Maintaining your garden during the cold Autumn days is important, especially for Colorado landscapes because you have to properly prepare you gardens for the frigid cold of winter. Remember these three things when caring for your precious garden in Fall:
1. Prune your garden very carefully in the Fall. Ideally you want to wait to do any major pruning until late winter or early spring. Hard pruning in the Fall can make your plants more vulnerable to injury when an early freeze hits.
2. Homemade compost enriches the soil for the up coming spring. You want to use grass clippings, vegetable scraps from the table, disease-free plant debris, straw and even hay in the compost pile. Once all mixed together, moisten then cover and make sure you regularly turn the pile. It takes a few months for the compost to break down, but once it is don, work it in to the soil wherever you will be planting those spring bulbs.
3. Dividing your perennials like peonies, primroses and day lillies that are overcrowded. Using a sharp knife you can create healthy divisions by cutting clumps through the roots into small, wedge shaped sections. Then you’ll want to replant perennials into the soil that’s enriched by the homemade compost. Remember to keep them well watered.