Ever heard, “Even a 5-year-old can do it!” Well, my 5-year-old grandson loves to get in my raised beds and help. But at the end of growing season, it’s time to clean things up a bit.
If you’re in between growing seasons, it may be a good time to let your garden rest. But what does that exactly mean?
Allowing your garden to rest can help improve soil quality for the next season and prevent pests from entering the garden soil. Here are some steps I take for my raised beds during late fall/early winter:
- Remove all weeds. Leftover weeds can harbor disease that will cause poor soil quality for the next growing season.
- Clean up any dead or decayed plants leftover from growing season
- Add mulch, compost or various kinds of organic materials
- If your beds are covered in weeds, cover the entire raised bed with black landscape plastic. Then, in early Spring, spread new healthy potting soil, rich in nutrients over the black plastic
- Plant a cover crop, like oats, that will compost well into the soil for your next growing season
- If you’ve got any perennials(check your local growing region for proper pruning times for plants like blueberries, raspberries(bushes that have woody tissues) and herbs.
Practical Planning:
- Maybe it’s time to replace old tools? A prepared gardener needs a good shovel(curved and straight edge), a hard rake, hedge trimmers, loppers, etc.
- Sharpen cutting tools like hedge trimmers, loppers and shears
- Read up on different kinds of raised beds for your next growing season. Not only does the internet offer scores of gardening articles, but there’s nothing like a good gardening book to thumb through to glean ideas! Check out the local library, bookstores that offer used books or thrift stores.
- Grab some graph paper and draw out your planned raised beds.
- Find a local nursery and develop a relationship with the folks there. Locally owned nurseries offer loads of experienced people that know their stuff.
- When planning your next season’s garden, make sure you know your growing region to ensure you’re planting the best plants for high yield growth. The websites: groworganic.com and garden.org are ones I’ve used before.
- If you’re in doubt of the health of your garden soil(leftover soil from previous garden, or soil in a particular area of your yard), you can take a soil sample to your county extension agency. Home improvement stores may also sell a soil test kit.
Enjoy the time of planning, pruning and preparing your garden for your next growing season!
Let’s dig in!
Amelia
