Now That The Growing Season Is Over What Do You Do With Your Garden?
 

It has been years since I have had a garden. I know you're supposed to pull out the dead plants and turnover the dirt. What else needs to be done? My daughter has had her first garden and was asking. I googled it and all I seem to get is how to plant a fall garden!

If she has a way to shred leaves, they make a good winter mulch over the garden. If possible, you want to add grass clippings too. The green stuff helps the brown stuff break down. She probably does not want to just rake leaves over the garden; they tend to turn into dense, soggy mats that do not break down and have to be removed in the spring. With the shredded matter, you can just move it aside to make a planting hole.

I just remove the dead vegetation and put it in a composter and then along with SHREDDED LEAVES, I like to add some well rotted manure and or compost depending on what I can get, a few inches thick, over the top of the soil and let it decompose over the winter and leach into the ground. Then in Spring I turn the whole of it, over into the soil.

It can take several years to develop a great soil and once you get there, the work becomes minimal to maintain.

Enjoy the work for great results.
peace

I grow a lot of herbs and have been very lucky to have them overwinter by covering lightly with leaves from a maple tree. Vegetable plants get cut off at ground level and then the tops are left to lay on top of the ground until Spring when the ground is cleaned and turned over to start again. I get lots of volunteer tomato plants that often add to the newly planted tomato plants. I've even had this happen with eggplant. You can probably deduct that I am a lazy gardener, but I also use only natural substances on my garden, no insecticides and pesticides.

I garden in pots, i'll pull out the last of the carrots and give them to the bunnies. everything else, ileave in the garden for the faries to eat. I live in a condo, so maintance takes care of the common area outside our fence and patio deck.

In our suburban garden, we cover it with shredded leaves and lawn clippings. My sister & bil have very large gardens and use a winter cover crop. Google winter cover crop with your state to find out what to plant. All of this gets turned over in the spring.

This is how our family has always done it and if you happen to live in a drought stricken area it also helps retain the winters moisture. Once the weather lets you get out to plow all this under then we spread our compost over it to sit a few more weeks. Then just before planting time the dirt is turned once more then apprx a week later the plants can go in.

I only have a greenhouse. I pickle my green tomatoes that aren't going to ripen. PM me for a very easy on the counter recipe if you want it. I pull out the tomato stalks and green bean plants that are done and compost. All I have left are two broccoli and two cabbage plants that I am hoping will do something with the cooler weather. Now the greenhouse is firewood storage for the winter. Outside I put dry seaweed on top of flower beds to protect the perennials underneath. Some goes into the soil and some gets raked off in the spring. Lots of good stuff in seaweed for the soil.

Oh may have to try the seaweed. Does it work on roses...

I am going to plant garlic, onions for over the winter in one raised bed .. then the others I am going to fertilize for over the winter and have it ready for spring planting.

I go thru and pull out all the weeds, cut off the flowers on the perennials & cut their stalks down to 3", pull out the annuals totally. Some people say to leave the flowers on your Black-Eyed Susans,(for the birds to eat during the winter) but I don't, unless you want zillions of seedlings in the spring. I leave my vines on their trellises, it gives some winter interest. If they are annuals, I'll pull them off in the spring, perennials will get cut back in the spring. If you have any diseased plant material, don't compost it, put it in your garbage. If you have spring bulbs planted, a mulch can go on top of that area- like shredded leaves. In the spring you can then pull that mulch back as your bulbs come up.

If your garden has no plants left in it, say you had a veggie garden, you can improve your soil for next summer. Cover the soil with several layers of newspaper, then a 3 - 6" layer of shredded leaves, water it to keep the leaves from blowing and leave it. Over the winter the leaves will break down and enrich your soil. The newspaper will prevent any perennial weeds from germinating. You can plant right into your new happy soil. Or you can spread finished compost around your plants.

If you have a lawn mower you have the necessary tool to make shredded leaves. I'll bag them as I mow and dump in a pile. If the leaves are thicker on the lawn and you can't see any grass in between the leaves, you might want to mow them first, then go back over and mow again and this time bag them w/ the attached bag on the mower. I'll dump them on a tarp and then haul that either to the garden bed I want to dump them on or stash in a pile . The leaves will break down no matter where they are (spread on a bed or in a pile in your yard or added to a compost pile).

I am supposed to "do" something? It's lucky it gets planted in the spring!
Sandy