It’s fall! Get your garden ready for the first frost

The mornings are a little colder and the air feels a little crisper — it’s time for fall.

With summer having come and gone, many people in Saskatchewan will start to prepare for the coming cold, whether that be prepping a lawn, booking an appointment to get winter tires, or removing the water out of a garden hose.

Jill Van Duyvendyk recently joined Greg Morgan on Friday to discuss some of the things people can do to protect a garden from the cold.

The first tip is to cover frost tender plants.

“When it gets below about five deg C, around three deg C, get your frost blanket out, get a light sheet — you’re not wanting anything too heavy that’s going to crush the plants — just a light sheet is great, and don’t use plastic,” said Duyvendyk.

Frost blankets are covers made of polypropylene fabric that keep plants safe from damage. Unlike commonly used alternatives like bed sheets, burlap, or painters’ tarps, the fabric allows proper airflow to prevent mould and freezing.

When it comes to taking care of your lawn, Duyvendyk also has some tips.

“Right now the temperatures are decreasing, so we want to make sure we’re slowing down on our watering. So if you’re watering every day or twice a week, cut your watering at least in half and then right before you turn your water off cut your lawn down to about 2 inches so it’s not going to be laying over, preventing snow mould. Make sure you get all those leaves off, and apply the last layer of fertilizer right before the last water,” said Duyvendyk.

Van Duyvendyk said that gardeners may also want to keep pruning to a minimum.

“You can do light pruning right now, but I wouldn’t do any drastic pruning. We do have a lot of winter kill on our plants, and I like to keep those extra branches up to catch the snow, especially on some of our tender shrubs and perennials — with things like hydrangeas take the blossoms off in the fall, but don’t do any heavy pruning on those; do that in the spring,” said Duyvendyk.

Read more

• Garden Talk: Should weeds in new lawns be removed?
• Garden Talk: Blooming heck, my hydrangeas look like broccoli!
• Garden Talk: How to deal with a lily beetle invasion
• Garden Talk: To prune or not to prune?
• Garden Talk: Do purple apples really grow in Saskatchewan?