Gardener's Almanac: After the Frost

Frost came early this year.
So what do you compost?
What do you store alive in the basement?
What do you send to community composting?
And what do you throw out in plastic trash bags for incineration?

Pull out tender annuals and put them in the compost, along with soil you are dumping from planted containers.
Bag dead tomato plants and put them out with the trash in plastic bags. Do the same with invasive weeds such as Japanese knotweed, orange rooted bittersweet, and grapevine-like porcelain berry.
Pull unwanted but non-invasive weeds such as goldenrod and put them in leaf bags with the raked leaves for community composting rather than in your own compost pile.
Do not compost weed seeds or diseased leaves yourself.
Cut down brown perennials such as Joe Pye weed and compost them.
But leave plants that are still blooming, such as sedum, asters, phlox and ornamental grasses, standing a while longer.
If you don't have time to dig up tender bulbs such as canna and dahlia rhizomes and
winter them over, just buy new ones in the spring. Otherwise, lift the roots our of the soil with a garden fork, cut off the tops, and store the roots in labeled boxes in a cool place such as an unheated basement where temperatures do not fall below freezing.
Bring in pots of tropicals and store them in the basement, too. They may go dormant and sprout again next spring.

Q&A
Bob emails:
I live near the ocean , any recommendations for using seaweed in my organic garden?

Carol replies:
Seaweed is an excellent soil amendment. It is full of micro-nutrients that make it far superior to chemical fertilizer. I would lay it on top of your garden this fall as a winter mulch. This would also give it time to break down a bit over the winter. Then I would dig it into the topsoil in the spring, especially if you are doing a vegetable garden.