since conditions can be virtually drought-like and dry roots will be freeze damaged quite easily.

These activities represent the bare minimum necessary to put the garden to bed. Other activities you should consider if time and temperatures allow include turning the gardens to bury and destroy insect eggs and saving flower heads for seeding some of next year’s annuals that breed true from generation to generation. If you have not done so, now is the cut-off for digging and dividing perennials. If you are still working with these, be sure to mulch and water them infrequently through the winter.

One final thought; fall is the best time to note any gardening successes or failures on next year’s gardening calendar since experience is always the best teacher (when we can remember the lessons). If your memory is any thing like mine, you’d better write it all down. The exact day is not as important as the general time period.