Putting the garden to bed

Sunday, November 16, 2008

I’m trying something I did last year which worked pretty well for keeping the container perennials over the winter. I push them together and pile the leaves and stems and even the rootballs of annuals over the top to make a wind barrier. Over the next week, I’ll collect more leaves and things and arrange them around the container bases as insulation.Then we’ll see if the coneflowers and verbena come back.
Another tactic has been to put a container in a container rather than disturb the plant’s roots twice by taking out the one it’s in, putting it into a bigger, more insulated container for winter, and then digging it out again in the spring. I’ll be burying this in leaves, too.
At the lower edge of this photo are some helleborus plants (Lenten Roses) swaddled in leaves. I’ve been piling them around my new this season raspberry bushes as well.
Last, but not least, the compost “silo” (yard is too small for a “pile") for the rest of the leaves and the vegetable scraps. Apart from a squirrel or two diving in, it’s working pretty well. It’s in a corner that doesn’t work for in-ground planting, so I hope to keep it going all next year.