Winter Preparation
Hello! A few members reached out recently with questions about winter preparation, so I thought I’d take a moment to share the (relatively) few things that we do here.
For the most part, we let nature take it’s course in our gardens.
Pre-winter pruning
We cut back our irises into a low-fan shaped form.
We cut our peonies down to just a few inches and remove all plant material.
We cut back out dahlia pots and prepare to move them indoors.
We cut back any flowers whose spread we’d like to contain and do not allow them to go to seed. (baby’s breath, tansy)
Enable bird feed AND INSECT SHELTER:
We allow our unharvested amaranth, sunflowers, and many other flowers to go to seed and feed local bird populations. We do not cut back many plants in the fall, instead allowing them to shelter beneficial insects and birds through the cold winter, and to provide a little extra insulation from the cold snow and ice to come.
MINIMAL FIELD clean up:
We remove our garden hoses from the fields and store them for the winter.
We do NOT remove our drip tape or drip tape manifolds. Once we’ve turned off the water, the systems are self draining through their emitters. We leave them in place and fix and minor leaks we find in the spring.
If we have open soil, we mulch it for the prevention of erosion and weeds.