Mother Nature was a little stubborn letting go of summer this year, but it finally appears as if Old Man Winter is on his way. But don’t store your spade just yet. There are essential things you must do to ensure a beautiful, healthy garden next spring. Here are five easy ways to do just that:
1. CLEAN UP YOUR MESS
Pull up and discard or compost perennial stalk and vegetation. Some veggie plants can be composted, but avoid tomatoes and pepper plants which can sometimes harbor unwanted slugs, bugs and other maladies that might end up in your soil via fresh compost in the spring.
2. RAKING UP IS HARD TO DO
But raking leaves is important and not just to keep a clean, aesthetically pleasing yard. Raking aerates the soil to ensure air gets into the root zone, making for healthier plants come springtime. Chopped up dead leaves are ideal for composting and mulching, too. Use a lawnmower to mulch the leaves after raking. Plus, a nice, comfy bed of whole, unmulched leaves promotes rot and creates the perfect winter safe haven for unwanted diseases and bugs. YUCH!
3. WEEDING IS FUNDAMENTAL
And here you thought your weeding days were over for the year. Au contraire! Make this final attack on those pesky vegetative nuisances your most concentrated. Why? Because anything overlooked will go to seed, leaving you with hundreds more weeds to deal with in the spring. Plus, weeds can provide safe harbor for insects and plant diseases over the winter, so weed, baby, weed!
4. BULB UP
Now is the time to plant bulbs, like daffodils, tulips and hyacinths before the ground freezes. Come the thaw, after slogging through a cold, dreary winter, you’ll be greeted with colorful flowers, the perfect start to a new season and the ideal pick-me-up to get you ready for the spring.
5. ADD COMPOST NOW
Work into your garden soil generous amounts of compost. Don’t be stingy. There’s no excuse—there are bagfuls of potential, nutrient-rich compost falling from the trees all around you! There are few easier ways to feed your garden than mulched leaves, and no easier way to chop those leaves than with a lawnmower. If you run out, use a neighbor’s—they’ll be happy to give you their unwanted dead foliage. Adding a layer atop your garden beds, as well as into the dirt, will also help keep valuable soil from eroding over the winter.
Or you can purchase rich, quality compost from L.E.S. Ecology. Outstanding Renewal Enterprise Inc. (The Lower East Side Ecology Center) has been offering community-based recycling and composting programs since 1987, one of the first organizations to do so in New York City.
L.E.S. Ecology sells compost, bins and cranks, red wiggler worms, everything for the ecology-minded individual who wants to start doing their own composting. All of these products are sold at the company’s stand at the Union Square Greenmarket year-round. Compost bins, cranks and worms need to be pre-ordered by calling 212-477-4022.
Start reducing you carbon footprint today. Let L.E.S. Ecology show you how.
