Winterizing my garden

[5ft Diva]

Today seems to be an official Fall day which has made me realize that my gardening experience will soon come to a close for 2009. When will I know it's time to winterize my garden and what do I need to do?

[Big_Sissy]

You will need to remove all plants and till up the soil. It's a good time to add natural fertilizers as well.

[Erudite]

There are lots of good checklists out there, so you just need to do a google search for one for this area.

In your veggie garden, you don't need to remove the plants if you're going to till. You'll want to chop them into little pieces and till them in...and thus gain your natural fertilizers in the process and improve your soil. In lovely Tooele, you'll be de-rocking at the same time to improve your soil. The fun thing we've found with that is that when we till in the fruits (like tomato and cantaloupe) we get volunteers the year after. I don't know that we'll get any fruit from them, but it's nice to have the green where it is. We don't usually do that until the pumpkins are off the vines, so that we can add the pumpkin vines to the dirt. That'll be another month or so. You'll also want till in leaves if you have trees giving them to you. Oh...you don't have to till if you don't have a tiller. A garden shovel turning everything over works just fine too. And the truth be known, we don't till in the Fall. We chop up the plants and leave them on the ground and till in the spring.

Another thing to think about in the next month is your spring flower garden...bulbs and hardy annuals need to be planted in the next month or so. Hardy annuals include pansies, which is what I usually plant. Violas are another one.

[runamyrun]

In all honesty, I don't do anything with my garden. By the fall, I am tired of taking care of my yard and garden, so I just leave it and deal with it in the spring.

[bookworm]

BS, do you till Fall and Spring, then? Yikes. Seems like overkill to me... but then I'm not an expert.

I'm like Amy, usually. Though, in the spring I often wish I had cleaned it up in the Fall because everything is soggy and gross in the Spring. I would say the best idea would be to pull out everything that's dead, trim back everything that will grow again (roses, perennials, trees, bushes) and tell them goodnight- but wait until it's a little cooler or they might not appreciate the trim. Then in the Spring, you rake, till, plant and feed everything! Good luck, Diva!

[Big_Sissy]

The reason for tilling in the fall is to mix in the mulch (dead plants) so they can decompose over the winter. It also makes the dirt easier to till again in the spring. You don't have to do it, but it's certainly better to do it.

[bookworm]

Oh... interesting. Thanks, BS!