Gilman-Earle Design

To properly prepare your flowers for the cold months, you need to know which ones are annuals and which are perennials. The annuals in your garden will need to be pulled, as they won't return the following spring. The perennials, however, should return as long as they have been properly cared for during the summer. Add some extra mulch to the area that they're planted in right after the winter's first frost and trim the flowers so that new buds can form next season. Aeration, in its most simplistic definition, is opening the soil to promote the creation of a healthy oxygen-rich environment for the roots of plants and grasses.