The evergreens are wrapped, leaves are raked and the garden is mulched and put to bed for the winter. Now what? Gardeners still have an itch to garden. They can and they won't be bothered by the heat or flying insects while they do it. There are always some creative fall projects to take on before the snow flies.
Dig a New Garden Bed
While the ground is still soft, it may be possible to make another garden bed or widen one already extant. Dig it over, remove the clumps of grass and weeds, add mulch and compost and let it remain fallow over the winter. In the hot days of spring, the gardener will have a lot less work.
The Best Time to Plant
Now is the best time to plant small trees, shrubs and roses. It's known as the second planting season. Fall planting allows the plant to concentrate on root growth, rather than leafing and budding.
View the Garden Skeleton
With all the summer flora and fauna gone, the gardener has an opportunity to view the garden skeleton again. Perhaps the paths need more gravel or the fence needs painting. These are things often unnoticed behind the hollyhocks or under the creeping phlox.
Plant Spring Bulbs
This is also the time for planting spring bulbs that don't have to be pulled up for wintering indoors. Tulips and daffodils give the garden early spring color. Plant in masses for a good show, rather than a few single plants here and there.
Arches, Trellises and Gazebos
Gardeners should be creative. They spend most of the summer nurturing their plants, feeding, weeding, cutting, trimming, cultivating and digging with a view to having a healthy and lovely garden. But there are other aesthetics to a garden. Arches could be built over pathways for climbing roses or flowering vines. Now is the time to build gazebos, benches and trellises. How exciting it would be to have new spaces and places in the garden to play with when spring arrives.
Build a Poet's Garden
If the gardener's tastes lean toward the romantic with shades of Rivendell thrown in, prepare beds for a poet's corner in a shady tucked away part of the garden. It could be enclosed with a rustic trellis, ready to be underplanted in the spring with various vines on the outside of the secret "room" and a herbacous border in front of the vines. Inside the "room," she could lay stepping stones into the lawn and make a quiet place to sit and dream under the trees. Once all the flowers, vines and hodge-podge of growth fills in, a visitor may not notice what's beyond it.
The ideas above are meant to give the gardener a head-start for spring and to keep her gardening well into fall, before the ground freezes. It could make winter seem shorter.
References
- The Weekend Garden Guide, Susan Roth, Rodale Press, 1991
- Reader's Digest Practical Guide to Home Landscaping, Reader's Digest, 1972
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