November – Bringing the garden season to a close

For many of us in the Northeast, November may be if not the cruelest month, then certainly the most challenging. The cold rolls in, not on “little cat feet,” as poet Carl Sandburg wrote of the fog, but more like on buffalo tootsies, as winter stretches out like a vast icy desert before us.

Gardening enthusiasts can keep up their spirits – and landscapes – by remaining attuned to the changes in nature. Unless there’s a good deal of rain in the forecast, continue to water until the first frost, remembering to drain the sprinkler system when you’re finished so that it’s in working order for next. Keep up with your raking, too, mulching leaves and using them for compost.

While it’s good to put leaves around bushes and trees to protect them, you don’t want to encourage critters like voles, so don’t pile them too close to the base or make those piles too thick. Tree guards and stakes threaded with burlap (for evergreen bushes) will help keep deer and burrowing creatures at bay.

Now is also the time to plant spring bulbs and clean and put away most garden tools while ensuring that snow blowers and shovels are at the ready. (You’ll want to make sure you have laid in a good supply of pet- and environmentally-friendly ice melt, with gentler calcium chloride being among the best, particularly if you put in new pavement earlier this year. Always keep ice melt/rock salt bags and containers sealed to prevent the contents from hardening.)

The end of the month, after Thanksgiving, is also propitious for setting up seasonal decorations and lighting outdoors before the winter chill hardens.

Once the final leaves have fallen, you’ll want to clean the gutters and take stock of your garden as its structure is revealed. What might you add, pare back or rearrange next year?

While many mourn the lost lushness of spring and summer, the leave-taking of leaves reveals at last the spare, even Zen, splendor of the winter garden.

Savor it.