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.
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