When my dad was gardening, and he gardened from childhood to age 91, once frost killed the plants he was done. He didn't set foot in the garden until spring. He didn't clean it up, weed it, mulch it...nothing. Then in spring he had a whole lot of work to do getting the garden ready for planting. That seems to be the norm for most gardeners. By the end of fall, they are tired of it all and just let the garden go. Since I did most of the manual labor on our farm, yard, and campground business, I got stuck trying to get the garden cleaned up and everything put away, in the spring.
So, I vowed to not do that with my own gardens. I find that it saves a lot of time and effort to take care of things in the fall, as much as can be done anyway. I like to change the sheets and put my garden to bed so that it can rest, rejuvenate, and prepare itself for the next growing season.
This all starts with cleaning out the garden of all plant material. The roots of a plant, especially legumes, should always be left in the soil where they grew. This is because they have established a deep collaboration between the plant processes and the micro-organisms that live on and around the roots. Those micro-organisms are critical to healthy soil, they are the life that converts organic materials in the soil and what comes from the roots, into ready nutrients for plants. If you rip the dead vegetable out of the ground, all that biology gets destroyed. I snip off the plants at the surface of the soil and let the roots decay in place, which continues to feed the soil organisms.
I use a leaf rake to rake up and remove all the leaves and whatever else is on top of the soil. Many of your plant pests over-winter in this layer. Then I use a garden rake to rough up the top two inches of soil to disrupt any pest egg case and grubs. I leave the garden like this for a couple day to let the birds come and scratch around and eat anything, mostly bugs, that they find. It's free.
While that is happening, I dig out all my compost bins and run the compost through my sifting screens to sort out the big chunks that haven't decomposed yet. The fine material falls through the screen into my yard wagon and I set that aside until I spread it on the garden beds. Once I clean out the two bins, I then fill them with fresh material, which will compost down over the winter, spring, and summer.
I tow a mulching lawn vacuum behind my riding mower to collect freshly cut grass and fallen leaves. My yard is four acres so I get plenty enough material to fill two bins that measure 54"x54"x48". I've talked about my composting system before so I won't go over that again.
Compost from the previous year, which has been screened, gets spread over all the raised beds, usually about an inch deep. That is plenty in my case because I have been composting these beds for over twenty years. On top of the compost I add a four inch layer of fresh mulch. This mulch keeps the beds warmer and moist so that biological activity continues until the very coldest weeks of winter. I want the soil creatures to start feeding on the compost and taking it down into the soil. (Below is one of the beds. I cover them with wire to prevent the many feral cats in my area from digging up the garden to use as their cat box.)
The soil organisms will also start breaking down the mulch, which is very finely chopped making it easier for the soil bio-activity to work on.
I thin out the raspberry canes, add compost, and add mulch to help them get through the winter. Healthy canes in the fall and winter leads to more cane growth in the spring. My raspberries fruit on second year canes so getting the old canes pruned out gives them more light and air flow.
I also put a heavy layer of mulch around a couple rooted cuttings that I did this summer so that I can transplant them in the spring. I used the air-rooting method to root two apple tree branches and three ornamental trees. Air-rooting is my most successful method of propagating trees.
Many people neglect watering their gardens after they harvested the last of their produce. But the soil still needs regular watering. If the soil dries out, it gets hard-packed, which limits air and water infiltration. The soil organisms also need the moisture or they will die. It is far easier to keep life going then to regenerate microbial and bacterial populations later. The soil is alive, not just the plants (which are now gone). So, once the garden is all ready for winter, it gets watered.
Your garden doesn't stop living just because it is winter. You need to clean it up, feed it, water it, and protect it from extreme temperatures. Do this and you will have a much easier workload in the spring AND your garden will be more fertile and have far fewer weeds. Happy Gardening!
