With winter coming up on December 21st, gardening tasks are officially over, right? You can kick-back, relax, and forget about the flowers. Well...as gardener, I have to say that couldn't be further from the truth. I choose to look at winter as a gift; a time to do a variety of tasks and activities I was too busy for during the growing season.

Here's a list of some gardening 'stuff' I usually do in winter:

• I update my garden maps to reflect any additions, subtractions, and transplant re-locations. Should a plant tag go missing I'll know exactly where everything is planted.
• Last summer I took literally hundreds of photos. I go through each and every photo, delete what I don't want, and name and organize the keepers on my laptop.
• I have an actual photo album of my current daylilies, so I get prints made up of any new plants and update the album.
• All my outside garden daylily/plant name tags are checked for wear and updated as needed.
• My computer lists and spreadsheets are updated, in addition to my website content.
• The garden supply cabinet in the garage gets a good cleaning on a day when the temps are around 50 degrees.
• I go over my future daylily wish list with any changes. I love this task!
  
• I take some time to visit various daylily websites and do lots of online reading. This, too, is fun!

Ahhhh...September....the month we Northern gardeners try to remedy our planting fails from the previous spring by juggling daylilies around the yard. My friend Sally and I like to refer to this as the 'Domino Effect' because in order to move *one* daylily to a new spot, it seems like an entire chain reaction of plant-moving needs to take place before that *one* daylily can be put in its place.

The Domino Effect reminds me of these three Murphy's Laws:

• #5. Nothing is as easy as it looks
• #6. Everything takes longer than you think, and
• #11. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something

Why move daylilies around? A daylily's registration information can vary greatly as to how that plant grows in your garden, due to differences in sun, soil, temperature, and location. Planting is definitely a trial-and-error endeavor until you get to know how a particular plant behaves in your unique situation.

Here are just a few examples of why you'd want to move a plant:

• A daylily may need  more sun because it has a low bloom count
• A plant could be crying out for more shade because the color fades in the sun
• It grew taller than expected and obscured the plants behind it
• It grew shorter than expected and disappeared within the flower bed
• Bloom times were off -- one section of the garden somehow ended up with all early bloomers and by the beginning of August there were no blooms at all
• You may want to change-up color combinations to make your garden more aesthetically pleasing
• Finally, every season plants arrive and plants depart from the garden; when replacing daylilies, the size or bloom time of the new plant rarely matches that of the previous one

I have yet to encounter a year without experiencing the Domino Effect. And as a gardener, I suspect you haven't either!

Daylily pictured: 'Techny Spider' with a companion ant

Anti-clutter, organization, lists, and labels....just a few of my favorite things. I always love to hear the gasp of first-time visitors to my garden, "Your plants have NAME TAGS? OMG!!! I didn't know plants actually had NAMES." Or, "I thought they were all just daylilies!"

Well, YEAH, daylilies have names!  Name tags make it very easy for me to give a quick answer to a friend who loves a certain daylily and asks what it is. And know exactly what is planted in what place even though it's not blooming at the time. When you have as many plants as I do name tags are a good thing. They also come in handy when I'm deciding what to move around in the fall.

I've tried a number of different labels/tags over the years. What works really well for me are the metal name tags I have purchased from EON Industries. I bought the 6" tall labels. (Pictured above) I punch the names out on an old-school Dymo tape-maker and stick the labels onto the metal tag. I purchase the Dymo labels from local discount stores. I've had some tags last up to 10 years. Like most everything, they will deteriorate over time with our harsh winters. To preserve them over the winter, every fall I push the stakes down into the dirt and cover them with mulch. My biggest problem is deer stomping and crushing my labels. Liquid Fence keeps the deer away during the summer, but when there's snow cover they just walk right over my plants (AND name tags).

EON Industries  - Take a look at what they offer.

Every fall I update my plant labels. I make sure all the names are readable and I replace the metal plant stakes that have deteriorated or been crushed -  good TV task.

FYI - Make sure your labels are clearly marked for use in the garden or outside. One October, a friend labeled her entire garden with a new battery-operated, hand-held label maker. She is not an innate organizer, so this was a grueling task for her. All good intentions aside, the following spring she found a garden full of white, blank labels. The winter had washed ALL her names off. *Not happy* is an understatement! Her garden remains, to this day, unlabeled. 

Temporary Labels (e.g., plant sale, divisions for friends)
Aside from my permanent labels, I also utilize temporary labels. When I have my plant sale I like to have each plant labeled so that buyers can look at a big photo board to see what each one of my plants look like. For this purpose I use mini-blinds purchased at garage sales, either super-cheap or even free. Ange cuts them up into various sizes with a point on the bottom to slide into the dirt easily. (Another good TV  job.) When I write the info on the labels I use a waterproof laundry marker. These labels are usually good for about one season. The mini-blinds deteriorate rather fast, but they serve the purpose I need them for. I also use them when I purchase plants and have them in temporary pots and don't want to forget who's who. Very cost-effective :)