Putting the Garden to Rest
The closing of our gardening series

With the first frost warning in the Milwaukee-area occurring this past Wednesday, let’s talk about the importance of putting the garden to rest for the year. It’s always a bitter-sweet moment. The morning when you walk outside and everything is a little..crunchier. The plants are hanging on by a thread and the air has lost its buzz of swarming bugs. The garden is going to bed. It’s worked hard all season and deserves a break.

However, there are some things you can do this year to make sure next year’s harvest is bigger and better than ever, so we gathered up some tips and tricks to help you get there:

1. Maybe Don’t Pull Out All of Your Dead Plants – Especially not the perennials, of course. All dead plants can be vital protection to hibernating insects and small animals. Pull out plants that may be diseased or damaged, or any ones that are invasive and overgrown, but always make sure you have some leafy plants available so those pollinators can stay nice and safe over the winter.
2. You Can Trim Back Some Perennials – perennial growth is slow and steady, but cutting back dead flowers and stems for the winter can increase growth in the beginning of spring. Some people leave these alone for the pollinators as well, it mainly just depends on how tidy you want your winter garden to look
3. Mulch Mulch Mulch! – Contrary to popular belief, perennial roots are more likely to suffer from the drastic temperature changes that come in the early spring than the extreme cold in the dead of winter. Because of this, plants roots need some insulation to protect them! Dead leaves, wood mulch, or even cardboard are great forms of biodegradable insulation for your plants. Additionally, some people plant what is called ‘cover crops’. These are seeds that you plant after you pull out veggie plants and they like to grow quickly. These will typically grow enough that when they die back they will leave a nice even layer of plant material. Additionally, many of these plants (like red clover and different pea varieties) will help to improve the soil structure and infuse important nutrients, such as nitrogen, back into the soil. Moral of the story, putting down some layer of biodegradable material will help keep your plants safe and provide great added nutrients when they break down into the soil.
4. There Is Still Time to Plant! – Many perennials prefer to be planted in the fall so that they have enough time to become rooted and stable by the time the spring roles around (remember when I mentioned that perennials grow slow?) So be sure to get those last few plants in the ground while the sun is warm this weekend! Additionally, be sure to get your garlic in before the ground freezes over. Garlic is super easy to grow, and is one of the first things to harvest in the spring/early summer. Make sure you get an organic bulb from the farmers market or store, and plant each clove pointy side up about 2-3 inches into the ground. Come spring, it will be one of the first plants that start popping out of the snow. I recommend to do it right before the ground freezes, otherwise the garlic might start popping up this fall.

With the closing of the gardening season on the Midwest, our gardening series has come to an end as well. Thanks to everyone who followed along and hopefully got a little more inspired to try something new in their gardens this year, or perhaps have big plans for next year.