By Connie Nelson

I've been saving bags of leaves to mulch my garden. They're stacked back by the garage, just waiting for the cold. The cold that doesn't seem to want to come.

I know it's best to wait until the ground starts to freeze. (Pesky pests can burrow in the mulch if it goes in too early.) And that the real job of winter mulch is not to keep the cold out, but to hold it in the soil, so the temps don't fluctuate as much. But I'm having a hard time waiting.

I spent last weekend out in the yard, cutting back the last of the plants I plan to cut back (which isn't much). I want to be done. I want to have that feeling when your garden is put to bed for the season. That i'm-all-done feeling. So I'm tempted to go ahead and mulch, temps be darned!

What say you, gardeners of the northland? Are you mulching? Are you waiting? Or are you skipping both?