Owl Light
Where Inspiration & Inquiry Converge
  • Home
  • Literary Journal
  • Owl Light Sponsorship
  • Digital Owl
  • Contact Us
  • Login
  • Home
  • Literary Journal
  • Owl Light Sponsorship
  • Digital Owl
  • Contact Us
  • Login
  • Home
  • /
  • Uncategorized

The Village Gardener: Putting the garden to bed

Below: Seeds collected by me.
Above: A monarch on Tithonia…one of the seeds collected.
Photos Georgeanne Vyverberg

by Georgeanne Vyverberg –

So much depends on winterizing the gardens, but too often the process is filled with dread and the thought of much work. I think that’s because people believe it must be done in a day or two. The weather has turned to beautiful sunny, wind filled days and it’s hard to get motivated to spend precious days like this working in the gardens and yard. However, I insist that it can be the pleasant end to a summer of beautiful flowers and tasty vegetables, and specifically NOT done in a single day. A few minutes to an hour or two a day is really all it takes. Honest! The trick is to start …preferably in mid-October, but it can last way into November or until it’s a snow-covered landscape. Okay let’s get out there and start! But where you ask? Good question, but YOU have been in those gardens all summer and I have a feeling you know where in YOUR garden that might be.

Let’s start with the vegetable garden, which more than likely is pretty well finished, although I am still picking beans from my third planting and they are still flowering as I write this in late October. Begin clearing all the plants that are brown and shriveled. If anything was diseased or moldy, place those remains in a trash bag to be thrown away and not in the compost. Compost everything else. I am assuming you have a compost heap of lawn clippings and leaves and, garden waste. Even if you have a small yard the benefit of a compost heap is beyond measure. When the veggie garden is cleared of plants and weeds and if you have time it’s a perfect time to incorporate rotted manure and compost into at least a few small beds. Next Spring you will need only a few minutes to plant carrots, lettuce, kale, and other salad greens.

Finally cover the garden with old hay or better yet leaves that have been mowed.  They will protect the soil and even add more nutrients as they slowly break down over winter. To keep them from blowing away a few tree branches or boughs can help.

Next let’s take a long look at the flower gardens. Stand aside and try to remember all those mental notes you promised yourself you would write down “somewhere, sometime, as soon as you went inside, etc.”  Were the hollyhocks too tall and over shadowing the Lantana below it? Did you buy something you couldn’t live without, and then returned home to find that in mid-July there was nowhere to put it, but you shoved it in someplace…the wrong place? I confess to being guilty as charged, but what is a gardener to do? It was on sale! Well now’s the time to remedy at least some of those mistakes.  But first let’s clean up that garden. My practice has been to cut down anything that is brown and obviously done for the season, but I like to leave anything still green alone except perhaps to trim. Green signifies that plants are still processing the sun’s energy and making valuable food for roots and stems. I find it’s a good practice to walk through and along the flower gardens daily or every few days, always with clippers in hand and cut back and prune as I go. It takes so little time really.

Then there are those plants needing extra winterizing care. Roses for example. I must admit I am new to roses these past couple of years. I never wanted to bother with them. My friends talked endlessly about aphids and black spot and spent a lot of time fussing over them. With 3 acres of gardens and a barn full of horses and goats and chickens I simply didn’t want plants that needed that much coddling. Last year I bought one of those shrub roses that bloom all summer and into Fall. I was smitten and had four more planted by late summer. How, did I resist for so long? So, I am learning as I go. This is what I have learned at least about getting them ready for the onslaughts of winter.  If there were any black spot on those leaves (only one of my five were affected) then once they drop those leaves, clean them and any mulch underneath and discard in the trash. Once things get into November Its good to mulch the roses up to 10-12 inches of the crown and stem. Again, use mulched up leaves. They are light and airy but protective. I also lightly pile leaves on my perennial gardens for protection, but also wait until mid-November.

Now is also an excellent time to collect seeds. It’s good to do this all summer and can continue into late fall and winter. Keep some labeled brown paper bags or envelopes available and when flowers need “deadheading” do so into those bags. I like to put the date and place collected as well. I am famous or perhaps infamous for collecting from friend’s gardens, but always ask first.  Put them somewhere dry and leave the bags open for air circulation. You can save a bit of money on expensive bedding annuals and perennials. Besides there is something exciting and even primal in starting seeds in late winter. You need to be sure to save seeds that are not hybrids since they won’t breed true to what you had in the garden. Some good ones to save are marigolds, cosmos, cleomes, larkspur, columbines and hollyhocks to name just a few.

Basically, these simple steps to help your gardens weather the next season will go a long way to making things easier next spring.

Posted on November 3, 2017 by owllightnews.com. This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.
The Sky in November 2017
Simple Sustainability: Minimalist Baby Gear

    Recent Posts

    • Visual Studies Workshop Announces Project Space Residency Open Application Period
    • West End Gallery showcasing Brian S. Keeler, Treacy Ziegler
    • Hard
    • Eye-Magine – Future Youth Art Exhibit
    • “These Wilds” Announcement

    Recent Comments

    • Darlene on Let’s Talk About Beep!
    • Darlene Bentley on Hello! from a new Guest Editor, and Finding Joy in Hardship.
    • owllightnews.com on The Farm
    • Douglas Morgan on The Farm
    • owllightnews.com on Energizing and Engaging Fun at GEVA

    Archives

    • May 2025
    • April 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • January 2025
    • December 2024
    • November 2024
    • October 2024
    • September 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017

    Categories

    • #2021
    • Agriculture
    • Animals
    • Antiques
    • Art
    • Astronomy
    • automobiles
    • Beekeeping
    • Birthday
    • Boating
    • books
    • Botany
    • Broome County
    • Buffalo
    • Canadice
    • Canandaigua
    • Cartoon
    • Children
    • Civics
    • Collecting
    • Comic Strip
    • Community Information
    • concert
    • Covid-19
    • Creative non-fiction
    • Dansville
    • Death
    • Democracy
    • Dogs
    • Editorial
    • Education
    • Environmental
    • Essay
    • Family Fun
    • Fantasy
    • Fiction
    • film
    • Finger Lakes
    • Food and Beverage
    • gallery
    • Gardening
    • Gender Rights
    • Great Lakes
    • Health
    • History
    • Holiday
    • Honeoye
    • Human Interest
    • Human Rights
    • In Memoriam
    • Innovation
    • Interview
    • Leisurely Pursuits
    • Literary Arts
    • Little Lakes
    • Live Theatre
    • Livingston County
    • media
    • Monroe County
    • Movies
    • Museums
    • Music
    • Naples, NY
    • Nature
    • Night Sky
    • No. 1
    • NYS
    • Obituary
    • online
    • Ontario County
    • Opinion
    • Outdoor Sports
    • OWL Light
    • Owl Light News
    • Owl Light Newsstand locations
    • Owl Light Sponsor
    • Owl Sponsor
    • OwlLight Blogpost
    • OwlLightNewsArchive
    • Performing Arts
    • Photography
    • Poetry
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Recipe
    • Reviews
    • Richmond, NY
    • Rochester
    • Satire
    • Science
    • Scifi
    • Seniors
    • Shop Local
    • Social Justice
    • sports
    • STEM
    • Steuben County
    • Sustainability
    • Theatre
    • Tioga County
    • Tompkins County
    • Travel
    • Uncategorized
    • Veterans
    • Weather
    • Women's Rights
    • Wood working
    • writing
    • Wyoming County
    • Yates County
    • Young Adult
    • youth
    • Zoom

    Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
Powered by