With the end of summer and beginning of fall, gardeners’ thoughts turn to winterizing the garden. There is so much to do! Here are just a few of the many fall chores we need to be thinking about this time of year.
Tender bulbs like dahlias, gladiolus, cannas and caladiums won’t survive Pennsylvania’s freezing winter temperatures, so they will need to be dug up and stored over winter if you want to keep them and replant them next year.
After the tops yellow or after the first light frost, it’s time to gently lift the bulbs (technically these are not bulbs, but the word bulb is used here for simplicity). Using a digging fork, gently loosen the soil a few inches back from the bulbs, then lift them and cut foliage off a few inches above the bulbs, brush or gently wash off loose soil (gladiolus are best left dry so just gently brush the dry loose soil off those).
Gladiolus corms can be stored and replanted in the spring. (Wikimedia Commons)
Cure the bulbs for the appropriate amount of time for the species, then inspect for any damage and discard damaged bulbs. Pull the shriveled last year’s corm off the lifted gladiolus corms. Place your now dried bulbs in 2-3 inches of peat moss, sawdust or wood shavings and store in a 35-45 degree place with 50% humidity (for instance, in an unheated basement).
Be sure the storage area you’re using is not too hot nor too cold, and keep them away from the dehumidifier and also away from any wetness. Check them periodically over winter and remove any rotting or damaged bulbs. If you find that they’re dehydrated, add a little moisture; if they’re too wet, replace the too-wet storage medium with dry.
If you’ve been actively composting over the summer, fall is a great time to spread some of that compost on your lawn or garden. (Wikimedia Commons)
If you’ve been composting over the summer, fall is a great time to spread some of that compost on your lawn or garden. It adds organic material to the soil, reducing your need for fertilizers and enhancing your soil’s overall health.
Speaking of soil health, fall is a great time to test your soil and make appropriate amendments to bring your soil to the optimum fertility and pH for the crops you wish to grow, whether that is vegetables, lawn, flowers or shrubs and trees.
A monarch butterfly feeds on purple coneflower. (Wikimedia Commons)
Early fall is time to begin cutting back perennials that are no longer blooming. If you wish, you can decide to keep some standing seed heads (such as liatris, purple coneflower and rudbeckia) as food for birds and other wildlife. Pay attention as you’re cutting plant material as butterfly chrysalises can often be found on plant stems, particularly if you’ve grown parsley, carrots or dill nearby. Black swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on those and very often pupate on other plant stems (or even on the side of your buildings or fence posts) near these food plants.
Cleaning up leaf litter in your vegetable garden and flower beds is a great way to clean up and remove overwintering pests. Again, keep an eye out for beneficials such as praying mantis egg cases, butterfly chrysalises or cocoons of the giant silk moths like Polyphemus, which often are found in leaf litter both on the ground and attached to plants.
If you see something wrapped in a leaf and attached to your tree, check to see what it might be before pruning it out. Promethea moth cocoons, for instance, can often be found wrapped in a leaf and attached to a cherry or sassafras tree, where they stay all winter until emerging in spring as a beautiful moth.
If you see many, it’s possible that what you are seeing are bagworms that are overwintering on your shrubs or trees, and these can be easily seen in fall after leaf drop and equally easily removed by hand for non-chemical control. This is the importance of identifying of what you’re seeing in your garden. You’ll want to control pests but allow non-pest species such as butterflies or beneficials such as praying mantids to remain.
If you’ve planted new shrubs or perennials during summer or fall, keep watering them right up until the ground freezes. Keeping them watered helps them to make it through the freezing and desiccating winter temperatures and wind. Many conifers have shallow root systems, so it is especially important that newly planted specimens remain watered up until freezing temperatures.
Don’t fertilize plants in late summer or fall as this will cause them to push new, tender growth that will be highly susceptible to winter’s freezing temperatures. Fall is the time of year when plants need to harden off that summer’s growth and acclimate for the coming winter, not push new young growth.
Spruce and conifers can seem pretty easy care, but removing fallen needles under them in the fall can help with the control of needlecast diseases next year, possibly minimizing disease load.
A water garden shouldn’t freeze solid or the fish and other inhabitants will die. (Wikimedia Commons)
It’s also the time to begin thinking about your water garden and its inhabitants. Feed goldfish a little extra going into fall and until water temperature drops to about 45 degrees so that they have extra fat stores to help them through the winter when they naturally eat very little. Plan for an area of the water garden to be ice-free to allow for the exchange of gases (oxygen in, toxic waste gases produced from decaying organic matter out). Buildup of these toxic gases is harmful or even deadly to your fish.
Also, the water garden should not freeze solid or the fish and other inhabitants will die. It’s very important that enough water is still in liquid form under the ice cover for them, and for there to be an opening in the ice for gases to be exchanged. One foot of open surface area per 100 square feet of surface should be adequate for most water garden fish populations.
Remove leaves and other plant material that may have fallen into the water garden over summer. Also remove yellowed floating and potted annual pond plants such as water hyacinths, papyrus or tropical water lilies that won’t survive winter.
Hardy water lilies and other hardy plants like iris can be cut back and their pots lowered to the bottom of the pond to survive the winter once leaves begin to yellow naturally in fall. If there is a chance of the water freezing solid, plants should be removed and kept in a cold but not freezing place over the winter.
The entire water garden can be covered with netting to keep predators from eating sluggish fish, and keep leaves from accumulating in the water over winter. A water heater can be added to keep ice from getting too thick or from covering the entire pond. Don’t feed the fish or fertilize the plants over winter.
Store your garden tools in a shed or other place where they are protected from the weather. (Wikimedia Commons)
Fall is also a good time to clean up your garden tools, oil the wooden handles, sharpen the blades and store them over winter in a shed or other place where they are protected from the weather.
You can also clean, wrap up and store your watering hoses over winter, but if you’re planning to water late into fall, or wish to get it out to start watering early in spring, try to remember to store it in an accessible place so it’s easily reached when you need it.
While these might seem like rather boring, drudgery type tasks, it’s important for the future health of your garden and ease of your spring work by completing proper cleanup and storage now.
For more information on storing tender bulbs, cleaning and sharpening tools and water gardens, contact the Penn State Extension Master Gardener Garden Hotline at 610-378-1327 or berksmg@psu.edu
Dawn Ziegenfus Knepp is a Penn State Extension Master Gardener volunteer.
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