Putting the Garden to Bed for Winter

Step 1: Begin with a gorgeous Fall day. We won't have too many more like this for the next 6 months here in the great Northwest.

Step 2: Find yourself a willing assistant. It helps if he sings "The Bear Necessities" while collecting leaves.

Step 3: Find a place to start, cut off all dead stuff and remove weeds...

so it looks like this....

Step 4: Put down a nice warm blanket of leaves. Mine were graciously provided by our Japanese Maple.

Try to keep in mind that your assistant might get distracted...

Step 5: Cover the leaf blanket with a comforter of good, rich and smelly compost.

And voila! Your garden is ready for a long winter's nap.