Gardening – Preparing for winter

After a short and dismal summer, it seems an equally short and dismal autumn is leading into an early, grey, cold and damp winter! With some preparation, it is possible to make life a bit easier for both gardeners and the crops they grow. It’s a case of Clean-up, Raise-up and Cover-up. I call this my CRC for winter gardening. To reduce disease risk over winter and cut down on weeds, pests and diseases next summer, completely remove any weeds and old vegetation from the beds and from the paths where disease spores and pests will hibernate. Give any surrounding trees and shrubs a good haircut. The winter sun sits lower in the sky so nearby trees shade more. Also, you need as much airflow through the garden as possible. This will allow crops to dry quickly and disease spores won’t have as much opportunity to establish.

Most crops hate wet feet, and many soil-borne diseases thrive in wet conditions. If your beds are not already raised, now is a good time to do this. Raising the soil level by even a few centimetres can improve drainage, which also keeps the soil slightly warmer. A raised bed can be as simple as digging out paths and using this soil to mound up the beds. Digging drainage channels is another option, effectively raising the surrounding soil level by getting the water to move off and away from the crops faster. Even a shallow swale drain is effective at improving soil conditions for winter crops.

Bare soil is an invitation to weeds. You can cover up by mulching the soil, or take advantage of the downtime to grow a green crop. Green crops also help prevent the soil washing away or compacting from heavy rain over winter. A green crop, like mustard, also actively reduces pests in the soil by producing compounds from the roots that repel insects. When the crop is cut down and turned under, compounds in the leaves do the same job on soil-borne diseases, as well as providing useful carbon to the soil.

Late planted summer crops that haven’t finished yet can be protected by using frost cloth or cloches. These temporary covers reduce wind chill, trap some of the sun’s rays and reduce heat loss overnight. Cloches are also handy on raised beds to keep excess rain off winter crops. I’ll be using this technique this year to see if I can improve my garlic crop, which suffered from excess water last season.