With one more low-mowing pass on the lawn and a few more perennial beds cleared of diseased stems, the outdoor landscape will be ready to ignore for a few weeks. Vacation time for gardeners! Well, sort of. The hectic pace of trying to keep ahead of cold snaps, heat waves, flooding, and drought has dissipated, but some tasks remain. In any case, the dormant period in our yard can be a relief.
Now you can see the invasive vines and the wild ones. Wild grapevines seem to show up whether you planted them or not. If they are choking your tender new shrubs, cut back the grapevine but don’t compost the stems—they are unwieldy anyway. Use the vines to form rustic wreaths.
Twist the vines around each other and into a wreath shape of about six to eight strands thick. Florist wire can be used to tighten up loose ends. Your grapevine ring is now ready for natural elements like cones, seed pods, and green boughs. For additions like cones that lack natural stems to insert into the wreath, just use pieces of florist wire wrapped around the cone and then threaded through the vine to fasten.
My prolific fall raspberries were a success this year. We had tasty fruit through October. When the rain stopped and frosts grew more frequent, the berries dried up. Oh well. Now I am waiting for these fruiting bramble canes to lose their leaves and then I will cut them back to the ground. New growth in spring will fruit next September through October.
While waiting, however, I will turn my gardening itch to indoor plant care. I have noticed the reduced light, even through southern windows, and slower houseplant growth. Instead of watering every three to four days, I will water every six days or so. That is true of the plants positioned away from the wood stove and baseboard heat. Plants in the drafty path of stoves, heat vents, and heat pumps should be moved to cooler, more humid locations.
Spider plants seem resilient to any room climate. These easy houseplants are pet safe and forgetful gardener resistant. That is, water them or not, they will bounce back with just a little attention.
If you keep household temperatures cool in winter, you will find many houseplants available now that prefer temperatures that mimic their natural habitat. Cyclamen bloom in central and eastern European hillsides from late fall into winter when rain falls often on the rocky soils. Translate that to mean: bright light, cooler room temperatures, well drained but consistently moist soil.
Houseplants that did well for weeks may drop leaves as the window light decreases. Move them into brighter locations for winter or just let them go dormant for a couple months by watering less often and letting the natural light diminish.
Outside after leaves drop from your new trees, shrubs, or perennials, you can reduce watering to once or twice more before our hard freeze. With most leaves off the trees, clean your gutters of debris. Water from melting snow that is hindered by leaves in gutters will freeze overnight, creating ice jams and water damage around your eaves. The Lazy Berkshire Gardener prefers clearing gutters to repairing roof leaks.
Now is also a fine time to detach hoses from outside spigots and, if possible, turn water off to those spigots. Water that remains can freeze, expand, and crack the pipes otherwise.
Do not burn leaves, especially now. Western Massachusetts and Columbia County, N.Y., are under burn bans. Combined with low relative humidity, wildfires can start suddenly, particularly when the forest and leaves are so dry. Plus, all those leaves should be allowed to decompose as mulch and contribute to your topsoil.
Brush burning will typically be allowed in winter, but check with your local fire department and be sure to acquire a permit.
When we burned our oversized pile of dead spruce limbs last winter, we had our hose out and ready. But before we lit the pile, we tested the waterline. No water came out of the hose. Even though the hose had been drained and stored in the garage, a little section still had water that froze solid in the line.
A cold February sun eventually melted the ice with some help from a teakettle of hot water. But experience teaches: Don’t burn without a permit; watch the weather and wind forecasts; and have a working supply of steady water ready to control the burn.
This week’s column seems focused on water and winter preparations against freezing. Time to assess other landscape furniture and ornaments that may absorb water and crack from a freeze. My very sturdy concrete birdbath can stay outside; it has for 25 years. But I usually tip it sideways so the water can’t seep into the concrete and crack it.
Outdoor furniture—though weatherproof—will last much longer if you can cover it or store it in a shed for winter. You might take some time in January to oil wooden furniture or sand and repaint metal furniture as well, so try to store it where you can access it.
If you purchased more fungicide than needed this summer, you can still use the concentrates next year. Store fungicides inside to avoid freezing.
English roses and butterfly bush may also suffer when exposed to our winter winds, freezes, and thaws. Mound up soil around the top of the shrub crown just above the natural soil line. Then mulch roses, buddleia, and other tender perennial shrubs with leaves around the stems as insulation. If the plant is exposed to full sun and strong winds, build a small curtain with four stakes and burlap around it before adding the leaf insulation. Or cover the plant with lightweight tents built for the purpose. I would still use a hardware cloth barrier sunk into the soil surface and around the plant to prevent voles from sampling the stems. My buddleia plant has a microclimate of protection with the chimney to the north absorbing the sun’s heat in the day and releasing the heat at night. Still, a protective mound of soil and leaves over the plant crown will help keep the roots in the ground and protected from extreme weather. Although Berkshire County hardiness zone is creeping to Zone 6, we aren’t there yet. Better safe than sorry is the Lazy Berkshire Gardener motto.
I call myself the Lazy Berkshire Gardener because I don’t want to work too hard in my gardens. I want to enjoy them. I find it easier to observe my landscape and let the compost happen, the water pool up, or daisies to self-sow. I look for ways to do the minimum task for the biggest impact. For example, mulching is better than spraying and much better than weeding all season. I look for beautiful, low-maintenance plants that thrive in or at least tolerate my garden conditions. Plus, I am willing to live with the consequences if I miss something.
