GARDENING IN THE LAND OF NOD

No, this article isn't about gardening in your sleep, although many of us continue to dream about ways we can improve our gardening methods. Now that a hard freeze has officially ended the 2009 growing season across Ohio, it is time to begin the task of putting your flower and vegetable gardens to bed. Dave Goerig and his fellow BYGLers would like to mention a few things you may want to do if you haven't managed them already.

First things first, harvest any vegetables left in the garden like onions, radishes, potatoes, or squash. In the flower garden, dig up any tender bulbs, rhizomes, corms and tuberous root flowers left such as dahlia, gladiolus, and cannas. Store these items in a cool, dark environment such as the basement. Keep an eye on them throughout the winter months to insure they are not drying out. If you are a seed collector, collect any seed that has been produced in your garden. Seeds from plants like sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias, and marigolds to name a few flowers, as well as heirloom vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and squash can all be sprouted next spring. Remove the seed heads or fruit from these plants and bring them into the garage for processing.

Next, remove all the hardgoods that were installed and used throughout the season that helped support your growing efforts. Remove stakes, cages, sections of wire fencing, rain gauges, twine, plant labels, watering devices, scarecrows, slug bars, and stepping stones. These items came in handy earlier in the season and no doubt they will be needed next year. Gather them up and store in the garden shed or garage. Continue closing your garden by using hand pruners or a hedge shear to cut off all dead foliage of any perennial plants. This task is garden specific as some people prefer to leave certain herbaceous ornamentals such as stonecrop, and tall grasses uncut to enjoy their winter look. Vegetable gardens may also have varieties of hardy plants that should not be cut off either, such as horseradish, and garlic.

Once this is done you are ready to remove all annual plant debris left in the planting bed. Do this by pulling these plants out of the ground with the roots included. Once out of the ground shake the soil off of the roots and inspect for disease symptoms. Some insects and many diseases overwinter in the host plant debris. Cleaning your garden of plant residue is the first and most important step in disease and insect pest management. Bury, burn, or compost this debris in sites away from the garden. If composting is the method you use to process dead garden plants, be sure your compost pile heats up sufficiently to destroy the pathogens that may be on the dead plant tissue. If this material is not properly composted before it is reintroduced in the garden you may be spreading the disease and insect problems back onto your soil.

Putting your garden to bed in this manner is just as important as any other growing chore you perform throughout the season. Other end-of-the-season activities you could consider in a vegetable bed would be fall tilling, sowing a cover crop and straw mulching. In ornamental beds, you may want to divide certain perennials now, mulch in new perennial introductions, and work on that edging. In any event the little things you do now will pay big dividends next season.