How to Care for a Vegetable Garden During the Winter Months
Care for your vegetable garden shouldn't stop once your vegetables are harvested. In fact, growing doesn't need to stop either. You can grow many cold-hardy plants during the winter. Regardless of whether you plan to plant any winter crops, you should take several steps to replenish the soil in your vegetable garden before next spring. Prepping your soil can make a huge difference in the health of next year's harvest. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Winter vegetable seeds (optional)
- Alfalfa seeds
- Shovel
- Compost
- Dead leaves
- Lawnmower
Instructions
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Set aside one portion of your garden if you're planning on growing winter crops. Brussels sprouts, fava beans, cauliflower, cabbages, beets, carrots, parsnips and rutabagas do well in cold temperatures. These seeds can be sown in mid-July. You can add cold-hardy seeds for plants such as leeks, turnips, kohlrabi, cabbage, collards, Swiss chard or cauliflower to your garden all the way up through mid-August.
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Plant the alfalfa seeds between your vegetable rows a month before fall harvest time. You will turn the seedlings under later to nurture the soil. Alfalfa is a quick-growing plant that will add a lot of nitrogen to your soil.
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Remove and discard any diseased or insect-riddled plants from the garden after the fall harvest.
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Use a shovel to turn under all other plants that are no longer producing or dead.
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5
Add any compost you've saved from your kitchen to the soil. Use your shovel to turn it under the soil.
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If your alfalfa seedlings have already started growing, turn them under. Broadcast plant more alfalfa seeds over the unused portions of your garden. These will grow throughout the winter, and you should turn them under before spring.
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Collect a pile of leaves raked from your yard. Run a lawnmower over them to break them up, and add a layer of the leaves to the topsoil.
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Before the following spring, turn under the alfalfa. It can be turned under anytime after it has some growth.
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