It may seem a bit early to prepare for winter in your garden, but it’s always good to have a plan. In my last article, we were crying out for rain and thankfully we got it. Our gardens duly responded and plants exploded with more lush foliage and pretty flowers.

Our lawns also got a new lease on life and the grass turned green again. Keeping up with a lawn fertilizer program is important and, especially after the rain, an application of an iron-based fertilizer was needed on my lawn. I use a Scotts 4-step program and do the applications myself. One advantage of this is that the applications can be made when the conditions are right. After the rain it was an ideal time to do the Stage 3 treatment. Don’t forget the late fall Stage 4 application also to set the lawn up for winter. With the added rain, growth really increased and the grass really grew quite fast.

Earlier this year we invested in an EGO battery lawnmower, so we really reaped the benefit of no gas expenditure when dealing with the extra cutting needed. The EGO mower has a very good mulching function and gives a good cut, which also seems to aid in the health of the lawn.

What to do with all the increased growth is the question. How can we put it to good use and reap the benefits next year? If you have room somewhere for a compost pile, then any plant material can be incorporated into it to help provide nutrition for the garden next year. I have been making compost piles annually for some years now and use an organic starter material to aid in the breakdown of all the material added to the pile.  (Photo 1)

With normally mulching my grass, I hadn’t expected to be able to use any grass clippings on the compost pile this year. Recently, because of all the extra moisture, I’ve had to use the lawnmower bagging function, so grass clippings were available and provided a few layers of material for the compost pile. (It’s important not to use grass clippings that have had a recent application of fertilizer containing a herbicide material).

Some layers of last year’s rotting leaves are another useful addition to the compost pile. In addition to lawn clippings and leaves, any cut-back perennial foliage can make up another layer or two. (Photos 2 and 3)

I find that using a layer of soil with earthworms (if available) between different types of foliage material has worked well when making the compost piles. A sprinkling of the organic compost starter between each layer increases the breakdown process. It may take a few years to complete the decomposition process but after that some nice compost material can be added to your garden beds to provide additional nutrition. (Photo 4)

The well decomposed compost material can also be used to plant up material in pots for either over-wintering or spring plantings for use at the Paxton Garden Club plant sale in June, so it’s a win-win situation all around.  W