Even with colorful cold-weather flowers in place, our first killing cold forced me to put the last touches on getting my garden ready for winter.
Being a practicing Stoic, I don’t burden myself unnecessarily and take care of what I can as best I can, avoid worrying about the what-ifs or woulda/shoulda/couldas. So, knowing both my area’s average weather predictions and the tolerances of the plants I choose to grow, I anticipate and prepare accordingly. And steel myself to handle extraordinary events if or when they occur.
Bringing in tender tropical potted plants is always a challenge. Pots need to be cleaned of critter-harboring debris, bad leaves snipped off and the remaining given a good hosing to remove potential hitchhikers, then everything gets a good soaking and fresh mulch. Some plants are so predictable about dropping outdoor leaves when brought indoors - ferns, hibiscus, weeping fig, croton, and flowering vines come to mind - I prune them to make the faster with less mess to deal with; light pruning also stimulates stronger, faster new growth which is better adapted to indoors.
Knowing I am not a consistent or nurturing kind of gardener, I stick with mostly succulents that go weeks without water, and avoid ferns, African violets, and others which require constant moisture. But when I used to grow needy plants, I watered them twice, a few minutes apart, to really soak them well without as much run-off onto the floor. And I kept them out of heater drafts which dried them out quickly (and no, misting doesn’t really help).
As for outdoor plants, I do very little. Either they can make it or they can’t, but at the very least I will have some cleaning up to do when I get home. I weed a bit, cut down the slimy stuff like cannas, gingers, and elephant ears, and toss the summer flowers, veggies, and herbs that won’t make it onto the compost pile. After gathering fallen branches for kindling and stacking the rest onto my long, narrow “dead hedge” to provide winter habitat for beneficial garden critters, I rake and blow patios and walkways. I do keep fallen leaves in flowerbeds and shrubbery to feed the soil over the winter. Gunk is sieved from the two water gardens and the waterfall and fountain are unplugged lest their pumps burn out during a deep freeze.
I rarely cover anything, knowing from decades of experience and observation that blankets are only good for protecting against frost or temporary mild freezes, and only down to the upper 20s. Warm air-retaining plastic sheeting can help winter flowering plants temporarily, but is most helpful when draped all the way to the ground to capture warmth rising from the soil. And no, those old incandescent holiday lights don’t give off much warmth. Every morning when the sun is out, I faithfully uncover or vent the covers, lest the plants steam to death.
Before really cold weather arrives, I set even cold-hardy small outdoor potted plants down on the ground, usually clustered against a south facing wall, sometimes partially sunk in shallow holes and covered with bark mulch to further protect roots. Knowing that above-ground parts of plants can dry out quickly in sunny windy weather, and that dry soil gets colder than moist, I water all container gardens before a predicted freeze.
So, I’m hunkered down, enjoying the outdoor scene through a window filled with low-maintenance succulents. But my eye is roving for the subtle movement of lizards that thought they had prepared to hibernate outdoors but just found themselves warming up in my sun room.
Felder Rushing is a Mississippi author, columnist, and host of the “Gestalt Gardener” on MPB Think Radio. Email gardening questions to rushingfelder@yahoo.com.
