Finding cool ideas to fill those winter pots, and more

Q: I've ripped the dead and dying annuals out of a big pot by our front door, and have no idea what to put in there so we don't look at bare dirt through the winter. Please say something besides winter pansies.

A: Take thee to a good nursery and check out the winter pots on display. I've been so impressed by the textural mélange I've seen in pots at Swansons, Molbak's and Wells-Medina nurseries this autumn; I'm sure other nurseries offer equally inspiring ideas. Take one look at these pots overflowing with rainbow chard, hellebores, heuchera, variegated osmanthus, fragrant winter-blooming sarcococca and colorful sedges and dwarf conifers, and you'll never miss the flowers, let alone the winter pansies.

Q: To my great delight, my niece has recently gotten into gardening. I want to subscribe to a gardening magazine or two for her Christmas gift. She's a graphic designer with great taste. Which magazines do you suggest for a beginning gardener?

A: I'd suggest Garden Design (www.gardendesign.com) for any gardener, beginning or experienced. It's not only the most beautiful of the American gardening magazines, but it regularly chronicles innovative and exciting gardens, as well as designers, plants, techniques and products. For an international perspective, great writing and fine photography, Gardens Illustrated (English; www.gardensillustrated.com) or Garden Heaven (Irish; www.gardenheaven.ie) would surely please your niece, improve her skills and, if she isn't already a besotted gardener, bring her into the fold.

Q: What does "putting the garden to bed" mean? It sounds so ... final.

A: Fall cleanup, or putting the garden to bed, can be as thorough or minimal as you have time and energy to accomplish. I know some gardeners who cut the entire garden down in early November, and go back indoors until March. This approach makes it easier to plant bulbs now and lightens the load of spring cleanup. However, there are three or four long months between now and spring, and a cut-down garden can look pretty bleak to both humans and birds.

Another approach that works in our usually mild climate is to put the garden to bed more gradually. Some plants, like coneflowers, ornamental grasses and crocosmia, keep their stature, even if it's somewhat skeletal, offering seedheads for birds to feed on through the winter. As some plants die down, clear away just enough debris to plant bulbs and to keep the garden tidy enough so you can walk through it easily. Then whenever you have the chance, or the weather beckons, get outside and clean up as plants die down.

After freezes and rains, some plants will turn to mucky goo, and then it's definitely time to clear them away.

Cleaning up in increments leaves height and interest through the winter and feeds the birds, which in turn animate the garden during the darkest months of the year. By February, it'll be time to finish up so you can get fresh mulch on the beds before the bulbs burst through the soil and get in the way of a good mulch.

No matter if you take the cleanup now or later route, important fall tasks include planting bulbs for spring bloom, bringing indoors any plants too tender to survive the winter outside and mulching around borderline plants, like tree ferns and bananas, to help them survive the worst of the winter weather.

Valerie Easton also writes about Plant Life in Sunday's Pacific Northwest Magazine. Write to her at P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111 or e-mail planttalk@seattletimes.com with your questions. No personal replies.