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Winterizing Tips For Your Lawn And Garden
By Cheryl Summer, Fri Dec 9th
Your outdoor plants have worked hard for you all summer, makingyour yard a place you’re proud to call home. Properlywinterizing your and garden is an important step towardhealthy soil, lush grass, and happy plants next year. Rememberto take care of your outdoor accessories, including your lawnequipment, gardening tools, and all of your and gardendecor. A little time spent this autumn will make your gardeningand landscaping efforts easier and more enjoyable next spring! Let’s start with the easy jobs - First remember to store all ofyour and garden decor including fragile planters, gazingballs, and your deck furniture. Unglazed terra cotta plantersleft filled with soil outside will often break in the freezingtemperatures so it is best to clean them and place them in astorage area where they are protected from the elements. Autumn is the time to find your birdfeeders and to startstocking your winter feeding pantry. Soon your many featheredfriends will be flocking to your feeders for that nutritiousmorsel. Remember to keep your feeders full through the winter asthe birds need reliable food sources through the winter months.
Now that you’ve done the easy tasks, let’s move on to the moremundane winterizing chores. Start by simply cleaning up thevegetable garden. After the first hard frost, remove the year’sannual plants and the dead vegetation. You can add this materialto your compost pile, but make sure you’re not adding materialfrom diseased or pest-infested plants. You’ll want to pullperennial weeds before you mulch your garden down for the winter. The best part of fall landscape chores is planting thespring-blooming bulbs. Crocus, tulips, and daffodils are abeautiful addition to the early spring landscape. In the yard there’s the major job of raking leaves. These aregreat either in the compost pile or as direct mulch on thegarden.
Perennial flowers may be smothered by a heavy layer ofmulch, however. Also, wait to prune your trees until later inthe winter. After the ground freezes you can mulch your perennial flowersand newly planted trees. Certain shrubs will need to be wrappedin burlap to protect them from wind damage, sun scald, and otherwinter injury. Moving on to the mechanical tasks of winterizing your andgarden - While you might try to procrastinate on these jobsuntil spring, you’ll be well rewarded for the maintenance youperform this fall. Drain the gas from your lawnmower and stringtrimmer. Actually it’s best to let your mowers and trimmerssimply run out of fuel. If you don’t want to ‘waste’ that littlebit of fuel, add a gas conditioner before the long winter. Besure to follow directions. Also, take the same care with yourgardening equipment such as your rotary tiller. Clean all of your landscaping equipment before you store it awayfor the long, cold winter. Wash with soap and water, clean theair filter, and change the oil. You’ll find that first lawnmowing job in the spring a little bit easier if you take time tosharpen the blades now. You can protect that freshly sharpenedblade by applying a little spray oil to the blades. You can alsoapply light spray oil to other moving parts such as cables andthe throttle controls. Lastly, drain all of the water from the garden hoses and turnoff the taps. Be sure to store your insecticides, herbicides,and fertilizers in a safe storage area that will not freeze.Make sure these materials are kept away from children and pets! © Copyright BestLawnandGarden.com, All Rights Reserved. About the author:Cheryl Summer is a frequent contributor to Best and Garden.For more Articles and tips on and Garden care, Gardeningand Garden Decor visit Lawn and Garden
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