As you are cleaning out your garden spaces this fall and winter, make the most of all the spent summer plants and plant parts that you are now dealing with. As plants go through their life cycle, they can be beneficial to the environment. Here is how you can utilize them in your plans for spring.

• • Not everything goes to the compost pile (at least not right away). Vegetable garden plant materials and clippings from plants that are having disease or insect issues always go straight to the compost, or the trash if the problem is bad enough. Check your plants before composting. Then create your own soil and fertilizer by creating a compost bin of your own.
  • Steps for making your own DIY Compost bin
    1. Find a plastic bin or use an old yard waste can.
    2. Drill holes in the sides.
    3. Create a dry base.
    4. Add dirt to the bin.
    5. Toss in veggie scraps, egg shells, coffee grinds, leaves, grass cuttings, etc. check the list here of what to compost and not compost.
    6. Mix and moisten weekly.

• Many beneficial insects and animals rely on certain spent and older plant materials to overwinter in, eat, or to complete their life cycles. Often materials with hollow stems (ornamental grasses, cane fruits etc.) have the greatest potential to help beneficial insects. Consider keeping them uncut all winter and cut back in spring before new growth. Or if you want to cut back, lay the material down as a winter mulch, or get creative and make a temporary wattle fence with the spent parts. The main goal is to keep those materials from burning up in a compost pile and killing off all the positives that are in there, helping to keep your local natural systems healthy.
• All the leaves that fall on your property should stay on your property. They are a free soil amendment that rains from the sky. If you can shred them first, go for it, they will decay faster. But it’s fine if you can’t. A good tip is to blow them into my wooded and garden spaces now before putting down a nicer mulch. Making sure they are not moundied up on or around plant trunks and stems. Again a step that helps build natural systems.
• Be careful not to trim back spent flowers too soon. A Lot of us are planting more native plants these days for the betterment of our environment. Let’s make sure they can live up to their full potential and not rob the fauna of their food. Leaving all the “ugly” spent flowers and fruiting structures of our natives is the help we are looking to provide.

  

Hopefully these tips help you prepare for cooler temperatures in your garden. It may be challenging for us all to transition from the warm summer days to long winter nights, but creating a sustainable plan for your garden will help all of the biodiversity in Greensboro in the long run.