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The Iowa Gardener: Fall garden cleanup checklist
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With this weird, long warm fall, it’s easy to put off putting your garden to bed for the winter. But weather can change very quickly in the Midwest, especially these days, and it's easy for it change overnight and dump several inches of snow on unprepared yards.
So get out there now and plant and protect, clean up, put things away, and overall get ready for winter.
Plant and protect
- Plant spring-blooming bulbs. October is normally the best time for planting bulbs, but because it's been so warm, this year I did mine in early November. As long as you can get them in the ground before it starts to freeze, you should be fine.
- If you have planted any new trees, protect them with tree wrap, chicken wire, or other protection. Rabbits and deer love tender new plants and can strip a new shrub bare, severely damaging or killing it. Remove in spring.
- Perennials and strawberries do best with 1 to 4 inches of a loose, removable mulch over and/or around them. Leaves chopped by running a mower over them are perfect. You can use straw, but it often distributes seeds into the flower bed. Remove in spring when plants start to send out new growth.
- Protect roses. Avoid cutting back roses (and never use those white cones — they can actually be harmful to roses, not to mention that they’re unattractive). Roses tend to survive the winter better with as much of their plant material intact as possible. However, if there are long canes that will whip in the wind, go ahead and cut them back somewhat. Then mound all but rugosa roses around the base with 8 to 12 inches of compost or rich, dark soil to protect the bud union (right above the roots) from winter cold. Hybrid teas, grandiflora, and floribunda roses — the least cold hardy types — are more likely to survive the winter if you also wrap their stems in burlap and twine.
- If you have tender plants that are perennials in warmer climates, you can experiment with bringing them indoors for the winter. Hibiscus, jasmine, rosemary, citrus trees, and others will often survive the winter if brought indoors and given a sunny site and sometimes even under a grow light.
Clean up
- If you don't already have a compost pile, start one. It's a great way to dispose of yard waste in an environmentally friendly way and compost is the ideal fertilizer and soil amendment. Alternatively, check for free yard waste days. Each city is a little different, so search for “free yard waste” and your town’s name.
- Pull up annuals, especially in the vegetable garden. Annuals tend to be more disease-prone than perennials and shrubs, so pull them up and dispose of them.
- Rake leaves as needed. Keep them off the grass — they can suffocate it. However, if leaves are collecting in your flower beds and borders, consider leaving them. It’s nature’s own winter mulch and can provide winter protection for pollinators. Remove in spring.
- Cut back perennials damaged by the frost, but leave those up that have interesting shapes and seed heads, especially sedums and ornamental grasses. Leave purple coneflower seed heads up for the goldfinches. The job will go faster and easier with a power hedge trimmer. You can buy an electric one for around $40 and it makes the job a breeze.
- Dig up and store indoors any tender bulbs, such as gladiolus, cannas, dahlias, and caladiums, that you want to store over the winter.
- Weed if you have a moment. You’ll get a head start on spring.
Stash for the winter
- Run your power mower to empty the gas tank for winter. Check your owner’s manual (or go online) to see if any filters need to be cleaned or replaced and what, if anything, should be done with any oil that is added to the mower.
- Sharpen the mower blade or take it in to be sharpened. In Iowa, even with our softer grasses and shorter growing season, mower blades should be sharpened at least annually.
- Check on your water garden. If it’s small, you'll need to bring any submersible pump indoors so it doesn’t freeze solid. Freestanding fountains also often need winter preparation. Follow manufacturers guideline for these and other water features and pumps.
- Empty all pots and store indoors for the winter. In Iowa’s harsh winters, even plastic and concrete containers will crack and clay pots will shatter.
- Detach, drain and store garden hoses. If you leave your hose attached to the house, it can actually burst your outdoor faucet or attached pipe. Store them in a protected spot out of the sun and you’ll make them last years longer.
Veronica Lorson Fowler is copublisher of the Iowa Gardener website at www.theiowagardener.com.
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