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09/21/2017 12:00 AMWinter is coming. Excuse the Game of Thrones reference, but colder weather is on its way and it's time to start preparing your garden and lawn for the chilly months ahead.
"Fall is the most excellent time for planting," says Diane Hartlin, an employee of Village Green Gardens in Guilford with 40 years of horticulture experience. "The soil is warm and the air is cool, so the roots take hold."
She says that late October through the beginning of November is the best time for planting. People can plant at any time and it only helps the plants to move from a pot into the ground. According to Hartlin, most plants that are planted won't be damaged by the frost.
"Anything that's going to die is going to die back in the pots or in the nursery," says Hartlin.
Autumn may be the best time to plant, but it is also imperative to prepare your garden and lawn for the frost that comes with cooler weather. And there are several steps that one must take to go about this.
Marsha Finkeldey of the Old Saybrook Garden Club says the process to prepare your garden spans a couple of months, and agrees that early fall can be a good time to add certain crops to your garden. She says it is also a good time to start preparing for the coming spring.
"It is a great time to start new beds for next year," says Finkeldey. "I love the book Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza using layers of wet newspaper, compost, peat moss, and chopped leaves. Layer that up this fall and have a no-dig area to start planting come spring."
The process to prepare for winter and the frost season is quite long, though it is paired with a planting season and pre-spring preparations.
"Getting ready to put the gardens to bed for the winter begins in September and continues until the ground freezes in November," says Finkeldey.
Michael Guerrera, owner and founder of Guerrera's Landscaping in Guilford, recommends a few steps for a garden and a few steps for preparing the lawn.
Guerrera says that for gardens residents should complete their fall pruning and make sure that any damaged or dead branches are kept away from their plants. In terms of yard preparation, he recommends applying a fall fertilizer and lime - if necessary.
Guerrera says that September is the best time of the year to be seeding your lawn, much like Hartlin's statements that fall is the best season for planting.
To prepare your garden for the frost, Guerrera recommends a few tasks.
"You would want to remove dead plants and compost over the top of the garden so that there is no erosion over the winter," says Guerrera. "What you can do in the fall, which is kind of important, is to apply to your shrubs a deer repellent. That helps keep the deer from browsing on your expensive landscaping plants - one treatment lasts six months."
Hartlin says that the last feeding of fertilizer given of one's plants should occur in September. Like Guerrera, she recommends pruning.
"You want to cut back herbaceous perennials (leafy, soft-stemmed) and leave the woody perennials intact for the winter," says Hartlin. "You want to simply deadhead hydrangeas and not cut them back in the fall because everybody makes that mistake...It simply takes that bloom off and leaves that for the winter. Any evergreens that need shaping or trimming can be done at any time. Fall is a great time to prune your hedges, your evergreens, except for rhododendrons and azaleas."
To deadhead hydrangeas, cut the flowers that are beginning to wilt under their heads.
Finkeldey says that in addition to deadheading the plants in your flower garden, you should also stake and weed the flowerbeds, leave the mulch, and add compost on top. It is important, too, to divide and replant the perennials that become overbearing in one's garden and it is a good time in the fall to add spring bulbs. She also recommends removing any debris or clutter from the garden, which will deter rodents from the garden in the winter.
However, animal problems do not simply disappear with the season change.
"Deer, woodchucks, and voles will still be active in our gardens, but that is for another time," says Finkeldey.