Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Putting the Garden to Bed

Now that mid-October is upon us, most gardeners will be looking to prepare their beds for winter. At this point in time, many areas of the country will have a frost coming soon if it hasn’t already occurred. A hard frost, also called a killing frost, is generally the beginning of the end for outdoor plants for the growing season. 

A light frost means temperatures fall only a few degrees below freezing and just for a few hours. Hardier plants may not be damaged by this, but more delicate ones will. In contrast, a hard or killing frost is when the temperature drops below 28 degrees Fahrenheit for a longer time, such as overnight, which will kill pretty much all perennials and root crops. Some plants, such as garlic, can benefit from a hard frost as I mentioned in a previous post. Most don't, however, so there are some precautions that we should take. 

One of the easiest and most common ways to protect plants from frost is to cover them to help retain heat and moisture. The most frequently used material for this purpose is burlap, though for smaller, low-growing plants a cardboard box can suffice.

Placing covers over the plants at night and removing them during the day, assuming the temperature allows, can extend their productivity slightly. However, eventually most areas will get too cold for this to work; at that point, we can tuck our beds in for their long winter's nap. 

We start by removing any plants still in the ground (especially weeds) and turning the soil. This is also a good time to mix in any natural fertilizers, such as manure or home-made mulch, so they can break down over the winter.

Once the soil is prepared, we cover our raised beds for the winter to keep seeds and debris out and our leaf mulch top cover in. We typically use the same burlap we covered the plants with before we pulled them, but we've also used layered newspaper or sheets of cardboard. Make sure that whatever is used, the edges are weighted down against the wind.

When spring rolls around again, all we have to do is pull off the covers, give the soil a light turn, and start planting.

Good luck, and may your garden sleep well.

No comments:

Post a Comment

The Fine Print


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial- No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Creative Commons License


Erin Palette is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.