Published: November 04, 2008 09:33 pm            

Thinking spring

FAIRMONT — You know fall is over when your petunias are pouting and the marigolds aren’t very merry any more.

It’s time to put your lawn and garden to bed for the winter.

“Now’s the time to plant spring bulbs,” said flower lover and Master Gardener Jean Dawson. “Daffodils, hyacinths, all those good things.”

It’s pretty easy, she said.

“You want to plant them at least 6 inches deep, or just follow the directions on the package.

“For flowers that you already have, cut the bloomed, dead ones back to the ground. Take all the clippings off and put them in your compost pile. Do the same with the garden. Clean off everything out of the garden, shred it if you have a shredder, make a compost pile and put it in.

“And that’s all you have to do to get ready for winter.”

Sprinkle your garden with a herbicide now, she said.

“This keeps weeds from germinating and coming up. A lot of weeds come up between now and January. And this does away with them.

“It doesn’t hurt to give your lawn a little shot of fertilizer over the winter. As it dissolves, it will be ready for when the plants are ready in the spring.

“That’s about all I do.”

Don’t let her kid you. Hers is not a small backyard garden. She’s got 250-300 different named daylilies.

“They’re my passion,” she said. She also has about 100 seedlings.

“I also have a beautiful butterfly garden. Red-spotted purples, eastern swallowtails, monarchs ... they all lay eggs in my back yard. They hatch and go from caterpillar to chrysalis and back to butterfly again.

“I don’t cut any of the butterfly bushes down,” she said. “And a lot of my flowers I don’t cut down, either. If you have cone flowers, birds just love the seeds in the flower heads.”

It’s hard to believe now, with fall’s glorious colors now just coming to an end, that in just a few months gardens and hillsides will be blazing with blossoming tulips and daffodils and the like.

But only if you plant them now.

If you want a continuous rainbow of spring colors, staggering the planting is not the way to go, she said.

“Most bulbs are identified as early, mid and late bloomers. Buy the bulbs that way. That’s the only way to control blooming. If you stagger planting, they’ll probably come out at the same time, definitely next year. So there’s no great advantage to staggering.”

Some people like to naturalize flowers for that “English cottage garden” look, she said.

“That’s where the bulbs are all thrown together and grown together. You put them in among other flowers and let them fend for themselves.”

For other winter gardening tips:

Leaf me alone

You know all those leaves that were so breathtakingly pretty just last week? They’re probably on the ground by now. You can rake and bend and lift and stuff them into bags that need to carted to the curb or landfill.

Or you could go green and shred them with your lawn mower to create a mulch for a 1- to 2-inch-thick layer of chopped leaves on top of the grass. The earthworms in the lawn will love the food, and the leaves will eventually break down, adding nutrients to the soil.

Compost yourself

You could also add them to your compost pile. Don’t have one? Now’s the time to start one with leaves, grass clippings, dead vegetable and flower plants, and kitchen scraps. Not only is this good for your soil, but it’s also eco-friendly.

Maintain a working balance between carbon and nitrogen by using one-third green and two-thirds brown materials. This allows oxygen to penetrate and nourish the organisms that reside within the material.

Compost can suppress plant diseases and pests, reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers and increase water retention in the soil.

Showers of flowers

Wait until after the first frost to plant flowering bulbs and tubers. You can continue to plant in mid-winter if the ground is not frozen. Look for plump, firm bulbs with no bruises or signs of decay. Keep bulbs cool until you plant them. Follow planting instructions on the packages.

Plant daffodil and narcissus first; they need time to root in the fall. The rest of the bulbs may be planted right up to ground freeze-up.

Your summers flowers kept amazing you with their spectacular color, but now they must be done away with.

Remove all annuals from garden beds and containers. Decaying plants in the garden also provide a perfect nesting site for insects to overwinter. Perennials need to be cut back close to ground level in late fall (except for the ornamental grasses, lavender, and Russian sage, which are all pruned back in early spring).

Weed now to get a head start next spring. Dig up tender bulbs. Cannas, tuberous begonias, gladiolus, dahlias and most other summer-blooming bulbs don’t survive the winter in USDA Zone 9 and colder. Store bulbs in vermiculite in a paper bag in a cool (65? or cooler), dry spot.

Apply a winter mulch to perennials where winter temperatures generally fall below minus 10?F. Lay a lightweight organic mulch, such as shredded autumn leaves, pine needles or straw, over beds to protect plants from winter’s extremes. Avoid more compact mulches and whole leaves (which can mat), since they can suffocate plants.

Trees a crowd

They may seem all rough and tough, but trees and shrubs need your TLC more than ever during the harsh winter months.

Protect young trees from sunscald (splitting of the trunk due to extreme temperature changes in winter) by painting the trunk with an outdoor, white latex paint or wrapping the trunk with tree wrap.

Protect tender evergreen shrubs, such as rhododendrons, from cold winds by driving four stakes into the soil around the shrub and wrapping burlap around the plant, or applying an antitranspirant spray to the foliage.

In warm winter areas, plant evergreen trees and shrubs now. Plant deciduous trees and shrubs after they drop their leaves. Keep plants well watered if it doesn’t rain regularly.

To protect your trees from hungry varmints this winter, spiral a plastic tree guard around them or spray the bark with bitter-tasting repellent.

Lawn order

Continue to mow 2-3 inches for most grasses to encourage good root growth. Fertilize with a 3-1-2 ratio lawn food. And reseed those thin spots.

Add a one-half inch-thick layer of compost to help build your lawn’s root system. Keep the lawn well-watered throughout the fall is the weather is dry.

Apply 6-8-14 fertilizer to strengthen grass roots and blades and build up disease resistance. Rake all leaves off the lawn before snowfall and make the last cut of the season shorter.

Put your stuff away

Empty clay or ceramic pots, rinse and store them safely. Clean, oil, sharpen, and repair garden tools before storing. Rub linseed oil onto wooden handles to prevent cracks. Make sure sprayers are emptied and washed out with hot soapy water. Empty the gas tank on your lawnmower or gas trimmer or add a gas preservative.

E-mail Debra Minor Wilson at dwilson@timeswv.com.

        

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