Preparing for winter

This summer, my youngest son decided to take on the enormous job of redoing a pond (like most things we didn’t realize how long it would take) that had fallen in due to neglect and ignorance.

One week later, countless hours, numerous squabbles, and much questioning out loud about “whose idea was this anyway,” it was finished.

Soothing sounds of running water now wafted into our bedroom window.

It was a huge hit with my niece who visited this summer.

But here’s the thing – what do you do to winterize your pond? I’ve removed the pumps and drained some of the water out. We don’t have any fish (I couldn’t handle any more dependents) and all the information out there seems geared to keeping your fish alive in your outdoor pond.

If you’ve any ideas for winterizing a fish-free pond with a hard liner, please email me or post a comment.

I was wholly unprepared for that first bit of snow so I’m going to rewind and pretend it didn’t really happen. (Wouldn’t it be nice if that actually worked in real-life?)

Consistently plummeting night-time temps are a good indicator that it’s time to take look at your outdoor garden planters.

Winterize your outdoor planters in 5 easy and inexpensive steps:

Remove the dead foliage

Gather up balsam, pine, and whatever other Evergen boughs and twigs are readily available.

Dampen the soil in the planter, cut the stems off the evergreen boughs and twigs, and stick them firmly into the soil. When the soil freezes everything stays in place and your planters (or hanging baskets) now look like this:

If you don’t have bundles of balsam, pine, red willow, and magnolia readily available give us a call to order; if you’re not a DIY-er (like my sister…her philosophy is why do it yourself when you can just get someone else to do it for you), we’ll come over and do it for you.

This year I plan to grow winter garlic as part of our new commitment to knowing the origin of our food (it’s a small step but a step nonetheless). I’ve bought the bulbs and am planning on planting them very soon as it’s definitely the right time to get them in the ground.

Drain all water from your bird baths, garden statuaries, and decorative birdhouses to avoid cracking and breakage. Make sure there is no water left in them, to avoid cracking and breakage.

If you’re a bird lover or you’re looking for inexpensive entertainment stock up on birdseed as this is the time they’re scouting for winter backyards. A great gift idea for the bird lover in your life is our Gift Sunflower Seed Bag, sewn up in lime burlap and filled with sunflower seeds. If you’d like to encourage your child or grandchild to appreciate nature add a hand made birdfeeder.

And if you’d like an indoor reminder of the summer (that wasn’t) consider our hand-made, wooden decorative birdhouses with tin roofs – they also make a great place to drape your necklaces.

What are you doing to winterize your backyard and garden?

On a slight tangent we’re selling a few of our props - a lovely antique steamer trunk. Here's an open and closed view:

Also up for grabs is an old-fashioned Kenmore washing machine.