Tips on getting your garden ready for winter
As colder weather approaches, it’s time to think about fallen leaves, fading flowers, and spring bulbs.
Great Day TV's weekend gardener, Shannon Cagle, joined Daybreak to share a few ways to help yards support wildlife and prepare for spring. Patty and Harry joined the conversation, too.
According to Cagle, homeowners should leave some leaves in their yards instead of sending them to a landfill. Chopped leaves can nourish the lawn, and leaves tucked around shrubs can give pollinators and other insects places to overwinter.
“If you’re concerned about pollinators, butterflies, fireflies, moths, they overwinter in these,” Cagle says.
Some homeowners associations require residents to clear their yards. Cagle says chopping leaves into smaller pieces and spreading them across the lawn can make them less noticeable while still benefiting the landscape.
Cagle also recommends leaving coneflower seed heads standing through winter. The seeds provide food for birds, including finches.
“Finches over the winter will continue to fly to these all winter long and they’ll pick the seeds out,” Cagle says.
Fall is also a good time to plant spring bulbs such as daffodils and tulips, Cagle says.
Planting now gives them time to grow before spring. She also suggested planting daffodils near hostas, explaining that animals that eat hostas tend to avoid daffodils.
Cagle encouraged everyone to move leaves into garden beds, leave coneflower seed heads for birds, and get bulbs in the ground before the soil gets too hard to work.
For more info, watch the video.
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