I know it’s hard to believe, but there is snow in the forecast this weekend! The last sunny dog days of summer are long  gone and it’s time to put your garden down for its long winter nap. If you haven’t done this yet, there’s still time! It’s important to get it done before our first hard freeze, and chances are it won’t be long before it arrives. Here’s how to get started!

First, clear your flower beds and garden of any debris, especially dead or dying plants, weeds, and branches. This prevents fungal diseases and gives pests less places to find shelter.

If your roses or any other flowering plants are still blooming, remove them. The warm weather from the past few weeks may have convinced them summer is still here, but your plants need to conserve energy and food as they go dormant, so deadhead all those blooms.

In addition, if you have large rose bushes that have been trained to climb a trellis, carefully remove the canes, lay them flat on the ground, and cover with mulch. This will keep them safe from any damage caused by blizzards, wind, and ice. For bushes that aren’t climbers, prune away any dead or diseased canes and mulch the base of the plants thickly so they won’t freeze.

Once your beds are clear, turn over the soil, add compost mulch thoroughly. This is also a good time to add lime. Come spring you will have rich new soil to work with.

Now that your garden has been put to sleep, it’s time to go inside, curl up with some seed catalogs, and daydream about next year’s crops and flowers.