Winterizing Gardens and Lawns

With the worst of the summer heat behind us and the cooler fall temperatures offering a mild reprieve before the winter weather settles in, now is the time to begin preparing lawns and gardens for next year’s growing season.

Several simple tasks will help ensure your lawn’s health and garden’s beauty is revived come spring.

“It’s that time of year when the leaves are turning different colors because they lack moisture and the days are getting shorter. This is a great time to take advantage of good weather and start preparing flower beds, edible gardens and lawns for winter and next season,” said Ann Ronning, Roosevelt County Extension Agent.

Fertilizing and winterizing grass, trees and shrubs will allow home foliage to enter its winter slumber nourished and comfortable.

It’s a good time to add a large amount of compost to the garden soil. This can be done using anything from grass clippings, dead leaves, kitchen trash or dry manure. The composting materials can be placed in a hole and covered over, or just left on top.

When it finally comes time to accept the fruits of the gardening labor have been realized, it is beneficial to pull all of the plants out of the garden and perform a soil test. This will provide time in the fall for applying necessary nutrients that can meld all winter long and prepare the soil for spring. “By knowing what you have and what you need in your soil, you’ll be ready to feed your plants as soon as warm weather permits,” Ronning said.

Soil tests cost an average of about $35. The primary nutrients that will be evaluated are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, as well as the acidity and alkalinity of the soil.

Fall tilling can also be beneficial by working in any left-over and healthy garden material. By adding these nutrients, it will help to build strong, healthy plant roots for spring crops. As the soil is turned it allows for better air circulation and helps with the decomposition of any added organic matter. It can also prevent the growth of new weeds in the spring. It can also prevent garden pests and insects from wintering in the soil.

One simple way to remember where everything was planted in the garden this year is by taking a picture of it that can be looked at later. It’s an easy and efficient way to help determine where to best place next year’s root crops, fruit bearing and edible plants.

Sharon Salvevold, a Culbertson resident, has been gardening her yard for some 35 years. For years she enjoyed her large perennial gardens but got tired of the maintenance and upkeep required with keeping plants from getting root bound and transplanting them to different areas. “Even though you don’t have to replant them each year there is still a lot of work involved,” Salvevold said. Today, she enjoys a lush landscape of trees and shrubbery that require little maintenance.

Salvevold uses only plants zoned for the climate of Northeast Montana, growing trees such as grafted ornamental trees of Korean lilac, blue spruce and weeping caragana.

In an effort to keep her yard aesthetically pleasing, she tries to use only several ypes of trees and shrubs in varying shades of green. She arranges them in varying sizes to give her yard dimension.

“I went from having a lot of work to do to just a minimal amount. I like the grafted trees with trunks and sticks because they don’t allow leaves to build up around them. I tried a number of different plants and shrubs in my yard but these are great because they allow the leaves to blow right through the yard rather than settling,” Salveveold said.

One of the keys to her success is that she fertilizes her yard three times a year, in early spring, July and fall. In the weeks following the mulching, weeding and feeding, she soaks the ground with water.

Oftentimes people decide to transplant trees and shrubs in the fall. In Northeast Montana, Zone 3 for plant heartiness, it is important to only transplant trees that do well in zones of 1, 2 and 3. “The concern is that our zones average first frost comes between Sept. 1 – 20 and those lowered temperatures will hurt those trees and shrubs,” Ronning said. For successful transplants, the key is to get the roots to grow a little before the frost to enable them to take hold before winter.

This time of year it’s okay to slow down on watering plants too. However, when you do water, it’s a good idea to really soak the area. A good determinate of when enough water has been applied is to use a cat food or tuna can and place it on the lawn where you are watering. Once the can is full, enough water has been applied.

It may not be beneficial to water after the garden is pulled out, because you run the risk of potentially germinating weed seeds.

There are several benefits to watering less often too. If plants are waiting each day for water that always is provided they don’t have to work for it and the roots don’t grow. If watered less frequently, the roots will stretch and grow while searching out their own water sources. This increases the soil and grass health.

When sticking to a fertilizing regime, it is recommended to do it four times a year using the holidays of Labor Day, Columbus Day, Memorial Day and the first freeze as dates of reference. The key is to apply a pound of nitrogen per 1,000 feet of lawn.

For the last grass cutting of the season, it’s a good idea to leave between two and two-and-a-half inches of height.

“One of the most brilliant and simple things I have seen was a farming neighbor who pushed all of his snow over the garden when he plowed,” Ronning said.

For those who have an especially difficult time resigning their green thumb, garlic is a plant that can be planted now, much like winter wheat. Garlic requires a long growing season. “The seeds will lie dormant and then wake up once the weather suits their needs,” Ronning said.