Winter Garden Clean-up

Sunday, January 3, 2021

Back in early November, I did the usual garden clean-up. This consists of hauling away large quantities of plant debris as I prune back the asparagus ferns, the catmint, hyssops, chives, and the bearded irises. The meadow sage doesn't get pruned until spring, and the lavender, butterfly bush, and foxgloves all get left alone. At least until spring when I want to move some of those foxgloves around...And then there's adding compost to the asparagus beds, putting leaf/mulch on the garlic & daffodil beds, planting more alliums and snake's head lillies, transplanting daffodils, etc. etc.

I also took the opportunity to clear out an additional vegetable bed (the back-center which used to house pole beans and some winter squash vines), and fill it back up with topsoil, compost, leaves, Azomite, earthworm castings, and oyster shells (the buried grass clippings condensed a bit, yielding about ~6" that needed to be topped up).

The three remaining vegetable beds were still going strong (although, they're currently under a foot of snow, so who knows right now!) with all their cold-hardy leafy greens.

Swiss chard, bok choi, napa cabbabe, kohlrabi...

mixed kales

arugula, freckled romaine, butterhead, and mache