As the days grow shorter, there are several important tasks gardeners should tackle. Here are a few activities to consider:

MULCH 

With winter approaching, we face the risk of extreme temperature swings. While we often worry about cold snaps damaging trees, shrubs and newly planted perennials, unseasonably warm spells can also heat the soil and trigger spring blooms prematurely—especially for peach growers, who fear the frost that follows. 

Mulching your landscape, bulbs, perennial herbs and flowering shrubs helps insulate plant roots, preventing the soil from freezing too deeply, which can harm young plants and the beneficial microbes around them.

It also safeguards the soil from untimely warming. In March or April, it’s easy enough to pull back the mulch to encourage spring growth. Bonus: the mulch breaks down over time, adding organic matter into the soil and improving nutrient levels and water retention for the next season. 

Leaves are great for mulch and are easy to obtain. Straw interlocks well and stays in place in high-wind areas. Cardboard will work as mulch if the edges are covered with shovels of soil to keep it in place. It also breaks down into organic matter the fastest. Avoid colored ink on the cardboard to keep your garden free from chemical pigments. The industry uses soy-based ink for black printing, so that’s safe for soil contact.

KEEP RECORDS

While this year’s gardening efforts are still fresh in your mind, make notes what worked and what didn’t. Which crops left you craving more? Which crops did you secretly leave on the neighbor’s doorstep to get rid of? If you’re a canner, like me, evaluate which varieties met your needs. 

I grow several types of peppers, and after fermenting them, I gauge which varieties have the best balance of flavor and heat, noting on the seed packets which ones I’ll plant again which to donate to the Mesa County Central Library Seed Bank for someone else to try.

FEED THE BIRDS

Putting out bird food through the winter months ensures they will keep visiting your garden.

We live in an amazing part of the country known for its fantastic bird migration routes. Keeping bird feeders stocked through winter ensures these winged visitors will stick around. Place a feeder near your garden—their droppings add beneficial nutrients to the soil.

A mix of cracked grains, meal worms and high-oil seeds, like black oil sunflower seeds, will attract a wide selection of birds. Consider building birdhouses for blackbirds to nest in, as they’ll help control grasshopper populations in the spring. Just keep the birdhouses away from feeders, as too much bird activity can deter them from nesting.

Put up a bat house out in the yard and away from your residence.

BUILD A BAT HOUSE

While you’re at it, consider adding a bat house to your yard. Bats are excellent at controlling mosquito populations and look for roosting spots in the fall. 

Place bat houses away from your home, as their manure, or guano—though a fantastic plant fertilizer rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—can be pungent.

You can collect bat guano to use as fertilizer for next year’s garden by placing a tarp under the bat house. I’ve seen this in action in Battambang, Cambodia, where villagers use bat guano to fertilize rice fields, leading to taller growth, more seeds per stalk and greater profits compared to neighboring villages.

DEAL WITH APHIDS

Neem oil is an effective, affordable way to control aphids.

This time of year is when aphids show up in my houseplants. I’m guilty of bringing herbs in from the garden in pots to continue harvesting them during the winter. I grow mint, thyme and rosemary in 1-gallon pots sunk into the soil to make use of the summer sunlight and irrigation water. Then I dig them up before the first frost and bring them indoors, aphids and all! 

Without natural predators around, neem oil is an effective, affordable way to control aphids by blocking off their breathing tubes and smothering them.

Alternatively, Pyganic, a chrysanthemum oil-based treatment, works even better but is more expensive.

In this season of gratitude, act on it by treating your garden with care so it will flourish in the spring.

Below, watch a step-by-step video on how to build your own simple bat house