Different seasons treat gardens differently and you need to be prepared!
Just like people, plants needs different forms of care in different seasons. You adapt and change your gardening techniques depending upon the season. As for winters, they can be harsh and your garden needs to be prepared accordingly. Gardens can thrive well in winters but they need to be taken care with the utmost love and warmth during the season. As we enter the winter season, gardening activities seem to slow down. Nonetheless, you can still get fresh produce in the next harvest season if you can help your garden pull through the winter season. That means you need to prepare the soil and the plants to be able to deal with the chill. Here are a few ways you can prepare your garden for the winter.
Clean Up Your Garden
First things first, clean up the unwanted things from your garden. Letting the weed and the old and diseased plants sit in your garden not only makes the garden look ugly, but also provides an environment for pests and fungus. Moreover, not cleaning your garden before the winters hit may raise the risks of your plants catching deadly diseases that they might not survive during the season. Clean up all dead matter and weed in your garden and bury them in the soil since they can be a good source of organic goodness. Doing this step will improve the health of the garden soil and make it more fertile for the next few months.
Plant Cover Crops
The cold winds may damage your garden soil making it lose its fertility. Planting cover crops like oats, rye, crimson clover, and radish can prevent this. These plants prevent the soil from getting eroded by increasing the organic matter of the soil and breaking up the garden’s compact areas. Make sure to plant cover crops at least a month before the chilly weather hits to be able to reap its maximum benefits.
Prune Your Perennials
Fall is the best season to get some pruning done on your perennial plants. Plants like fennel and blueberries benefit immensely from pruning just ahead of the winter. It keeps them away from diseases. Moreover, flowering plants like roses, vegetables like asparagus and herbs like thyme, rosemary and sage love a little fall pruning. This step will keep you plants healthy and prepared for the winter.
