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  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
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    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
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Amanda's Blog

Amanda's Garden Consulting Company

Putting The Garden To Bed

10/11/2017

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vegetable garden,fall clean up, mulch,cleaning up garden beds in fall,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda Jarrett
A nice thick layer of leafy mulch laid between plants has multiple benefits for the soil and plants.
vegetable garden,mulching,fall garden clean up,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda JarrettCocoa was a big help laying the mulch. Couldn't have done it without her.
Cleaning up my garden beds became a priority after a recent bout marred some plants while others succumbed. Plus it's time as it is November. The veggie beds were cleaned up a few weeks ago, but yesterday, I managed to put the rest of the garden to bed for winter. It's a dirty bit of business but necessary if I don't want to inherit the work in spring. There was lots of weeding, cutting back perennials, discarding diseased plant parts, transplanting and applying mulch.

It's a great time to move plants around the garden. The air is cool, the soil is still warm and the rain is back in town. I have been busy transplanting those that are either too big, too small, engulfing others, ones that need more light and those that need less. I have also tossed the ugly and the sickly. It happens. Perennials (bearded iris, daylilies, phlox) that have multiplied and have overstepped their bounds were divided and potted up to sell or give away in spring.

To finish off the beds, I like to use a nice thick layer of leaves. I got a good haul of them, 20 bags in fact, when I raided my neighbourhood during recycle pick-up day. Ironically at the same time I was applying leaves to my beds, a neighbour was raking up and bagging her lovely Japanese maple leaves that had fallen onto her lawn and garden.

I took advantage of a fair weather day by dumping and spreading 18 bags of leaves, mostly from maples, on my garden beds. I think it looks marvelous. I know some people don't like the look, but I do. Besides it is so beneficial to plants and soil. It provides food for the soil food web that everything in the garden depends on. Not only that, winter weeds will be foiled. Erosion won't be an issue even with heavy rains. Plant will be toasty too.  A blanket of leaves insulates the soil from temperature fluctuations which dislodges plants roots especially spring flowering bulbs.  I'm so glad it is done, and so is Cocoa our kitty, who helped me with the mulching. As you can see she loved the leaves and I swear she actually gave me two furry thumbs up!

vegetable garden,fall clean up,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda Jarrett
The veggie garden before.
vegetable garden,fall clean up,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda Jarrett
Weeding, removing defunct radish plants, trimming off unhealthy growth of hardy plants transformed this veggie garden.
vegetable garden,fall clean up,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda Jarrett
Broccoli, chard, kale, beets and carrots have not been harvested as they will continue to produce.
vegetable garden,fall clean up,mulching,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda Jarrett
A thick layer of fall leaves provides a perfect mulch to protect plants and soil throughout the winter.
broccoli,mulch,vegetable garden,fall clean up,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda Jarrett
The main branch of the broccoli was harvested during the summer, however, its side shoots continue to produce smaller but tasty broccoli heads.
vegetable garden,fall clean up,mulch,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda Jarrett
Swiss chard and broccoli are hardy plants that will continue to provide us with tasty goodies throughout winter.
vegetable garden,fall clean up,Swiss chard,mulch,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda Jarrett
Swiss chard will last longer with a nice thick layer of leaves at its feet.
garden bed fall clean up,mulch,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda Jarrett
This garden bed shows the difference between a mulched soil on the left and bare soil on the right.
mulch,garden bed fall clean up,Amanda's garden website blog,thegardenwebsite.com,Amanda Jarrett
The completed bed.
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    Archives

    Here are some of my previous blog postings. They cover a wide range of topics from bugs to my botanical excursions and conventions. Click on whichever interests you on the titles below for easy navigation. 
    • ​Building a French Kitchen (Potager) Garden
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Tomato Taming
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvests
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Plant Rusts
    • Dunbar Garden Club Garden Tour 2020
    • Rose Bloom Balling
    • ​Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses Do Exist.. Really!​
    • Easy Vegetable Garden Trellis 
    • Tomato Seedlings to Plants
    • Video: How to Divide Dahlias 
    • Video: How to Plant a Tree
    • Video: How to Prune a Grapevine in Winter
    • Damping Off - A Seedling Killer!
    • Lawns: ​Seeding, Sowing, Renovating
    • Lawn Grub Control
    • Tuberous Begonias 101
    • Dahlias 101
    • Pruning in Winter
    • Pruning & Training Grape Vines in Winter
    • Insects & Diseases Control with Dormant Spray
    • Dealing With Drought
    • Heritage Vancouver 7th Annual Garden Tour
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Pruning Shrubs into Trees
    • 10 Steps to Festive Planter
    • Christmas Tree Selection 
    • Collecting & Saving Seeds
    • Heritage Vancouver 6th Garden Tour
    • The Dunbar Garden Tour 2018
    • Dart's Hill, A Garden Park
    • VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visit
    • Tall Kale Tales
    • Northwest Flower & Garden Show, Seattle
    • Pruning in Winter
    • Pruning & Training Grape Vines in Winter
    • Insects & Diseases Control with Dormant Spray
    • Why Christmas cactus Don't Blossom
    • A Quickie Festive Swag
    • Putting the Garden to Bed
    • How to Drain Soggy Soil
    • A Visit to the Arizona - Sonora Desert
    • Banana, Palm Tree Winter Protection
    • Lasagna Gardening, Sheet Mulching
    • Saving Geraniums, Coleus, Bougainvilleas & Other Tender Plants 
    • Spiders Everywhere - Oh My!
    • Tomato Troubles & Soil Solarization
    • Trees That Drip That Sticky Stuff
    • Balcony Bliss
    • June Bugs - One Huge Beetle! 
    • A Summer's Day Harvest
    • The Dunbar Garden Club Private Tour
    • Leaky Birdbaths and Slug Free Strawberries
    • Oops... Wrong Plant, Wrong Place
    • I Had An Ugly Lawn...​
    • ​How to Make a Christmas Elf
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • To subscribe to my blog click here. 

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Copyright © 2017
Photo used under Creative Commons from vwcampin
  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
  • Lawn Basics
    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
    • Lawn Alternatives
    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
  • Propagation
    • Growing Seeds Outdoors
    • Growing Seeds Indoors
    • Taking Cuttings
    • Seed & Plant Catalogues
  • How to Garden Topics
    • Fall Garden Chores
    • Planting Know-How
    • Soil Building
    • Watering Tips & Techniques
    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
  • Container Growing
    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
  • Plant of the Month
    • Spring Flowering Bulbs
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Dahlias
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pink Dawn Bodnant Viburnum
    • Poinsettias
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Ornamental Kale
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
    • Snowberry
    • Snowdrops
    • Star Magnolia
    • Strawberry Tree, Pacific Madrone
    • Stewartia
    • Torch Lily, Kniphofia uvaria
    • Tree Peonies
    • Tuberous Begonias
    • Virginia Creeper
    • Weigela
    • Winterhazel, Corylopsis
    • Winter Camellia, C. sasanqua
    • Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens
    • Witch Hazel
    • Wood Anemones
    • Yews
  • Garden Tour Blogs
  • Monthly Flower Arrangements
  • Website Index
  • Subscribe
  • Need Help?
  • Garden Club Events