A very busy time begins in the garden as the summer and autumn
flowers fade. Although much depends upon the weather, the time
is approaching quickly when we must put everything in order for
the winter. In my part of the country, Halloween, at the end of
the month, usually is heralded in with snow and cold
temperatures.
The whole flower garden should be dug over, but it is most
important not to injure the hardy plants that will remain. Where
there are a lot of these, it is safer to dig with a fork than a
spade. A spade is much more likely to cut roots through if it
comes across them. This, of course, presupposes you already have
a flower bed with easily worked soil. Annual plants may all be
pulled up and carted away to the compost bin as they cease to
flower.
Remember that many of our hardy perennial plants die down for
the winter. Their leaves and stems wither and die. But we must
not conclude that the plant is dead just cause the tops die. The
roots are very much alive and in the spring beautiful fresh
young growth will peep through the soil. This is just a caution
for the newbie gardener.
Nature has all sorts of methods to enable her hardy plants to
pass the winter safely. Some, like the hardy perennials, are
simply going to sleep, in a manner of speaking. Some, like the
bulbous plants – the snowdrops, and winter aconites, and others
– are waking up, for these sleep during the hot summer months.
Some plants remain fresh and green winter and summer alike.
Just as we should have made everything neat and trim for the
summer, so during the next few weeks everything should be made
neat and tidy for the winter. All dead leaves, stems, etc.,
should be cleared away, and stakes taken up and stored except
where plants still need them.
If our gardens were only made and planted in the spring, our
hardy plants will not need dividing. But if they have been
around two or three seasons then probably some of them will be
better divided. We divide clumps that have grown to a large size
because if they throw up too many flowering stems, they will not
be well nourished or produce a fine blossom and towards the
center the plant will grow poorly.
We should remember that it is good for the future welfare of a
plant to replant it in a different spot from where it has been.
If we do not need all the pieces we can make of a divided plant,
we should replant the strong or outer portions.
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