Now's the Time to Put the Vegetable Garden to Bed

Putting the vegetable garden to bed isn’t nearly as much fun as starting the garden in the spring, but with Halloween right upon us and a hard frost in our pocket, it’s time.  

Fall cleanup is an important step in preparing the garden for the next growing season, because what you don’t accomplish in the garden now, you’ll need to do in the spring, when you’re eager to plant your garden, not clean it up. Additionally, a vegetable garden left unattended through winter provides a cover for insect pests and disease.     

Begin by taking an inventory of your garden and making notes about successes, disappointments, and changes that you’d like to make.  Taking pictures before starting the cleanup process will help you recall what the garden looked like as you begin the planning process for next season.

  

Once you’ve finished documenting the garden, you’re ready to start the process of cleaning your vegetable garden.  Leaving tomato plants, cucumber vines and other plant debris in your garden after you've finished harvesting will provide cover for plant diseases, giving them a head start next spring. Bacteria, fungi and viruses can remain alive, though dormant, during the winter months, if there is enough plant material to protect them.   

  

Insects, too, survive quite nicely over the winter months, given sufficient cover. Western Flower Thrip, Cucumber beetle, potato beetle and others overwinter in different life stages – egg, larva, pupa, or adult – depending on species. In spring they migrate to young plants where they feed and lay eggs for a new generation.  

While you’re at it, keep an eye out for signs of beneficial insect egg cases attached to stalks when you prune or clean up.  You’ll often find egg casings such as this mantis ootheca and occasionally an adult or a ladybug sunning herself. 

In addition to tomato and vegetable debris, many weeds serve as alternate hosts for insects and fungi, helping them to complete their life cycle.

Removing and destroying these weeds removes a source of future troubles.  

Once clean, the next step is to facilitate adding organic material to your garden bed while the soil is warm and workable. Healthy soil is key to your garden and a clean garden bed is the ideal time to amend your soil. Adding organic material now will improve soil structure and increase microbial activity, which leads to stronger root development and improved nutrient uptake in the spring and summer garden.   

Rake or mow the leaves off your lawn and spread them out over the garden bed or raised bed, then add three to four inches of organic compost on top of the leaves. This will help maintain the structural integrity of the soil as well as protect the all-important micro-organisms living in your garden soil. Organic material can be in the form of packaged organic compost, peat moss and earthworm castings.  Come spring, the decomposed leaves and compost can be worked directly into the garden soil.     

Using a cover crop is a great way to rebuild soil structure and overall soil health, protect and nourish soil microorganisms, suppress weeds, and return organic material and nutrients to the soil in the spring when you turn it over. Winter Rye and common buckwheat are good choices for cover crops, at this point in the season.    

Together, cover crops and organic material will build and maintain healthy, microbial-rich soil through the winter, a sure way to improve the crop yield in your garden next season.   

Make the fall garden clean up a part of your routine. It will set up your vegetable garden for a great start next spring.     

 

 

How to use Autumn leaves to benefit your garden

 

It’s like giving your garden a seasonal treat. Autumn leaves are one of the best sources of organic materials around. Packed with organic material, carbon and other nutrients, autumn leaves serve as a natural soil amendment, an organic mulch and a compost pile ingredient. 

Bagging leaves and throwing them in the trash creates a lot of unnecessary waste. These same autumn leaves could be used to make your crops grow better, by improving your soil.  

It’s important to remember that improving your garden soil is something that needs to happen on an ongoing basis. Continuous improvement is the way to ensure soil health, structure and fertility, all of which lead to improved crop yields.  

Good things happen when you add organic material to your vegetable garden on a regular basis. Clay soils become more workable, sandy soils retain water more effectively, earth worm populations go up, microbial activity increases and the health and balance of your soil improves. All this activity leads to bigger, healthier harvests.  

Fall is an excellent time to work on improving your vegetable garden. The soil is warm and this time of year we have the added benefit of an abundance of fall leaves. Fall leaves are packed with organic matter and nutrients and can be utilized as an amendment, a mulch or in the compost pile.   

An easy way to put fall leaves to work is to rake them up and scatter them across the surface of your garden or raised bed, then cover them with three to four inches of Earth Essentials Sheep, Peat and Compost.  Through the course of the winter, the leaves will break down. Come spring, use your garden fork to work the resultant rich compost into your garden's soil.   

Another option would be to incorporate the leaf material into the garden now. Spread the leaves out over the garden bed, cover with three to four inches of Earth Essentials Sheep, Peat and Compost and dig the mixture in six to eight inches.   

To speed up the process, mow the lawn with the catcher in place or use your leaf blower with bag attachment to shred and catch the leaves, as opposed to raking. The resulting smaller pieces will break down faster in your garden or compost pile, plus shredding helps prevent the leaves from packing together into layers that water and air can’t penetrate.  

Once the ground is cold – usually around Thanksgiving, you can apply a layer of shredded leaves and compost around each perennial. Mulching will help retain moisture and protect plants from winter temperature fluctuations.   

  

Fall leaves are a great source of carbon when added to your compost pile. Leaves count as "browns" in making compost. A good ratio of browns and greens is about 4:1 brown (carbon) to greens (nitrogen).

Adding leaves in thin (2" to 3") layers will help the compost pile stay warm and working during the winter.  

 At the end of a beautiful autumn, it seems only fitting we put those fallen leaves to work in the garden. You'll have a healthier, more productive garden next season.