Properly preparing your vegetable patch for the off-season can have a significant impact on your next growing season. Taking steps to winterize is a good garden practice and a task to put on your to do list every year. Most DIY projects include a clean-up phase and a vegetable garden is no different whether you work in raised beds, or directly in the ground. If you want to improve your soil, discourage disease and pests, and get a head-start for next year, here are a few steps for success.
Before Getting Started
If you’re new to gardening and have not dedicated a space for tools and equipment, do this now. A spot in your garage, basement, a mudroom or outdoor shed can serve as a place to store items you use in your garden. If you have some gardening experience, make time now to clean out your storage space. Recycle used plastic pots, dispose of accumulated trash, sweep out the cobwebs, the floors and any shelves as needed. Now you’re ready for garden clean-up. Let’s get started. Plants with thick stalks, like sweet corn, peppers, some cole crops and bush beans, also are best removed and composted or burned. The leaves of these plants will compost much more rapidly than the stalks which, when left in the garden, can lead to problems preparing the soil next year. Residue from leafy crops including lettuces, kale, spinach, and most root crops will break down fairly quickly. Once the garden is prepared for winter, you can til or dig this plant waste into the soil or add it to your compost pile.
Take down and store trellising for cucumbers, gourds, and pole beans. Remove fencing used to support peas and/or dried beans like kidney or black beans. Pull up, hose down, and store any plastic mat or synthetic mulch you plan to reuse or dispose of it. Make sure you’ve picked up all anchoring materials including landscape pins, brick or rock. Pay attention to used string and twist ties which can wreak havoc on tiller tines.
One way to put nitrogen back into the soil is to add compost or manure. Compost can be applied and tilled in or you can cover the soil, continue let it break down, then til it in next spring. If you plan to add raw or fresh manure, which is too hot for plants, let it age by overwintering on top of the soil before tilling or digging it in. Another way to add nitrogen is to work the soil now and plant a winter cover crop. These are rapidly growing nitrogen fixers like legumes and clovers that mature in late fall and are tilled in the following spring.
Remove caked on soil with a rag or blast from the garden hose. Soak in a mild solution of soap and water. Remove any rust, and sharpen those with rough, dull edges. Now is also a good time to disinfect your tools before storing them.
Hand tools such as diggers, pruners and snippers can be hung on hooks or stored blade down in a bucket of sand. Hoes, rakes and other long handled tools are best stored with the blades up and preferably anchored to avoid accidental injury. For power equipment like gas or electric powered tillers, weed-eaters and mowers, be sure to follow manufacturers instructions including draining or stabilizing fuel, and cleaning and sharpening blades.
