The days are short, and the weak rays of the sun barely warm the skeleton of the garden. We’re stepping into the Persephone Period. Referring to the mythical tale of Demeter’s daughter’s time in the Underworld, where daylight fall below 10 hours a day, it’s a time of rest. Yet, even though it feels like the spring garden is a lifetime away, there are still a few tasks to keep us busy.

New Year’s Resolutions

To Clean or Not to Clean

To protect pollinator species, there’s a concerted effort to avoid cleaning up the garden in the fall. This way they have places in hollow stems, leaves and garden debris to spend the winter. 

Fall Cleanup in the Vegetable Garden

Depending on the size of your garden, leaving everything until spring isn’t always a feasible option. Personally, I had a couple of gardens that grew a bit wild by the end of the season. They could not wait until next spring, particularly since I want to revamp them. 

Other times it’s a matter of cleaning out the massive vegetation from the end of the season. Tomato and squash plants turn to slime over the winter making it more convenient to pull them in the fall. It’s also wise to remove them to avoid potential fungal or bacterial diseases. 

Celebrating the Persephone Period with Fire

My favorite way to handle garden clean up is with fire. Of course, I wait for a calm day after we’ve had snow or rain. And I always have a hose and shovel ready to go. One of my goals is never to be a headline, particularly for burning down the neighborhood. 

I used my fire weeder last week to clean up the spent hops vines, grass and weeds along the front fence. My goal for next year is to plant the hops the entire length of the fence to completely cover the metal. Not only is it beautiful during the summer, it’s super easy to tidy in the fall or spring because the plants die to the ground. Once we have snow on the ground, I’ll continue cleaning other areas.

Putting Away the Tools

We had a lovely fall up until the last weekend in October. It went from a record breaking 80 degrees F. on Thursday to zero Saturday morning. I kicked myself for not draining and storing my garden hose, but thankfully the weather gave me a second chance. This week, I started at one end and holding it high above my head, fed the hose through hand over hand to make sure all of the water drained from it. 

The plan was to be able to water the trees in the middle of the winter during a warm spell, or will have it ready for my relaxing fires on the patio. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking, and left the hose outside the garden area because I ran inside to do something else. The dog ate it. I am not even kidding! 

I also have the tools tucked away in the greenhouse to keep them handy for those warm days in the winter. The Persephone Period can be rough for gardeners. But it’s a ideal time to finish those final tasks and count down the time until the Goddess of Spring returns.