Put your garden to bed before heading inside

There are a few things to do in the garden now, before its winter nap, to help it wake up healthy and ready to get growing in spring.

Vegetable garden

Insects and diseases can overwinter on plant debris. Evict them by removing fallen vegetables and all dead foliage. Do not add any suspicious material to the compost pile. Remove and clean plant supports. Tomato cages, garden stakes and trellises should be wiped with a solution of bleach and water to disinfect them before storing them for winter.

Make a quick sketch of the garden or take a photo, noting which vegetables were planted where, so proper crop rotation can be practiced. Crop rotation is a system of planting different families of vegetables in different areas of the garden year after year so there is less disease and more nutrients available to plants. For example, the area where broccoli was planted this year may host a tomato plant next year, onions the year after, and peas in the fourth year.

If the vegetable garden was less productive this year, fall is a great time to get your soil tested. Take a trowel full of soil from several different spots in the garden and mix them together to get the best sample. Contact the University of Illinois Extension office in your county to get a list of soil testing labs. The lab will provide recommendations on which nutrients and how much of each is needed.

Add a thick layer of compost or shredded leaves and work it in to the top six inches or so. It will have all winter to break down and improve the soil for next year's crops.

Perennial garden

Cut back perennials prone to disease like peonies, phlox and bee balm. Consider leaving perennials standing that offer food or shelter to birds and other wildlife.

Remove perennials that bullied their way across the garden, either by spreading rhizomes or by scattering their seed.

After the ground freezes, mulch around perennials known to frost heave themselves out of the soil. Use light, loose material like shredded leaves or hardwood mulch. Evergreen boughs left over from winter containers are another suitable option.

In the landscape

Water trees and shrubs in November if rainfall is insufficient because they continue to take up water until the ground freezes. This is especially important for evergreens and trees and shrubs planted this past season.

Complete a final weeding of all beds and borders. Weeds produce progeny with abandon. Weeds left to overwinter in the garden will have a head start in spring.

Clean those tools. It takes a little extra time now, but it will feel great when the first warm days of spring beckon you outside and you aren't delayed by dirty tools.

Even the most impassioned gardeners begin to look forward to some winter days to spend in front of a fire dreaming about their gardens instead of gardening in them. But put your garden to bed before heading inside, and you will both be ready for spring.

• Diana Stoll is a horticulturist, garden writer and speaker. She blogs at gardenwithdiana.com.