How to Put Your Garden to Bed for the Winter

Aside from a few rows of cool-weather veggies that will be harvested for fall dinners, our garden beds are usually ready for a winter’s sleep come autumn. There are some really important jobs that you can get stuck into during this time that will help your garden to be in tip-top shape the following spring.

Having these jobs done and dusted by spring will mean that you have less work to do as the planting season gets rolling. Plus, the cooler weather and fewer bugs make being out in the garden that little bit less torturous.

Don’t pack your gardening tools and gloves away just yet. Have a look at some of these invaluable tasks that will benefit you, your garden, and all that reside there.

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1. Have a Final Weeding Session

After a summer of battling and losing to relentless weeds, the fall weeding session can be quite satisfying. Before you do your final mulch (see # 5), have a good session pulling up those weeds. Unless you are into foraging for fall and winter ‘weeds’, pull those suckers up and toss them into your compost pile for extra nutrition.

2. Pull Up Your Annuals

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You might have been pruning your annual herbs and deadheading your annual flowering plants all season, but it’s worth leaving a few to go to seed so that you can replant next spring. Once your annuals have flowered, set seed, and dried, you can harvest these seeds before pulling up the entire plants and composting them.

Some plants are tropical perennials and are simply grown as annuals in temperate climates. That said, depending on your USDA growing zone, some ‘annuals’ could be cut right back just before the first frost kills them off completely and is heavily mulched over and around the root system. This way, there is a chance that the plant might survive the winter and come back in the spring.

It might also be worth digging up and potting some precious plants that won’t survive the winter, such as pepper plants. Then, bring the pots inside for the winter.

3. Cut Back Your Perennials

It’s difficult to give blanket advice on cutting back perennial plants as certain plants require special treatment. Some plants prefer an autumn prune, whilst others prefer to be cut back in the spring. That said, any perennials that have suffered disease or struggles should be dealt with in the fall so that the malady doesn’t carry over to next year’s new growth.

4. Divide Roots

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Some perennials, such as rhubarb, hosta, echinacea, licorice, and members of the mint family, can be divided at the root so that you can start new clumps elsewhere in your garden. You might also need to do this if certain plants have simply gotten out of hand. Research each plant for tips on how to divide it as different plants have different types of roots.

In general, however, it is best to choose a cool shady day for the operation so as not to stress or dry out the newly exposed roots.

5. Mulch

Hard freezes are beneficial for the soil as they can kill off some diseases. As a result, hold off from your final heavy mulch until after the first frost of the year. After that, you can cover any bare soil and make sure any tender plants that you have left in the ground are blanketed with a decent covering of mulch made from leaves or straw. This will also make sure that any perennials have gone into dormancy.

Rather than completely protecting the soil from the cold, you are protecting the soil and root systems from too much warmth. Many plants and seeds need the dormancy of winter and do not need to be triggered into growth too early. Otherwise, those tender shoots will be killed off in the next frost.

Bonus- Words of Warning

We are all for composting kitchen scraps and garden clipping. All those spent veggie plants and tired annuals can be tossed into the compost pile to make soil for next season. However, some garden pests and diseases can over winter and will come back with a vengeance in the spring. So, if you know certain plants from your garden are infested or diseased, seek an alternative place to disregard them so as not to incubate and exacerbate the issue.

Related Content:

• Fall Is the Time for Foraging Fungi: What to Look for From August to November
• Fall Veggie Garden: What And When to Plant, and Cold Weather Planting Benefits
• 14 Cold-Weather Companion Plants for the Early-Bird Garden
• 10 Big Time Greens for Cold Weather Gardens