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Prepare your garden for winter

Green & Healthy Maine

Getting the gardens ready for winter at Veggies to Table, a grow-to-donate organic farm in Newcastle. Learn more at veggiestotable.org. Images courtesy of Veggies to Table.

By June Donenfeld

All good zucchini must come to an end. And tomatoes, tulips and turnips, too. To prep your garden for the cold months ahead, here are some tips to ensure it’s in top form come spring.

Fall clean-up

Vegetables and perennials

At season’s end, separate out any garden plants affected by insects or disease and dispose of them. Experts recommend that you pile them in your yard and burn them to ashes, if permitted in your area, but this may be risky during droughts like the one Maine is experiencing. An alternative is to bury them at least two feet deep, as far from the garden as possible, in a place you don’t plan to use for garden plants. Or you can always seal them in paper bags and throw them out with the rest of your garbage if need be. Add the remaining vegetable plants to your compost, cutting the larger ones into small pieces. For the perennials, leave behind some of the greenery and the tall, sturdy stems; many native bees use their hollow stalks to build winter nests, and the dead seed-heads make a fine buffet for birds. There are some perennials that benefit from cutting, but wait until after a few hard frosts (almanac.com has reams of useful advice on what—and what not—to cut).

Dead leaves

What to do with all those autumn leaves? You can take a leaf out of gardening columnist and author Margaret Roach’s book by planning which areas of your property to rake and which to keep in their natural state to benefit the natural ecosystem. Next, clear out places where small bulbs might struggle to push up through decomposing leaves in spring. The leaves you do rake up can be used for mulch or added to your compost pile. To break them down faster, run over them with a lawn mower or place them in a bin and use a string trimmer.

Amending and protecting your soil

To ensure the best possible conditions for your garden to flourish next spring and summer, have your soil tested by sending a sample to Maine’s soil testing service to see if you need to amend it with lime or manure (check umaine.edu for full instructions). Fall is also ideal for mulching, which will keep your soil moist, suppress weeds and prevent erosion. Mulch also insulates the plant roots and soil, creating a warmer environment for the soil-food web, including earthworms, microbes and other organisms that will remain active longer when temperatures drop. Also consider planting a winter cover crop in the fall and letting it overwinter. Benefits abound, including improved soil fertility and organic matter, suppression of cool-weather weeds, and better seedbeds for spring planting. Check Johnny’s Selected Seeds’ website for the lowdown on the various types and their pros and cons.

Making new beds

An easy way to create new garden beds is with a method called sheet mulching (also known as lasagna gardening), which is essentially composting in place. You’ll need roughly equal amounts of carbon-rich (brown) and nitrogen-rich (green) material. If you do it in the fall, your bed will be ready for planting in the spring, when the layers have decomposed and have a fresh-earth look and scent. The University of Maine’s Cooperative Extension website has step-by-step instructions.

Fall planting

According to the Wild Seed Project, fall and winter are the best times to sow native seeds in Maine, where the annual cycle for native seed ripening and germination is different from the one for common garden and vegetable seeds. If you’re new to wild seed growing, they suggest trying asters, beardtongues, bee-balms, boneset, coneflowers, lobelias, milkweeds, mountain-mints, or wild strawberries. You’ll need a few simple materials; their website will show you how. You can also plant many other annual cold-tolerant flower and herb seeds directly into the soil the fall, which can be easier than in spring, when the ground may be too wet. As the depth they will need to be sown varies, plant them according to package or nursery directions after several hard frosts and they will lie dormant until spring. Some that do well include dill, cilantro, calendula, bachelor’s buttons and cosmos, which are all terrific at attracting pollinators. For bulbs, plant them when temperatures drop below 60 degrees, usually from mid-September to mid-October: group 4–5 large bulbs every square foot at 8–10 inches deep, and 9–12 small ones every square foot at 5 inches deep. Cover with soil, add 2–3 inches mulch and water well.

Maine seed companies

Reflecting on the year’s bounty

While the growing season is fresh in your mind, create a garden record, including what worked, what didn’t, and a sketch of what you planted and where, which will help you rotate crops next year to reduce disease and insect pressure. Keep this record going next spring and summer and save it for future reference. Lastly, sign up for a few seed catalogue mailing lists. When it’s gray and frigid outside, there’s nothing like being cozy inside, poring over enticing possibilities for next summer’s bounty.

This article appeared in the Fall 2022 edition of Green & Healthy Maine HOMES. Subscribe today!

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