Do you have a community garden or are you thinking of adding one?
The DE Master Gardeners have started a Community Garden News bulletin.
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Putting Your Garden to Bed
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As days begin to get shorter, temperatures decrease, and the inevitable first frost approaches, we watch our plantings begin to look shabby and die off. This can be a tough time for gardeners after a full season of tending to their gardens. However, there still is plenty to do in the off-season, and understanding the cyclical nature of gardening in a 4-season zone reminds us that late autumn into winter can still be a busy time for most gardeners! |
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Cleaning and Mending
Though you have likely been keeping things clean throughout the growing season, fall means extra effort to clear out your spent plants and compost them if appropriate; any diseased or insect infested plants should be disposed of and not composted. As possible, cut vegetation off at ground level, leaving the root mass in the ground to decompose in the ground, especially for legumes, which add nitrogen to the soil. An easy way to prep some items for the compost pile is to mow and bag the material for smaller sized and more easily composted material.
It is also a great time to care for your garden tools. Cleaning cutting surfaces with a bleach solution, sharpening and lubricating cutting surfaces, and re-varnishing wooden handles are things that one can do now so they are ready in the spring before you pack them away for the winter. Check your raised beds for any needed repairs and mend animal fencing and move trellises and other plant supports, if you use them, in advance of next year’s garden.
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Fall planting
Late fall is an excellent time to establish many types of berries and other fruits for years of enjoyment. It is also a great time for dividing many of our garden perennials. Be sure to do a little research to determine which plants do well in the fall and get to work.
If you have not already done so, there may be time to sow some cool weather loving greens and root plants, many of which may persist through the winter, giving harvest and a ‘first from the garden’ crop in the spring. Kale, Swiss chard, spinach, radishes, carrots, beets, scallions, mache, claytonia and many others are good choices, especially if you have a protected area in your garden that gets good light throughout the year. Moreover, do not forget about garlic, which you can plant now to harvest next summer.
Finally, your garden beds do not need to remain bare during the winter. Planting of a winter cover crop has many advantages including stabilizing the soil, fixing nitrogen into the soil, and providing “green manure”, adding more organic material in the spring. There are a large number of brassicas, grains, grasses, and legumes that will help prevent soil compaction, preserve moisture, and even reduce the amount of weeds popping up (link). Some are winter-hardy, others are winter-killed. Cover crops seed mixes are often available as a mix of both sorts. Either way, a bit of effort will be required in the spring, either to work the vegetation into the soil or to cut down the winter-hardy crops in the spring, as they will continue to grow.
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Amendments/Topping Off
Soil, especially in raised beds, tends to self-deplete over time. The fall is a great time to top off your beds with a fresh layer of (hopefully homemade) compost. Also consider adding a layer of leaves or straw on top of the soil to break down over the winter. Likewise, nutrients also deplete over time. Depending upon the needs of your soil, determined from your soil test, one might add azomite (source of trace minerals and nutrients), lime, or other nutrients at the time of topping off to get the ground in perfect shape for next spring. These amendments can be used with or without cover crops.
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Planning for the next season
Longing for next year’s garden bounty? Now is the time to start thinking about what you want to plant and where you will plant it. Seed catalogs are a great place to start looking for new-to-you varieties, especially if you had disease issues with a particular cultivar. In addition, do not forget that what was once old can be new again! Many crops were grown historically, but for whatever reason are no longer in vogue. A recent tour of the gardens at Monticello by one of the our Master Gardeners stimulated interest in ‘old time’ varieties! Think about doing something new next growing season to keep the gardening enthusiasm alive like planting cardoon, artichoke, okra, sea kale, winter melon or other old time species or heirloom varieties. Might take a little effort to find seeds or plants for some of these unusual vegetables, but the reward could be great. Maybe the most important thing of all though might be keeping records! Noting what you planted where, how it did, and sketching out the garden for the next season assures good managing of knowledge gained leading to lifelong gardener expertise.
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Prepared by the Community and School Gardens Committee of the New Castle County Master Gardeners
For more info on starting a garden in your community, please contact Carrie Murphy.
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