lifestyle
Winterizing Your Garden and Porch
giveaways! • lifestyle • green living
Winter is just around the corner, and it's time to one last look at gardens and porches to make sure they're ready for snow and ice and arctic temperatures. Hopefully, you've already done a lot of these tasks, but if you're a last minute person like I am, here are a few things to make sure you've done to winterize your garden and porch!
Winterizing Your Garden and Porch
As winter sets in, many of us turn our attention indoors. However, there are some things that should be done outdoors as well. Take care of your garden and porch area before settling by your fireplace for some homemade hot cocoa.
Winterize your garden
I've got quite a fall checklist of items to take care of in my garden to make sure it's bedded down for the winter. Most of them are finished, but I still have a few things to finish up. Here are a few of the more important tasks for winterizing your garden:
- Plant fall bulbs - if the ground isn't frozen yet, there's still time to do this! My fall bulbs planting guide tells you how to plant your bulbs.
- Dig up tender bulbs - don't forget to take tender bulbs out of the ground if you live in a cold area. In cold areas, cannas, dahlias, tuber roses, gladiolus, calla lilies and caladiums need to come out of the ground and be stored inside, or they will die.
- Weed your garden, or put down tarps to kill off the weeds over the winter
- Remove dead plants
- Rake and add leaves to your garden for mulch
Winterize your porch
We're not actually living in a house with a porch right now, but hopefully by next winter we will be, and we'll have a lovely porch to winterize! Even though we don't have a porch per se, there are still a lot of things I need to do to protect my outdoor decor and to keep my stuff and things nice and in good repair.
To winterize your porch, make sure you do the following:
- Fall is a good time to clean and seal wooden porch floors to protect them from the elements. Look for a product specifically made for whatever type of floor you have. Thoroughly clean your porch and then apply sealant following the product directions.
- Empty, clean, and store flower pots, especially clay flower pots. Make sure they can't get water in them to keep them from freezing and cracking.
- Drain garden hoses and store inside. Outside hose bibs need to drain properly so they don't freeze and break and they can't drain correctly if you leave garden hoses attached.
- Store outdoor furniture cushions and umbrellas in a protected area to keep the fabric nice. Looks like I failed on that front!
- Bring wooden furniture indoors or cover it to protect the wood.
- Finally, remove fall decorations, pumpkins, flower pots, hanging signs and get ready for your winter decor!
As you can tell from the pictures in this post, I need to get outside and get busy to finish my own list so we can enjoy the winter and snow that seems to have arrived extra early this year.
What steps do you take each fall to winterize your garden and porch?
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