Getting my garden ready for winter

getting my garden ready ...
sozobe : not to worry; i'm sure those 'buggers' will give you a nice floral display once spring arrives. right now the sprigs probably are just coming up for some fresh air and to shed excess moisture. btw the comments re. shedding moisture come from the gardener at rideau hall(official residence of the governor general in ottawa). the gardener has one of the most popular radio phone-in programs in ontario. it's on CBC every monday from 1pm to 2pm - must be one of the longest running radio shows in all of canada. people consider themselves lucky to get through to the gardener to ask a question ! have a walk through the garden and feel like the GG - it's open to the public; we've driven up to ottawa a number of times and try to work in a visit to the garden >>> TAKING A WALK IN GOVERNOR GENERAL'S GARDEN

One more garden note:

Last fall I removed the leaves from about 2/3rds of the ivy and vinca, and left leaves elsewhere mostly just 'cause it was a big job and we didn't finish it before it got prohibitively cold. This was a brutal winter, ice storm, especially cold temps, and everything looks a bit raggedy. The vinca I just uncovered today that had a light layer of leaves on it looks really happy and green, much greener than I'd expect after 5 months or whatever with no sun. In some places, though, the layer of leaves were so thick that the bottom layer was composting, and some of the vinca at that layer seemed to be rotting.

So it seems like optimum is a light layer of leaves (maybe 1-2 inches.) That's before they start to regrow, though. I notice from the photos taken last year that the (uncovered) vinca looked brown and awful, but by the time we got here it was quite verdant. So as of now, looks like 1-2 inches of leaves is best, will see how the two groups fare this summer.

1-2 inches is the freshly fallen level, not now btw -- now it was just kind of a pressed-down sheet maybe 1/2 inch thick at most.

Hey - glad it worked (pretty well)!

i understand that to prevent plants/bulbs from both freezing out and rotting from moisture one should NOT put a wintercover on until AFTER there has been a good freeze. because leaves mat (particularly when wet) they do not make the best wintercover - but i use them anyhow. if we have any cedar/pine boughs, hedge clippings and other coarse material, i put it on the flowerbed first and later rake the leaves over it. seems to work fairly well; we haven't lost much to winter freeze-up. rabbits, squirrels, mildew and mold seem to do more damage than frost. green thumbs up ! hbg

I'll bet that both of those plants grow to fill in the dead spaces. I don't think you can kill vinca. Spring is here! Yee Haw! We had the first thunderstorm of the year today.

First thunder of the year wakes the snakes up.

I haven't lived in an area with snow since I was a kid ohsolongago, and so haven't spoken up. But perhaps I'll speak up now for doing nothing, which is what my parents did back then. I still have memories of all the crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, and so on. And those were some tough winters- I remember lots of times our yard had thick blankets of snow, 18" - 36" my guess now.

Just re-read, such good info, appreciated. I was looking for info on cutting back dead hydrangea stalks, there was a post from beth saying to cut back the dead mums to the ground when crocuses and violets are blooming, which they are and which I did.

Hydrangeas, though? I started to cut them back and then saw something that looked like a bud on one I'd cut, it was brown but when I cut through it there was a layer of green. There also seem to be some brand-new hydrangea leaves coming up, so I tend to think the bud was from last year rather than how they send out new leaves. (I know some bushes sit there with dead looking branches and then buds/ leaves appear everywhere on them.)

So just double-checking before I continue cutting them back.

I don't know about hydrangeas (that's the kind of thing I go back to Taunton for - always hoping Mrs. SealPoet will show up there again), but I know a lot of the shrubby flowers bloom on last year's growth (ie. lilacs).

I just saw the tiniest bit of crocus and scilla coming up this afternoon, so I hacked away at the gaillardia. Mums will likely be cut back next week, when I actually get some bloom (I hope).

Uh-oh:



No idea which kind these are. :-? But they have these new leaves coming up from the ground, and no action on last year's stems, yet...

Lots more here, hmmmm...

http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/cmrec/art4.htm

I think I'm glad I stopped.

Discretion is definitely the better part of valour the first year in a new garden.

Take lots of pix - or do sketches - about once a week if you can manage. It will really help you in the autumn as you are starting your planning for next year.

Soz, I think the new growth on your hydrangea will continue to grow up from the ground. But, I'd wait a week and then check again for leaf buds on the old growth, then hack them down.

Even if you're wrong about WHEN you prune them, they will return - you may not get flowers this year, but you will next year. If they are not floppy, don't bother pruning. Didn't you say the old owners had gardeners come? If so, they'll be ok unpruned for a year. But, dead id dead, if the old growth is, no need to keep it.

I was new to hydrangeas when I moved here and managed to have a whole side of the house planted with bustling hydrangeas. I cut them way back the first year, but lagged the second, and thus I had larger hydrangeas after that. They are a bit like roses in that, yes, those are buds. And on roses there are several schools of thought, with various papers written that report testing of the different schools. In southern california, it devolved to who wanted a rose hedge, or a round plume, or a tall whirlybird. To summarize my babbling, I now cut my hydrangeas fairly high, and fairly evenly.

Next question you'll have is about hydrangea theft...