When do you finally roll up the last of the hoses, layer on the mulch for winter, pull up the last of the annuals, and call it a season??
The weather has been so warm and cooperative that I wonder just how long I can go without saying 'It's Done'.
What are your thoughts on this?
I would say after a few freezes. Seems to be around midNovember here. Some things could be cut back or ripped up now, but I usually wait to do it all at once.
I think I do it when I get tired of looking at it.
Right after the first killing frost.....which was a couple weeks ago....everything's put away...the Mums are blooming, I will leave and a lot of the perennial sticks to catch snow for winter cover and remove them all in the spring.
I try to let Mother Nature tell me when. It does seem to be after a few killing frosts and this never happens at the same time any year. I think this year is the longest I have waited. I still have the hose out. The risk is having to winterize the yard when it is brrrrrrrrrrrrr, really cold out there:)
When it's consistently cold, I'll turn off the hose lines. I still work in the garden until it's too cold or I'm too pooped. I usually do not pull the dead annuals out until Spring, except in the window and hanging baskets. Put down Milorganite on the lawn near Turkey Day.
You are all helping me to feel better about the encroaching winter season. I'm glad that I can still be out puttering in the flower beds and not be thought of as strange.
Our hoses are still out, and only the iris and some of the daylilies have been cut back. I haven't cut back any daylilies that were put in this season, though.
My goal for today is to empty out the kitchen window flower box. I'm a bit weary of looking at marigolds that have gone to seed!
I am so hoping that Louise is having a safe trip back to Florida. I'll miss her posts this week.
First killing frost will usually do it for me. Hoses get put away when they predict the first temps below freezing. Also will check for any decorations and lawn furniture that needs putting away still. Cut back mushy stuff and spread composted manure and that is as they say that. Now watch the mail for the Nov. winter catalog on-slot and mad planning/ ordering/ list making begins. Its all good. :)
I'm with Victor: when I'm too pooped or it's too cold.
I still go into the garden on every nice day in winter (like last year going into the first two weeks of this year) to pull weeds, replace labels, make notes for next year, take photos of problem spots, find more spots where I can add more lilies, remove any dead branches of anything, check hydrangea mulch, etc.
I remember those first two weeks of this year! I have a photo of our outside thermometer showing the most incredible temperature for the middle of January. Then, the next week, we got an ice storm, and it was all downhill from there!!
Move it up to near 60 and you see what we had! I'm sure the sudden, dramatic change and prolonged cold are what did in my koi.
January 13th it was 70 degrees out here!
This was the front garden on that same day.
It looked almost like early Spring.
Probably was close to that here Pirl.
Well, pirl. You ARE a few zones away from where I am! LOL!
And they call our town 'Little Alaska'!! From what are temps are, I could be a Zone 4 some years.
And, Victor. I am sure you are correct about the fish's demise.
It's been unusually warm here the past couple years. I think I say I'm done in February. I'm always out there doing something.
I was working on my photo program today and was rather surprised to see all the photos I took during January and February. Just getting outside in the fresh air is great. It's the dank, cold, damp days I don't care for.
Today was the day for me! I finished cleaning everything up and mulching and taking in the hose so it doesn't freeze and burst the pipes overnight! ALL DONE!!
I can't waiit for next spring!!!!
How will you spend the next five or six months?
HOUSE PLANTS!!! yayyyy
Browsing catalogs and searching the internet for next years MUST have plants. Oh and catching up on the housework that I kept on telling myself that I would do once the gardening season was over.
It's amazing to me how many dahlias are sold out already. I count on dahlia hunting and working on my photo program to get me through February.
I have so many photos to organize and get in the right 'folders'! I may be busy until June!!
I'm too lazy to do that. I just make every folder the month and year and have two sub-folders - 'Garden' and 'Other'. Reflects my view of the world.
Other you say - now I know where to file this.
Closing up for the Winter?
Not many garden pics left here that's for sure.
Al:
Is that your rodent and slug deterrant?
heehee Candyce
The next 6 months or so - I spend indoors LOL I hate the cold temps. I hibernate until spring! Actually it gives me more one on one time with the kids and we do more visiting etc....
We'll leave the light on for you.
A Canadian who hates cold temps - I think you're in the wring place Dawn!
ugh....I hate the cold too, and hibernate until spring....bonus is, I end up with a really clean house!!!
Victor deterrent Candyce.
I'm stealthy - that wouldn't help.
I know what you mean about the clean house! LOL
Yes Victor I have always felt I was born in the wrong climate! However that being said I would need someplace warm and DRY not humid! I hate winters here. I mean I do as much as I can like sledding, snowmachining, skiing etc but there is only so much you can do depending on what the weather is like that day....if it is too freaking cold I just stay in by my beautiful (non messy) gas fireplace LOL
I'm just finishing pulling out the last of the tomatoes I had in the ground--they're still bearing (I've saved a lot but I AM TIRED of tomatoes!)
Dahlias aren't pulled out yet; mums, impatiens, and begonias still blooming, but first frost expected on Monday night.
Shredded-leaf mulch won't go down for a while mostly because I don't HAVE much yet.
I've got to keep an eye on my hoses; last year in my newbie-dom to the NE winter, I left them out too long in November, and the water froze inside them. I had to leave them out coiled up on the blacktop of my driveway on the next sunny day. Eventually, like snakes, they warmed up and I could stretch them out and shake out the chunky ice.
Our tomatoes are still providing us and neighbors but slowing down and taking a long time to ripen. Any day now we'll give up on them, too, and bring in what we can to save (frozen in slices and/or chunks) for the winter stews and soups.
Emily - part of the joy of gardening is to eat what's available until we're tired ot it. Then it's easier to welcome next summer yearning for our own produce. We do the same thing with asparagus. By the end of June, when we're getting 50 and 60 a day, it's hard not to eat them but it's bordering on boring. Twice, so far, we've asked neighbors to pick them while we're on Cape Cod and both times people "forgot". Quite annoying to come home and have to cut down and throw a few hundred into the compost piles.
Hose round-ups are another autumn job nobody wants! We have six to disconnect and Jack hangs them (one at a time) over ladders, then rolls them up.
I despise "frost warnings". It's all doom and gloom!
How odd that everybody's house gets clean in the winter. doesn't happen here. I do find I have time for other pursuits, though. this winter, I'm hoping that will include some quilting and cross-stitch. maybe even some painting (watercolor).
I had my sprinkler system winterized this past week. So I want to leave one hose out in case we don't get enough rain in the next few weeks. I have some new shrubs that I want to make sure go into the winter with enough moisture.
I have all the roses to winterize yet, but that should wait until the ground freezes. could be December.
