Preparing your outdoor space for the winter can be done over a few months/weeks/days, and will mean different things to different people (depending on your lifestyle). I usually do this in November and December. It can be a chore, but think of it as preparing your garden for a nice winter sleep.

Putting your garden to bed until spring might include;

• Raking fallen leaves

• Putting away outdoor cushions/furniture

• Pruning plants

• cleaning pots and tools

* protecting tender plants

I’m a big fan of using fallen leaves (free, plus your plants will thank you) for my compost or mulch. I talk more about this here.

Some plants will need trimming to the ground, others can be left till the spring so that wildlife can feed on the seedheads through the winter. I leave a lot of plants and grasses for this reason. Some things (like hostas and rhubarb) will collapse and become a soggy mess, so I usually throw this on my compost pile.

Even though our outdoor cushions are under a covered overhang, it rains a lot over winter here in the Pacific Northwest, so I don't want the winter dampness to get to them.

This year we bought some Cannas and dug up the tubers to store them over winter in our basement. Even though the Portland Nursery lady said she just covers hers with about 8” compost, I didn’t want to risk losing them… I did however cover one of my newly grown Stipa Gigantea grasses this way, and left two others to see what happens. I normally dig up my dahlia tubers for the winter, but this year we bought these sponge things to try out on a few (I’ll let you know how that goes).

I didn't used to bother cleaning my pots, but now I do to stop the risk of spreading disease.This seems to be what everyone recommends. I usually clean all my smaller pots earlier in the year, when I am done with planting seedlings (just to get this job over with).

Also, this is a good time to clean and sharpen tools so come spring, everything is ready to go. Disclaimer: I’ve never been organized enough to do this…