Gaia's Garden

Even those of us on an Earth centered path can use a little help now and then in caring for our Mother.  This column is dedicated to making us more aware of the "footprints" we leave on Her and how to live more harmoniously with Her even if we're urban pagans.
Putting the Garden to Bed

After the first frost, remove all of the dead plants, stakes, strings, or markers from the garden.  Doing this will prevent any left over bugs or diseases from surviving the winter.  If you have a perennial flower bed, it's best to simply mow the tops off of the plants and leave the roots for next year.  I use a weed eater for this.  You can then compost all of this over the winter unless you had an insect infestation in your garden.

Next, cover the beds with black plastic.  A cheap way to do this is to simply open a few large "lawn & leaf" bags at their seams and lay them over the garden.  Then, place your choice of mulch over the top of the plastic.  Another wonderful way to recycle newspaper and plastic grocery bags is to stack the newspaper in the bags until you have about a 4-6 inch deep stack.  Tie the bag closed by the handle and slip another bag over it with the opening facing the opposite direction.  It takes a lot of newspapers to do this, but I save mine all summer long.  The the bags hold the plastic in place throughout the winter,  as well as providing a wonderful insulation against unexpected thaws/freezes.  In the spring the sodden newspaper can be added to your compost or worm bin.

That's it!  Now you can start ordering all those seed catalogs.

                       Mother Bless,
                                                          Kara Shima

 

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