The weather over the next week in Minnesota looks exceptional with sunny highs in the fifty , 60s , maybe a arcminute or two of 70s . It ’s the complete prison term to cleanse up the garden ! Of course , it ’s also the sodding fourth dimension to take a drive along the Mississippi River to see the parting , to visit an grove or to go to one of Minnesota ’s cute little - towns , such as Stillwater , Northfield ( my hometown ! ) or New Ulm ( brewery ! ) .
So , let ’s say you make up one’s mind to relish the amazing colors this gloaming , and do a au naturel minimum fall garden clean up . What would that mean ? Here ’s our topnotch - short checklist for garden cleanup :
clean house out your containers . shaping weed might make it through the winter with soil in them , but if your pot are terracotta or plaster , you need to clean them out and stack away them away for wintertime . Dump the potting stain , then sweep out the dirt with a tight encounter or your gloved hand . Then , lave the pots in a big tub ( I expend the utility tub in the washables room ) in a mixture of detergent and bleach . Rinse , get them dry out and store them away until next spring .
Here’s a fun fall container idea! Plant a pumpkin with a tall purple kale.
Water . This is extremely of import if you have planted unexampled shrubs , tree diagram or perennials . Keep give them the equivalent of an inch a workweek of water until the priming freeze .
Keep weeding . Long ago , one of our Northern Gardener columnists note that for every one weed you draw in the decline , you save up yourself from pulling 10 in the outpouring . Set aside some clip over the next few weeks to do a really thoroughgoing weeding of all of your bed .
houseclean up the veg garden and any morbid plants . You do n’t want to leave anything around that could spread disease into next year ’s garden , and by this time of year , most vegetable garden are harboring at least a few diseases . So , clean out the vegetable space ; put down some mulch or compost , if you ’d wish ; then , walk around the rest of the cubic yard and cut back any perennials that look unhealthy . I care to write out back hostas because they tend to be middling slimy if they are provide standing over the winter , but that ’s not required .
Here’s a fun fall container idea! Plant a pumpkin with a tall purple kale.
So , that ’s the bare minimum list . Rhonda Fleming Hayesoffered alonger list of crepuscule choresin her pillar for the Star - Tribune and you certainly couldput down mulchlater , as she indicate . Terry Yockeyoffers agreat tutorial on clean garden instrument , another sound fall job .
