As the growing season comes to an end, you may be tempted to just harvest the last of your veggies and then let nature take its course. However, you'll be in much better shape when planting time rolls around again if you put your garden to bed properly before winter hits. Use these expert tips to winterize your vegetable garden now so you'll have less to do in spring.
Thomas Bolles is an Extension Agent in the Agriculture and Natural Resources division at the Virginia Cooperative Extension in Prince William County, Virginia.
1. Harvest Remaining Crops
Before the first hard frost, pick any remaining vegetables and herbs. Some crops like kale, carrots, and Brussels sprouts can tolerate light frost (and it may even improve their flavor). But other vegetables, like tomatoes or peppers, need to be harvested before temperatures dip too low.
Pick any tomatoes on the vine that aren't totally ripe, but starting to turn. Put them in a paper bag with a banana or apple; these fruits give off ethylene gas that can help the tomatoes ripen quicker.
2. Trim or Pull Annuals
Once you've harvested everything, you can cut most plants at the base instead of pulling them up totally. "The stems and roots of healthy plants can help enrich the soil over winter by adding organic matter as they decompose," explains Thomas Bolles, an Extention Agent with the Virginia Cooperative Extension. They'll also help prevent erosion issues, holding the soil in place until you plant new crops.
There are a few exceptions to that rule, Bolles says. Always pull:
- Any diseased plant. "The biggest mistake gardeners can make is letting diseased plants collapse and leaving them there while the garden is dormant," explains Bolles. "The disease can spread within the soil and affect new plants that go in."
- Tomatoes. "They're just disease-magnets," says Bolles. "Tomatoes are the only plant I pull up and throw away completely. We don't even compost them."
3. Weed Thoroughly
Don't give up weeding just because the garden is winding down. Cleaning out the weeds as much as possible helps get rid of overwintering pests. Roots are easier to pull from damp fall soil, and removing weeds before they drop seeds helps prevents weeds from taking over and becoming a real headache come spring.
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4. Amend the Soil
You want to keep the balance of good microbes in the soil going even when the garden isn't active. "We like to keep the ground not just covered, but covered with active living roots throughout the year," says Bolles, who does a lot of work with soil health.
He explains it like this: In a healthy soil ecosystem, plants are giving about a quarter of their sugars to the microorganisms in the soil. And those microorganisms benefit a garden in many ways, from protecting against pathogens to processing nutrients so they're available to the plants.
But when you take a few months off, the amount of microorganisms drop really low. Then in spring, it takes a longer time for that microbial population in the soil to get back to where it needs to be to benefit your plants.
A few ways you can keep the soil prepped when you're not actively planting:
- Add Compost. Doing this before putting your garden to bed allows the compost to break down over winter (or when you're not actively planting) and enrich the soil.
- Apply Mulch. Mulching your garden in the fall helps protect the soil from erosion and also helps suppress weeds. Straw and wood chips work well.
- Plant Cover Crops. Several types of cover crops, like crimson clover, winter wheat, or barley, build soil structure, add nutrients, encourage beneficial insects, and keep weeds down. "As we've moved into synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, the relationship between our soil ecosystem and the plants has gotten separate," Bolles explains. "The microbes and beneficial insects we're encouraging with cover crops means we have to use less fertilizer and pesticides."
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