Tucking Your Garden In For the Winter

Autumn is in full swing where I live.  Chilly nights and cool, crisp days.  We’ve had one frost and soon will come the warning for the first freeze.

Do you know the difference between a frost and a freeze?

With a frost, you can simply throw an old blanket over your outdoor plants and they will be protected from the cold and will probably even continue to produce for you.   But…when a freeze is impending you need to gather in whatever you can because what will be remaining will be quite useless, black, soggy, and dead.

It’s that time of year when a gardener needs to be about the business of putting the outdoors to bed for the winter.  Here are a few tips and ideas for getting this work done.

Gather in what remains:

Pick all of the tomatoes and peppers, regardless of size. Even the egg-sized completely green tomatoes can be used for relishes.  Pick the tomatoes and sort by ripeness. Put the ripe ones together, the yellow-orange ones together, and on down to the greenest ones. Sort them and stack the containers in any warm place to ripen indoors.

All the beans must be picked and any ripe melons. Melons won’t ripen much indoors so don’t bother with small ones.   Every ear of sweet corn should be picked and brought in to process as soon as possible. Corn doesn’t take a freeze well so get it inside. After a frost but before a freeze it’s a good idea to pick corn and process it to keep it sweet and tender.

Onions, carrots, and potatoes are safe from all but the hardest frost. Broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts are fairly sturdy also.

Even after a good freeze,  watch the garden and harvest what may be left hanging on.  It seems like there is always something left to survive.

As autumn progresses, the root crops get dug, the cabbage, broccoli, and late onions get harvested, and the garden stands naked and alone.

Now it’s time to put the garden to bed for the winter.

Get rid of dead plants:

What’s left of the garden now is just broken, black and brown dead plants. Some gardeners till under all of the garden plants. This does add organic material to the soil, but this may not be the best course of action. If you had any insect problems, you may be continuing your infestation by allowing their eggs to continue to live in the garden soil.

Add organic material:

Add as much organic material as you can before you till for the last time of the season. Be sure to work it in well, though, and add some straw or sawdust to it to counteract the nitrogen content of raw manure.

Another great natural material to add to your garden is leaves.   Spread as many as you can and then wait for a good soaking rain.  After it dries enough to till chop them all up well into the soil.  You can continue to do this all autumn as long as the leaves keep coming.

After all of your hard work it’s time for everyone…including the land…to rest.