Plastic compost bins make this chore easy

Consider using a free-standing plastic composter to compost in your garden. Continue putting organic material from the kitchen in the composter during the winter.

Because it keeps the material secured, dogs and other animals cannot get into it. Compost is the end-product of composting; a process where organic matter is collected, mixed and allowed to decompose.

Compost can be used to amend soil or as a mulch layer on garden beds and around trees. In nature, deciduous leaves create a mulch layer that eventually decomposes. Like human-made compost, this natural recycling process returns nutrients to the soil and improves soil structure, and it is one reason why native plants growing in natural ecosystems usually do not need more fertilizer than nature provides.

Composting reduces the amount of garden debris that ends up in landfills and improves your garden's soil.

• Cut buckthorn out of your garden and native areas during the winter. There will be less impact on herbaceous native plants when this work is done on frozen ground.

Be sure to treat stumps with an herbicide such as glyphosate or triclopyr herbicide to kill the root system. Glyphosate needs to be used at a high enough concentration to work as a stump treatment. Some recommend a 50% concentration. Chicago Botanic Garden staff has had success with a lower concentration of around 30%.

Be sure to read and follow instructions on the product label. One of the drawbacks with glyphosate is that it is water-based, freezes at low temperatures, and is only effective on the cut surface. Triclopyr is a good alternative because it is effective through the bark and on the cut surface and will not freeze when mixed with oil (diesel fuel, fuel oil or kerosene) for basal bark or cut stump treatments.

Complete your work when temperatures are above freezing to avoid this extra step of mixing with an oil.

• Continue to walk around your garden every so often to monitor for damage from rabbits and deer. As the snow melts, you will not see their tracks, so a closer look around your plants can catch a problem before major damage occurs.

• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.