Garden Lesson: Putting the garden to bed for winter

This is from this week's Crown Garden's newsletter.  Hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy writing them!

Garden Lesson: 

                This week I thought we’d talk about how to put your garden to bed for the winter.  Over the winter, rain and melting snow can erode the loose soil we’ve built and can carry valuable nutrients away with runoff.  What we want to do is prevent erosion and keep the soil healthy until we are ready to plant again next year.  There are a few strategies that can accomplish this.  The first is to use a cover crop.  A cover crop is a plant that grows for a period of time before being allowed to die in place (making a mulch) or being tilled in to the soil.  Some common cover crops include white clover, buckwheat, winter rye and various vetches, although there are many, many more options.  I’ll write more about the different cover crops next week.  You sow the cover crop either while the main crop is still standing (larger plants with space around them like peppers) or after the main crop is done for the season.  It then grows which creates organic matter for the garden and feeds the soil life to keep it healthy.  Cover crops that die in the winter form a mulch on top of the ground and their roots hold the ground to prevent erosion.  They usually decompose in early spring.  Cover crops that survive the winter will add much more organic matter to the soil, but have to be pulled or tilled to kill them before planting.  Alternatively, some shorter cover crops (like white clover) can be left to grow year round with only patches pulled to make space for vegetables.  This can double or triple the amount of organic matter available to the soil over using compost alone.  White clover is a nitrogen fixer (like beans) so it fills that spot in the crop rotation as a bonus.

If you don’t want to mess with a cover crop or if you’re growing right up to frost (like Crown Gardens), then you will want to cover your garden soil with a thick layer of mulch when you pull your vegetable plants.  The mulch can be shredded leaves (whole leaves will just blow away), grass clippings, old hay, straw or shredded paper (no color).  All of these will be slowly decomposed over the winter providing food for the soil life and adding nutrients to your garden.  As a bonus, they will prevent erosion by covering the ground.  If you have enough compost or aged manure, add 1-2” of it to the top of the bed before you mulch it to maintain and improve the soil’s fertility.