Tucking the Garden in for Winter, One Bed at a Time

It’s time to wrap things up in my garden.  As I harvest all the food from each bed, I begin to tuck it in for Winter.

I maintain my soil through crop rotation and amendments.  All summer long I mulch with grass clippings.  In the fall, I lay down even more mulch once the bed has been cleaned.  I try to disturb the soil as little as possible, cutting plants instead of pulling them out by their roots.  Some I leave in the beds to amend the soil, with the exception of the nightshades.  Nightshades, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers, are prone to blight so I put those out for the compost collection.  I struggle with blight and I don’t want it to fester over Winter.  But bean plants are cleaned of their seed pods and stay where they grew to feed the soil.  I take the tops off carrots and leave them to compost where they were planted.  If it has a seed pod, I remove it and leave the rest on the bed.

Then I add another layer, usually mowed leaves (mowed leaves decompose more easily and don’t create a water proof mat in the Spring).  Next I add a layer of compost and aged manure if I can get it (no luck this year).  Everything is topdressed with a layer of oat straw and the bed is ready for Winter.

My lower bed got some extra attention this year.  Every year I concentrate the most effort into the beds that had the most taxing plants, this year the tomatoes and the peppers.  I layered sumac branches, chopped leaves, brussell sprout leaves, compost, and oat straw for an extra feeding.

The compost is getting down to the very bottom of the pile, so I economize where I can.  I only layer leaves and compost within the tomato cages in the tomato beds.  Those were heavily mulched with grass clippings all summer, so I don’t feel like I am skimping them too much.

Every year I worry that the compost will run out before I am finished.  This Fall, I decided to save a few plastic bags of mowed leaves for mulching next year so that I can put some of those grass clippings into the compost.  I bought heavy duty bags and stored the bagged leaves in a protected spot so they will be dry and ready for mulching next spring.  That way, I can make a little more compost with those grass clippings.

Now, I can really appreciate all those weeds that went into the compost pile all summer.  They’ll spend the Winter, feeding my soil, so that next year, I can feed my family.

Bottom bed, layered with brown and green (purple) material, compost, and oat straw.