As the cold weather draws in, it's time to start thinking about getting your garden ready for winter. As plants are slowing their growth or dying, there's plenty of cleaning out to do to prepare your garden for winter.
For a start, perennial flower gardens need cutting back, weeding and composting. You'll also need to clean up vegetable gardens and compost plant material to reduce disease and insect problems next year. Not to mention that garden supplies will need to be cleaned and stored away.
Basically, there's lots to keep you busy in the garden this autumn. Let's go through some of the most important autumn garden cleanup tasks.
Cleaning Up Your Garden for Winter
Perennial Flowers
Your first autumn garden cleanup task is to cut back yellowing and diseased tops of herbaceous flowers, such as peonies, phlox, bee balm and hosta. Compost the tops unless they're heavily infested with disease.
Top tip: Bundle up the cuttings with VELCRO® Brand Garden Ties. The ties make it much easier to move large stems of perennials to the compost area.
Annual Flowers & Vegetables
Next, you need to cut back fading warm season flowers and vegetables and compost the healthy tops. Any cool season vegetables such as leeks and spinach; and flowers such as pansies and snapdragons, can be left in the ground until a heavy freeze. They’re frost tolerant.
Trees & Shrubs
Now to tackle trees and shrubs. Rake and collect any fallen leaves and put them in your compost bin. Or, you could mulch them with your lawn mover and leave them on the lawn as a fertiliser. Totally up to you!
Apply bark mulch for winter around shrubs and trees but keep it away from the trunk.
Garden Tools & Supplies
You won't be needed your garden tools over the winter, so tidy away all of your tools, hoses and stakes. To make garden stakes and supports easier to carry and store, bundle them up with VELCRO® Brand Straps.
Your garden hose won't be needed over the winter so wrap it up with a VELCRO® Brand Strap to make it easier to store. This will clear some room in your shed or garage for other items!
And that's it! Good luck with your autumn garden cleanup and preparations for winter - we hope these tips come in handy! Check out VELCRO® Brand Garden Ties here or stay on our blog for even more gardening tips!