November 18, 2024

In the HOMES section of Sunday’s newspaper (delivered on Saturday’s) there was an article providing advice to want-a-be gardeners. October (missed it) and November are the best time to wrap up your gardens and prepare for your spring planting. Fall is also the best time to plant trees and shrubs to let them get established before the freeze sets in. Rather than raking leaves consider mulching them and collecting fallen branches in a pile to protect local wildlife (or the neighborhood cat). Deep watering trees and shrubs will send them into the winter well-hydrated and give them a jump-start in the spring. While we may be preparing the inside of the house to welcome holiday guests, it is important to wrap up the outside for this season of dormancy.

When I looked online, the Farmer’s Almanac cited 11 Steps to wrap up your vegetable garden in the fall. This began with removal of any spent plants and debris that may have accumulated. While much of this can be composted, any diseased plants need to be disposed of in the trash. Beans and peas should be chopped off at ground level to leave their nitrogen-fixing roots to feed next year’s crops. Disease/insect free material can be added to your compost pile. This is also a good time for a final weeding to prep for next spring. If you are planning on new beds this is the time to scalp the grass and lay down newspapers with a cover of compost and mulch to prepare the soil. The falling leaves are a great mulch and a good source of nutrition. Your beds could also use compost in the fall to allow microorganisms to break it down throughout the winter. Fall is the time to consider crop rotation for the coming year. It is never good to grow plants in the same family in the same place year after year as it could allow pests and diseases specific to that family to thrive and depleting the soil of the same nutrients each year. This is a good time to test your soil for nutrients and the proper pH for the new crop by contacting your local Cooperative Extension or garden center. You may want to plant a cover crop to protect the soil, and this provides additional nutrients when you till them into the ground in spring. October and November are the best times to plant garlic as the plants need cold temperatures to produce huge yields. Finally, remove all supports an cages and wash and spray them with a two-to-one solution of water and bleach to kill disease. I guess I have got some work to do before I can wrap up my gardening for the winter.

Preparing to wrap up the garden is also about taking care of your pots, tools, and equipment. The water hose needs to be turned off and drained and, in our area (zone 7), the spigots need to be covered to prevent freezing. Garden tools need to be cleaned, sanded, and oiled before storing them for the winter. Any frames or supports should be wiped down with soapy water and allowed to dry before being stored (inside) for the winter. Ceramic and clay pots need to be moved inside to prevent cracking during freezing temperatures. You can dump the soil in your beds and then sterilize the pots with a diluted (1/2 cup per gallon) bleach solution. It was suggested not stack these pots, as it may be hard to get them unstuck in the spring. So much to do before I can stop doing anything.

THOUGHTS: As I prepare to wrap up my garden I am still harvesting crops. My pole beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) produce several cups of fresh beans every couple of days, and I have nearly ripe tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) on most of my vines. I am giving them as long as possible to ripen before the coming big frost the weather people keep predicting. Still, I can complete most of these preparations. Preparing my pots and tools will clean and keep them from rusting as they sit on the back porch. Being willing to wrap up is both hard and necessary. That is true for gardening and in life. When I retired, I thought it was a wrap up. Instead, it was the start of my next assignment. Humans need to have a purpose to survive. Act for all. Change is coming and it starts with you.