The beauty and relaxation that your garden can provide you and your family is certainly worth all the work you put in each year. Putting in a little extra work at the end of the season, however, can make getting your garden ready next spring easier and can help keep your plants healthy through the winter months. Here are a few great tips that will get your garden ready to handle the cold and snow. Clean Up: Though not a favorite task of any gardener, it is a very necessary step to getting your garden ready for winter. Remove your annuals, empty and store any pots and containers, and give your garden one last mow. Also, raking up all those leaves is one chore all homeowners are familiar with each autumn, but they do make great mulch for your perennials and vegetable garden, and are also a great addition to your compost. Plant Or Relocate Trees And Shrubs: The fall is the best time to get new trees into the ground, or move those you have earmarked to be relocated. The best strategy is to choose trees that are hardy for your zone, as it makes their survival more likely and maintenance easier. Also, choosing evergreens and shrubs that produce berries in the winter months can make your garden more interesting and provide activity for birds and other wildlife. Protect Your Trees: For new or young trees this is an important step you'll not want to forget in winterizing your garden. Covering trees and shrubs with burlap is most important in areas that have exposure to northwest winds and high sun. Be sure, however, not to do this too early in the season, in order to prevent rot. It is also a good idea to give your evergreens plenty of water to prevent burnout. Test Soil And Mulch: After the ground freezes be sure to add mulch to your perennial garden. This will protect both your soil and plants through the long winter months, as well as provide much needed nutrients for spring. This is also a good time to test the pH of your soil to see if it is lacking any essential minerals for the next growing season. Plant Spring Bulbs: This is also the time of year to get your spring bulbs into the ground. Be sure that you do this before the first frost, and give them plenty of water when planting them. Unlike all the work you put into your garden in spring, winter clean-up can seem like a difficult and unrewarding task, but with this effort you will keep your garden in tip-top shape for the growing season ahead! Visit my website at www.valeriemcconville.com

Warm temps here in Ohio, could get up to 65 today and even 70 tomorrow. Regardless, I put down my leaf mulch yesterday. Normally one waits until the ground is at least frozen a little. It was a nice day and rain was expected over night so I did it, trying to keep the mulch away from the base of the perennials - which are still green! And I swear I passed an eye clinic that had beautiful green lawns that looked as though someone had mowed recently.

Mara, I agree about the 'river of denial running deep and wide' ... clever phrase. My river has to do with how much I can handle. However, I got the five plumerias de-leafed and up-rooted and the seven bougainvilleas tied up and moved to the green house, also the three ferns. Bob helped by carrying the heavy ones. Also trimmed some leaves from the hanging baskets making them a bit lighter for Bob to handle when he gets a 'round-to-it'. Edit: Bob took down the huge and heavy hanging baskets and hung them in the greenhouse. Sure glad that at least he goes to the gym to stay in shape to do stuff like that ... LOL Now just a couple of small things I can handle and we've got that chore done for the year. I'm sharing your happy thoughts Pam ... :-)

Hey Vladimir..I was told I would do better growing even that one in a pot and waking it up way earlier than our springs since they don't even grow leaves until way after April in the ground..I did the very same thing as you and after two years, I let it die uncovered. It was unproductive no matter what I fed it..Our growing season here is just too short. It needs ALL day very early hot sun,, warm temps and it needs to wake up very early, earlier than April...Not on our side..( I know a guy that has been growing one on a hill side in Winchester M.A for over ten years and he cuts his way back and just covers with a 2 feet pile of leaves then lays a wire cage on top to contain the leaves..Once May comes, yes May, he uncovers by raking the leaves away. All he ever gets is mid sized to almost full grown figs that never ripen on time..He just grows it now for looks hoping some year we will get as warm as Florida..In fact, his tree faces the south on a hillside in all day sun against a wall, and still not enough( You might have better success and less work if you dogged it up once it goes dormant, before a hard freeze and sticking it on your greenhouse..Or you could let it stay dormant and then stick it in your greenhouse for a very early start, like around March..