Autumn is a magical time of year, with its beautiful light, artfully fading flowers, and subtle changes as the leaves change color. It’s the season to slow down and appreciate this golden moment, but it’s also, as always, at least in my garden, a time when there are a lot of chores (and not enough time to complete them). While you want to enjoy its beauty for as long as possible, you also want to keep your garden as beautiful as possible during the long winter months.
As with most things in the garden, climate change is disrupting long-held routines and forcing us to readjust what we do and when we do it. If “putting the garden to bed” was once a late-autumn routine, perhaps tidying up borders and laying it down under a layer of cozy mulch, the changing seasons have made it almost impossible to follow these old habits. It has become.
In any case, I don’t want to adhere to all these “old ways”. Like most gardeners, I’ve come to appreciate leaving stems and debris behind to create beautiful structures in the garden over the winter and provide habitat for overwintering creatures. But how do you find a middle ground that satisfies your desire for some kind of order while respecting the natural rhythms of all life forms in your garden?
Photo by Claire Coulson.
Plant the bulbs later.
Warm winters present special challenges when planting spring bulbs. At home, the border will still look colorful and lush until late November, but later on the work of tidying up the border and embedding the bulbs in the ground will gradually occur. But at some point, practicality takes over and it’s time to tidy up the borders, bury the bulbs in the ground, and then layer in rich compost. Place the remaining bulbs in pots and cover with thin wire mesh to prevent squirrels and rodents from eating them during the winter.
