Do you have your winter yard and garden prep finished?

[Carolyn]

Today, we got tons done in the yard. The gutters are cleaned and all of the leaves were raked away from the house. We mulched them up with the riding mower and put them onto beds and elsewhere as mulch. For some reason I have always taken that stuff to the mulch pile and then moved it BACK at a later time. What a dork. Today we just mulched it right in the yard and dumped it back where it needed to be. Easy peasy. I put my beds down for the winter a couple of weeks ago after we had a few really hard early freezes which pretty much ended my season this year. Missing it already.

 

[marlingardener]

Oh, my heavens, no! Today I just got the Roma tomato vines cleaned out of the vegetable garden and the trellises put away. I still have the cherry tomato vines to clear out, and the Celebrity tomato plants to pull and compost. The flower beds are waiting for my attention, and the herb bed needs prepping for spring.
I love gardening, but sure wish it would slow down a bit!

 

[DancingLady]

I haven't had to do much this year since I wasn't doing much gardening this summer do to work business and some other issues. I'm pretty much done with outdoor work for the season I think. If I get hold of some compost I'll put that out there, but that's about it.

 

[ChanellG]

Well, I had moved everything to the greenhouse in a cold snap in early November. Since it warmed up again last week, I took everything out and pruned and rearranged and got it all better organized. I also relocated the leaf bin and filled it most of the way with leaves. I still have more leaves to rake up (maybe I'll do that in a bit), but I think I'm pretty much set. I just have to figure out how to keep the greenhouse warm in freezing temps. Thinking of using water.

 

[Mockingbird]

I am so far from finished. Is there really such a thing? Now that some of the snow has melted I see lots of leaves that I need to clear, and I have to re-tie some of the lilacs. I was wondering if I should add some organic mulch to my raised bed since it is empty, I always seem to wait far to long for that. Now that I think of it can I move my strawberries now or should I wait for that? I would think that I have to wait till the spring for that or am I too late?

 

[Carolyn]

Well, I had moved everything to the greenhouse in a cold snap in early November. Since it warmed up again last week, I took everything out and pruned and rearranged and got it all better organized. I also relocated the leaf bin and filled it most of the way with leaves. I still have more leaves to rake up (maybe I'll do that in a bit), but I think I'm pretty much set. I just have to figure out how to keep the greenhouse warm in freezing temps. Thinking of using water.

Last spring we had a late cold snap and I had lots of seedlings out there I had started in the attic. I actually took a little space heater out and set the thermostat as low as it would go and put everything I could fit under a sort of mini hoop house made with plastic. I only had to run it for a few cold nights. I just couldn't bear to start over. Since mine is a hoop house rather than a green house I really cantt worry about heating. It's would be totally unaffordable.

 

[ChanellG]

@Carolyn, my greenhouse is one of those "portable" things you put together out of metal and plastic. It came in what seemed like 100 parts, and while it got the job done last year -- for the most part -- it is now leaning in all directions and giving me cause for concern. Where it is situated makes it difficult to use electrical anything, but perhaps I can find something battery powered.

I could count on the fingers on one hand how many nights it dips below 40, let alone below 30. I am just looking into options because I did lose a couple plants last year.

 

[peachdejour]

I got the front flower garden done, but it started snowing and raining before we got to the back yard. The yard is still full of mud and leaves. It's going to be an annoying spring clean up. That's okay though because we still have some landscaping to do back there too.