How To Prepare Your Garden For A Montana Winter

It won't be long now until we have a week or 2 of fall and then winter will hit with a bang, or a blizzard or a deep freeze.

Looking around my yard, I know I have a lot of work to do to get it ready for hibernation season. Usually, I clean things up fairly well and leave a few plants and piles for the benefit of the dirt, the plants and the critters.

As the bugs took it a few steps too far this year, I will be clearing things that Martha Stewart thinks I shouldn't. As much as I know Martha is right, the plethora of bugs in my teeny tiny yard is completely out of hand. I want to make my yard a bad place for bugs to live. Like anywhere but my yard.

Plants That Should Never Be Cut Back In The Fall

• Roses: Pruning in the fall can open them up to die. It's much better to prune your beauties in the spring
• Hydrangeas: Their buds set on the plant's wood and stems from the past year.  Prune them in the spring
• Azaleas: Cutting them back in the fall will prune off all of the buds for next year, plus the plant won't have time to harden before winter
• Lilacs: Cutting them back in the fall will cause your plant to go a year without blooms. Just like a Hydrangea, the blooms set on the plant's wood and stems from the prior year
• Rhododendrons: Like so many of the others, pruning this in the fall will cut off all of the buds for next year. It's recommended to prune them in the spring
• Russian Sage: Growth from the current year will help your plant make it through the winter. You risk die back by trimming in the fall

Sources: Martha Stewart, Rural Sprout