A Few Fall Cleanup & Winter Preparation Tips

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Here are some tips for preparing your yard for winter, this makes yard maintenance much easier to deal with in the Spring!

• Clean Garden Pots: Wash grime & rings away with a 50/50 water and vinegar solution. Works well on both plastic and clay containers.
• Clean out the gutters, but wait until all the leaves have dropped. Check for leaks and any wear and tear and fix now before it snows or freezes over. This will help ensure your gutters are up to the task when Spring rains hit.
• Check tree branches and lightly trim any that are close to the house. Too much trimming at this time of year can damage a tree, so just do enough to keep the branches out of reach over winter (keeping in mind heavy winds and snow).
• Before storing the patio umbrella away for the winter, take a pair of pantyhose and use one leg to cover the closed umbrella and the other leg to wrap around the bottom (to keep it closed). This will help protect the umbrella yet still give it air to breathe.
• Spray down all patio furniture and if not brought inside (garage) to winter, tarp them. This will help the furniture last a lot longer, especially wood furniture.
• Remove or cover all open containers and pots. Helps protect them when it freezes plus you don’t want to provide pools of water for a mosquito breeding ground in the spring.
• If you have bags of birdseed to feed the birds in the fall and over winter, make sure the bags are in covered containers. The mice *will* find them otherwise and camp out in your storage area.
• Fill a pail with sand and used motor oil. Dig your garden tools in the mixture to sharpen them up and clean them.

Getting Your Garden Ready For Winter

Roses

Before hard freeze, tie tops of the individual plants together with cloth strips to strengthen them against wind. Then mound earth up around stems to six or eight inch depth. After ground freezes, surround plants with 12 to 15 inches of straw, hay or loose leaves. If wind threatens to remove your mulch, anchor it with collars of wire mesh, building paper, or an inverted bushel basket with the bottom knocked out. Don’t prune roses in the fall; but unusually long canes can be cut back to average height, as they might break off anyway.

Delphiniums

The cold won’t kill them, but collected moisture and the heaving action of alternate freeze and thaw might do damage. Late in autumn, put a little mound of sand or coal ashes over the crown of each plant, to drain away moisture.

Phlox

If you have divided and re-planted, or started cuttings, protect new plants with a few inches of light straw. Old established clumps need no protection.

Peonies

After frost but before leaves dry up and fall off, cut stems down close to ground. Foliage must be burned or destroyed and not added to compost pile since the foliage may harbor pests or diseases. Mark peony positions with a few stakes to keep you from trampling them. No other winter protection is needed.

Lilies

Except for day lilies and a few other exceptionally hardy types, lilies appreciate a light mulch covering. Well rotted leaf mold is good, and can be left on all year. Put a little sand or coal ashes over the top of each plant to keep moisture from collecting on the crown.

Chrysanthemums

After heavy frosts kill foliage, cut off stems six inches above ground and cover each plant with straw or hay. In areas of extreme cold, mound soil over the base much as you would for roses, and then mulch with straw. Tender types or especially valuable specimens should be lifted and moved to a cold frame.

Dahlias

After killing frost, cut off plants six inches above ground, allow to remain two weeks to ripen. Then dig tubers carefully so as not to break tubers from stem. Allow clump to drain and dry so soil shakes off, then dust with sulphur to prevent rot, and store in a cool dry place. Pack in a dry material such as sand, sawdust or newspapers, and do not allow to freeze. Next spring cut tubers apart, leaving a bud on each.

Cannas

After killing frost, cut tops, lift roots and store like dahlias. Wait until spring to divide.

Evergreens

Water them during dry spells, through fall and even winter on mild days. In cold sections, mulch over root area after ground has frozen with three inches of leaves, straw or peat to preserve moisture and prevent alternate freezing and thawing. If you live where heavy snow may be expected, put props under large branches or tie branches together to prevent breakage.

Strawberries

After ground freezes, cover lightly with straw, hay or loose leaves.

Fruit and Flowering Trees

If there are rabbits around, you might wrap trunks of young trees with paper or cloth up about three feet or surround them with wire mesh. In northern regions, magnolias and flowering dogwoods need a winter mulch of loose leaves or peat moss around the base.

Source: The WorkBasket (1952)

Garden Crops: Cold Storage Tips

Home storing of the less perishable vegetables for winter use has almost become a lost art.

Cabbage, turnips, radishes, beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, celery, potatoes and apples may be stored in cool and moist surroundings. Onions require a cool and dry atmosphere; and pumpkins, squash and sweet potatoes need a dry place where it is relatively warm.

If you do not have a basement cold room, or an outdoor root cellar, the alternative is to store the cold-requiring vegetables in pits or mounds outdoors. Root crops for storage, including potatoes, should be planted late so the crop will not mature too early.

Directions

Leave an inch of tops on such vegetables as beets, carrots and turnips. Pack them in boxes between layers of loose soil or sand; dig a trench in a well-drained part of the garden–make it deep enough to leave the tops of the boxes a foot below ground level, and large enough to hold all the boxes; place the boxes in the trench. Then lay boards across the top of the trench, stand a piece of drain pipe or tile up to carry off the air and after a few days when the vegetables have cooled, throw in enough earth to close the space between the roots and the boards. When it gets very cold, heap on enough dry leaves or straw to keep the frost from the soil under the boards. Keep the leaves or straw dry by covering with old canvas or boards. Being dry, the leaves will be easy to handle and resistant to frost, and will be easier to remove when you want to get at your vegetables. Potatoes may be stored in this way if plenty of straw is used so air circulates around them.

Perhaps you will want to make several storage pits with a box of vegetables in each, so you can remove them one at a time without disturbing them all. If so, put a variety of vegetables in each box.

For cabbage, a simple method is to dig a trench 8 inches deep and wide enough for three heads. Pull the heads up by the roots, remove the largest outer leaves, and place the heads top down in the trench. Cover with straw or hay, then soil, and add more soil as the weather becomes colder. Stand a bunch of straw up like a chimney every few feet along the trench to give ventilation.

Brussels sprouts may be kept a short time this way if packed loosely in straw, then covered with earth. However, this vegetable is quite hardy and the sprouts will be usable from the garden until late fall.

For celery, dig a trench as deep as the celery is high and as narrow as possible so the stalks can be packed tightly in an upright position, roots on the soil. Leave uncovered until freezing weather sets in, then cover with straw and 6 or 8 inches of soil. For early use, blanch the celery in the garden, but for mid-winter use, put it in the trench green and blanch it there.

Apples can be kept in barrels laid in shallow pits. Select the best fruit, pack carefully in barrel and nail a burlap sack over the end. Try to have the apples cool when you pack them. Cover the barrel with a foot and a half of straw, then 6 inches of soil. As the cold strengthens, add another layer of straw and soil. Storing apples in barrels instead of open ground keeps them from absorbing a ground flavor.

Onions need cold, dry air. After being pulled, they should be cured by spreading them in the sun several days. Remove tops after curing, cutting them three or four inches above the bulb. Place on slatted racks or trays and store in a cool, dry place where there will be circulation of air. A frost-proof attic is ideal.

Pumpkins and squash should be gathered before frost, and left with stems on. They should be fully mature, and many gardeners leave them in the sun a few days after they are cut, to harden the rind. Store them on shelves in a dry room where the temperature will be about 50 degrees. If warmer they will lose weight; if moist they will rot. Handle carefully to prevent bruising.

Sweet potatoes need the same conditions as pumpkins and squash.

Green tomatoes left on the vines can be saved by pulling the plant and hanging it in a dry, frost-proof place. The fruit will ripen for some time. Peppers can be kept for as long as three weeks if the plants are pulled up and hung upside down in a damp, cool corner of the basement.

Source: WorkBasket Magazine, 1952