Preparing Your Organic Garden For Winter

That first sign of frost is a sure sign that the end of the gardening season is upon us and that you should be preparing your organic garden for winter. While there are many things that you can do to extend your gardening season we won't be focusing on them in this post. Instead, we want to give you a few tips on how to go about cleaning up your garden in preperation for next years organic garden.

1.Garden cleanup. Just as housekeeping is important to your health in the home so is gardenkeeping to your garden's health and wellness. When done properly, gardenkeeping can eliminate disease causing organisms, winter pests, and it will decrease the future weed populations as well as increase the efficiency and convenience of your garden. Think of how much nicer it will be when next springs growing season comes around and you aren't pulling out mashed down weeds, mushy plants and old tellises. Getting at your soil will be much easier.

2.Plant debris removal. Rake and hand pick the leftover garden plant material. Make sure that you take your healthy plant material and place it into your compost bin for disposal. Take the diseased or pest ridden ones along with the weeds and dispose of them by burning or in sealed containers that you can dispose of in your garbage.

3.Remove plastic covers, plastic mulches and row covers from the garden. If you find that they are still of use them clean them off with a water hose, dry them off and store them by folding or rolling.

4.Clean up remaining misc. items and parapheranlia. Be sure to remove all boards, bricks, pots, stakes and anything else that might be left over in the garden. Scrub and sanitize the pots by using a water and bleach mixture. Scrape off any soil that remains on your stakes, bricks and boards. If these items were near a plant that was showing symptoms of a soil borne disease or if insects that lay and bury eggs in the soil were present then be sure to disinfect those as well. 

5.Tool clean up. Scrape of and spray off your tools and disinfect them with the water and bleach solution. You may want to sharpen dull blades and repair any broken parts. Covering the metal parts of shovels and handles with recycled motor oil or mineral oil will go a long way in preserving your garden tools.

6.Weed sweep. Give one last look over to the garden and pull any remaining weeds. Additionally, you may want to walk around your yard and pull any weeds that remain because the seeds can easily find their way to your garden with the help of a lightly blowing breeze.

7.Pruning. After your trees and shrubs become dormant check them for disease and prune off the diseased stems.

8.Mulch your perennials when the groud freezes. Strawberries, berry bushes and trees that bear fruit need protection from the winter cold and frost heaving. You may want to protect your fruit trees from scald by wrapping the trunk with a white plastic tree guard. A mixture of 1 part white latex paint and 1 part water will also do the trick. You only need to paint up to the first branch.

9.Sort all of your seeds. Pack any remaining seeds leftover by placing them in an airtight container and store them in a cool dry place until planting season arrives the next year.

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