Garden Talk: How The Long Fall Affects This Year’s Garden

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• 3 Things To Remember When Gardening Season Comes To A Close

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  The above-average temperatures in Wisconsin this autumn have stuck around a bit longer than many expected.

  Farmers around the state have had ideal harvesting temperatures and gardeners have had time to finish up last-minute chores in preparation for winter.

  Diana Alfuth, a horticulture educator for the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Pierce County, said because of the above-average temperatures gardeners have been enjoying, “most of us are closer to being prepared for winter than usual because we’ve had all that time out there.”

  But usually, she said, just when it looks like everything’s nailed down, the first snow comes around and there’s always something that’s been forgotten.

  To help cover all the bases, Alfuth mentioned three key things to remember before hibernating inside.

  1. Dump the rain barrels. “If you have a rain barrel, it should be emptied and dumped over so that it doesn’t have the water in it, freeze and crack.”
     
  2. Take in the gnomes. Garden ornaments will also crack if left outside in winter and should go inside. It also keeps them from being hit by ultraviolet rays all winter long.
     
  3. Empty the containers. The moisture in the potting mix will expand over winter when it freezes and the containers will crack. “You don’t necessarily have to empty them out if the soil was put in just this year. You can reuse that soil for a couple of years,” Alfuth said. However, if that’s the case, she recommends putting them somewhere indoors like a shed or garage.

  The warm weather has caused some weird things to happen in the garden, Alfuth said, so some of these tasks may be put on pause.

  “Usually you have the containers put away in the shed by now, and here they’re in full bloom, so you can’t quite do that,” she said.

  The extended fall has allowed people to get ahead of the game, Alfuth said, so hopefully when the first snow does come around, it won’t catch anyone off guard.