It’s nearly November now, but there are a few things to wrap up before you close the doors on your garden until the spring thaw! While there’s still no snow on the ground and a few more warm afternoons, you should:

• Winterize your irrigation system. Sprinkler blowouts are important because if water remains in your sprinklers during a freeze, it can do some serious damage to the whole of your irrigation system. It’s an expensive mistake to make, so don’t forget this part! Lots of local services (including us!) can do this for you if you’ve never done it before.
• Drain and properly clean out any fountains and other water features. Again, this is to prevent expensive damage when the freezing temperatures set in.
• Before night temperatures dip below 50 F consistently, bring tender plants inside that you want to save over the winter. If you’ve got a citrus tree in a pot, for example, those tend to survive better when kept inside during the winter months. Cactus and succulents are going to thank you for an indoor holiday vacation, too.
• Fill up your bird feeders! Birds are scrambling together their store and would appreciate the help. Some species will enjoy the feeder throughout the winter, too.
• If you’ve wrapped up fall harvesting, you’ll want to clean-up all your annual beds for the winter. Removing some excess leaf litter and putting down mulch on priority beds may benefit you later as well. Leaves left on the lawn all winter can promote mold and other detrimental factors that will negatively impact your lawn’s health. When adding leaves to your beds or veggie garden, try to shred them as they will compost more efficiently and be ready to go in the spring.
• If you haven’t already given your lawn its final haircut for the winter, do so now! Cleaning your tools like pruners and lawn mowers before you store them is an excellent practice to preserve the life of your hardware, so we really suggest this too. Want more info on caring for garden tools? Let us know and we can get into more detail in another blog post!

If you’ve done all the above already, then come join us on the couch! We’ve got the BSU game on, of course, with lots of chips and dip. Happy autumn, everyone.