Preparing the Home Garden for Winter By Benedict T. Palen, Jr.

1. Preparing the Home Garden for Winter By Benedict T. Palen, Jr. In most areas of the US, fall has arrived, and flower and vegetable gardens have begun to wind down. Doing some simple steps now can make things easier, and more productive, when the spring gardening season rolls around in a few months.

2. Preparing the Home Garden for Winter By Benedict T. Palen, Jr. • Cleaning up. Remove all plant debris; for the most part, plants and their roots should be pulled up, and in some cases, put into a composting area for use in 2019. For composting, it’s best to select only those plants that are fairly leafy, and without stalks that are too woody. That includes lettuce, most beans, leafy greens, and onions. Do not compost plants that have signs of mildew or disease. While there are many good reasons to compost plants, it’s just best to stay away from those plants which are very slow to decompose, or which have diseases that could infest other materials in the compost pile, and then impact plants in areas where that compost is later used.

3. Preparing the Home Garden for Winter By Benedict T. Palen, Jr. Applying fall fertilizer. It’s always good to take a soil sample of, say, four cups of soil, and send it for testing to a county garden or farm services office. These are often part of a state university’s “extension service” for horticulture and agriculture. The cost of a garden soil in most cases is less than $25.

4. Preparing the Home Garden for Winter By Benedict T. Palen, Jr. Applying compost. If you have some well cured compost, fall is the ideal time to apply it to the garden areas. I usually apply 6-8 inches of compost, and then turn it into the soil (see below). That compost application will provide a good, natural boost to the health of the garden soil, and will provide a medium for earthworms to become active the following spring.

5. Preparing the Home Garden for Winter By Benedict T. Palen, Jr. • Turning the soil. I use a shovel, and turn the soil (and compost and fertilizer applied to it), about 12 inches deep. The ideal time to do this is before temperatures drop below freezing at night, and while there is still good moisture in the soil. You want it wet enough so that the soil is easy to dig, but not so wet that the soil sticks to the shovel when you dig. Dig close together so that all of the soil surface gets turned over. • Other items. It’s always a good idea to clean and sharpen tools (hoes, clippers, etc), used in the garden. Sharpening can be done with a $5 hand held sharpener purchased at a garden center. For any power tools with a gasoline engine, it’s always good to change the oil before winter, and clean all plant debris from the machine. Water hoses should be drained, detached from faucets, and stored out of the sun, during the winter.

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