TLC for Your Mountain Yard & Garden

As the seasons change in the mountains of Southwest North Carolina, Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia, it's time to prepare your yard and garden for the coming winter.

Here are 9 ways to get your yard and garden ready for the winter – and help ensure healthy plants next spring.

1. Mow the lawn right up to the first frost. Be sure to rake up the clippings to keep roots from being smothered.

2. Trim your perennials such as Rudbekia (black-eyed Susans), daylilies, or peonies. Leave a one-inch stem. Rake leaves from flower beds as rotting leaves can attract unwanted bugs.

3. Dig up summer blooming bulbs that don’t overwinter well in the frozen ground. These include calla lilies, dahlias and gladioli. Store the bulbs in a brown paper bags in a cool place – a basement is ideal. Replant the bulbs in early spring.

4, It’s also time to pull out those dead annuals such as zinnias, marigolds, and begonias. Also pull up the remains of your vegetable garden so the plants will not begin to rot.

5. Compost everything you have cut off or pulled up. The only exceptions are tomato plants (which may have diseases) and squash or pumpkin vines. These vines can take a year or more to break down.

6. Don’t pull up your herbs! Cut them back as you do perennials. Many such as thyme, oregano, and chives, for example, will return next spring.

7. Prune diseased branches for perennial shrubs. Rhododendron, azalea, and hydrangeas are in this group. Diseased branches have either white or black spots or will look gnarled. Remove dried-out boughs from evergreen bushes.

8. Mulch perennial beds with hardwood or cedar chips to keep roots insulated.

9. Bring inside outdoor pots or planters and put them by a sunny window. These include plants like geraniums or ferns. If your pots contain annuals, pull them up (and compost), rinse out the pots, and store upside down.