Edible garden bed winter prep

Sunday, November 24, 2018

There are good things to do for your garden when winter is on the horizon to keep your garden bed healthy and ready for spring.  Winter prep includes soil sampling, fertilizing, cleaning the plants from the garden and give your cold crops a coat to protect them all winter!

Tidy Beds & Compost

It is time to clean up your edible garden to prepare it for the long cold season.  You can compost any that were disease free, but dispose af any diseased plants in the garbage.  Only high sustained temperatures will destroy the spores and it is not worth the risk of spreading disease into next year’s garden.  We had issues with some pests this season, so all the plant material is going to be cleaned out and disposed of.

Composting is possible in small spaces or even indoors

Troubleshooting your compost pile

Garden Beds & Soil Sampling

Now is the time to lay out any expansion you want to do in your garden beds.  Using a hose to outline the new beds is a great way to envision how they will look.  You can simply cover with card board to kill the grass over the winter.  I like to cover with cardboard, add a layer of compost and fertilizer, then top with mulch.  Letting the bed lay over the winter will allow the fertilizer to seep into the soil so it is ready to plant come spring.  Take a soil sample from your new bed(s) and existing beds to take it in to your conservation office or mail in to a soil analysis service.  The results will tell you exactly what your soil needs for amendments.

Put in a new garden bed the easy way-really

Weed free, self fertilizing, till free garden beds

Late fall is a great time to go ahead and do soil sampling for your existing beds.  With the results in hand, you can do the amendments of minerals your garden bed needs so they will be completely into the soil by spring so your plants have all the food they need to have a strong start.  Be sure to work into the soil.  Adding mulch gives the garden bed extra cover to keep herbs and cold crops like lettuce, chard, cabbage, spinach warmer so they produce longer.

Make your own fertilizer, it's all natural and inexpensive

The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

Protective Cover of Winter Crops

This is the time of year to put a coat over your potted plants left outdoors planted with cold crops.  The best place to locate your plants and greenhouse is close to protection and on the south side of the house in full sun.  Putting the greenhouse against the house will help keep the temperatures warmer for your plants.

Larger portable greenhouse

I have two mini portable greenhouses that I cover my pots and Earthoxes that contain kale, celery, French dandelion, spinach, lettuce, blood veined sorrel, garden purslane, carrots, and corn salad.  To add more protection, you can put inside the greenhouse along the outside edge, gallon jugs filled with water and spray painted black.  These will help moderate the temperature inside the greenhouse.

Prepare for hard freeze

The biggest risk with a greenhouse?  Overheating!  The sun’s rays are quite hot on a cloudless day.  I open the vent on my greenhouse when it is sunny and in the 30’s.  I will unzip the front door flap when it gets into the 40’s.   In the 50’s, the cold crops really don’t need any protection.

Homegrown, organic salads in a Midwest winter

Save Seeds

I am going to do a tour of the garden and save seeds from any flowers or veggies that I want to grow next season.  On my hit list is the green beans I left on the vine to keep for seed, flower seeds from the marigolds, hummingbird vine, moon flower vine, and zinnias, and any of the really nice summer vegetable specimens.  It is good to save the best of the best for seed as these parents will give you the characteristics you want in your veggies for next year's garden.

Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

Tool Care

Now is the time to take care of your tools to get them ready and stored for next season.  Sharpen your garden knives, scissors, shovels, and hoes.  Lightly oil all needed to protect from rust and keep working smoothly.  Make a list of any additions you want for your tool collection so you can research and purchase over the winter.

Winter Cover Crops

If you have an un-mulched garden bed, winter cover crops are a great way to protect the soil, keep it from washing and add nutrients your garden needs.

Summarize & Plan for Next Year's Garden

Now is the time to write down all you liked about the garden to you can repeat it for next season as well as what didn't go so well.  You can use the winter season to research solutions to the improvements you want to make on your garden for next year.

I like to look back through all my garden notes for the season and capture the varieties I want to be sure to have in the garden for next year as well as any new ones I want to try. 

Reflecting back on 2018, planning for 2019 

For instance, I have been trying different varieties of paste tomatoes so that I keep paste tomatoes in sync with the other tomatoes.  I like to put paste tomatoes in every freezer bag I store for next year's salsa and sauces.  I continue to experiment with black tomatoes to see which are the most prolific in our garden.

Choosing which tomatoes to grow

I experimented for years to find the most prolific sweet peppers for our garden.  I now save the seed from the best producers of the plants to start next season. 

Peppers are for every taste and garden

For eggplant, I found two varieties that did great in our heat and humidity without getting bitter.  I'll definitely plant these again next year.

Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden

The cucumber varieties I tried this summer did really well.  The Jaune Dickfleishige did too well.  They were huge and prolific.  I think I will stick with a small white, yellow and green type for next year's garden.  

Cucumber info and tips for growing

Our zucchini got ate by the ground hog this year.  The plants themselves were healthy so will stick with Early Prolific Straight Neck and the Cocozelle Zucchini for next season.

Growing zucchini and summer squash

All the green bean varieties did great this year.  I will stick with them for next year's garden, a purple and green Romano vine type.  Maybe I'll try a yellow one next season for fun color..  Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer

Spring lettuce-I really liked the Red Romaine and Red Sails lettuce.  They stayed a long time before bolting.  I also like the oak leaf lettuces and Grand Rapids varieties.  I'll have all of these in the garden next year.  I saved seeds from the varieties that did well so I can sprinkle and go come spring!  I think the easiest way to get them going is to thickly sprinkle the seeds in a pot, then transplant to other pots or the garden bed to grow to maturity.

Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

I'll absolutely do the Cardinal Basil and traditional sweet basil.  I like the Cardinal Basil because it's flowers is just so pretty.  The sweet basil for making pesto.

My husband loves zinnias and marigolds.  I'll start these from seed I save now to grow again next year.  Flowers add not only beauty but attract pollinators.  These little hard working gardener assistants significantly boost your garden fruit production like tomatoes, peppers, beans and eggplants.