"Winter is Coming"

"Winter is Coming" as the Stark Family motto goes (Game of Thrones fans, anyone?). The nightly lows are creeping down to the 50s and it is time to get your plants and pots ready for the colder weather. You can remove your summer flowers and vegetables now as their season has passed and replace them with heartier greens for the coming months. Plants from the Brassicas Family: Kale, Kohlrabi, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli,  Rutabaga, Turnips and Mustard are the perfect Fall crops. Unfortunately, I do not get enough light this time of year on my fire escape so my outdoor growing season is over until spring. I will still be growing things in my apartment though, and sharing of course, don't you worry!

If you have land (lucky you!) fall is the time to mulch. The idea of mulching now is not so much to keep the soil warm as it is to keep the soil temperature even throughout the winter season. This is also the time that you plant your spring bulbs.

If you do not have land (like me!) and are the proud owner of a container garden it is time to compost and/or dispose of your summer annuals and prune your perennial flowers and vegetables. For example, my lavender plant is a perennial, which means that it comes back each year. By pruning it after it is done flowering, I am encouraging root growth throughout the winter and, come spring, it will be, "hard(ier), better, faster, stronger." Kanye would be proud.

One way to prune your lavender is to let your cat go to town on it...

This is actually not advised!! Instead, cut back not only the flower stems, but also about a third of the gray-leaved stems as well.

Avoid pruning back so far that only woody stems with no leaves are showing. Make sure that what you are pruning with is sterilized! It may look like it has a "bad haircut," as Simon noted, but I promise that come spring it will look 10x better!

To prepare your container garden for the Winter, you not only have to worry about your perennials surviving the cold, but also your containers. Once you remove your plant debris and soil, thoroughly wash the container to prevent any harmful pathogens that might survive the winter and ruin your spring plantings. This next part is hard for space-strapped New Yorkers, but it is not a good idea to keep terra-cotta, glass or glazed pots outside. These pots will absorb moisture throughout the cold, snowy months which will then freeze and cause your pot to break. If you do not have room to bring your pots inside for the winter (this is when a garage would be handy) you can carefully stack them inside the largest pot and place the stack against your apartment wall so that the radiant heat from the building will keep them slightly warmer. Other people suggest wrapping the pot with bubble wrap and covering the pot with leaves or straw. You do not have to worry about this though if you have any plastic, polyurethane, fiberglass, wood or concrete pots. Preparing your pots and plants for the winter now will make spring easier and more rewarding.