Even hardier vegetables that can survive temperatures as low as 20˚F include cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, kale, leeks, rutabagas and turnips. Upon thawing out, these hardy vegetables will continue to grow between freezes!
Remove spent plants and debris.
Any diseased plants must be removed and disposed of in the trash, never added to the compost. Also remove any dead plants which will invite disease and insects. Chop beans and peas off at ground level, leaving their nitrogen-fixing roots in the soil to feed next year's crops.
Yes, leaves make excellent mulch. Add a few inches of leaves to your garden beds in fall and leave them there for the winter. As time passes, the leaves slowly decompose, gradually adding nutrients to the soil.
It is best to burn the plant material; this will destroy the pathogens and weed seeds as well and return some carbon back into the ground when you spread it out.
For vegetable gardens, another option is to simply cover your garden beds with black plastic or a layer of cardboard or even an old carpet, leaving it in place through the winter season and up until you're ready to plant in spring. This will kill existing weeds and subdue sprouting seeds.
Q: When is the best time to cut back in the fall? A: “When they start to look too ratty for you and before the fresh new growth begins,” says Sarah. For plants that are frost-sensitive, wait until after the plants have gone through several hard frosts to ensure they're dormant before cutting back.
Although September marks the beginning of fall, there are still a few fast growing vegetables that can be planted this month and be harvested before the first frost in most gardening zones. Remember to keep your soil warm by removing all mulch and maybe try using a plastic sheet to trap heat into the soil.
You can expect success planting potatoes in the fall as long as your soil gets cold and stays cold in winter, with temperatures 8 inches (20 cm) below the surface staying below 48°F (9°C). Buried potato tubers start growing as soil temperatures rise above 50°F (10°C). Your garden gets a vote, too.
Fall and Winter LEAFY GREENS
A beautiful sampling of some of the leafy greens you can grow in your fall and winter garden, including different varieties of kale, spinach, lettuce, chicory, and even wild chickweed! Spinach is a very fast-growing, cool weather vegetable.
Add compost or aged manure about an inch deep across your bed to keep the soil covered over winter, weeds suppressed, and worms busy. The worms will drag it down to the soil so the microbes can work on it, too, releasing all those nutrients in time, and feeding your crop for next spring.
Leave Leaves for Wildlife
Fallen leaves also provide wildlife, especially pollinators, with some winter cover. Bees, moths, butterflies, snails, spiders, and dozens of arthropods and pollinators overwinter in dead plant material for protection from cold weather and predators.
Layer fallen, shredded tree leaves, compost and fertilizer in the garden bed and turn under the soil. You could also dig trenches in the garden, pile in the leaves and compost and cover with soil. These organic soil amendments will decompose over winter and leave the soil more fertile when spring rolls around.
Fertilizing in the fall helps plants be hardier when the temperatures drop. We also recommend applying fertilizer in the late fall, toward the end of October or early November. This application will catalyze one last frenzy of root growth and really give your plants some staying power through the cold months.
When you're preparing your garden beds for a new season, don't rip your plants out of the ground, roots and all. If you do, you'll be robbing your soil microbes of a good meal and degrading your long-term soil fertility.
When To Winterize Your Gardens. The best time to start winterizing gardens is after the first hard freeze in the fall. A hard freeze occurs when the temperature gets below freezing overnight, killing off tender annual plants and vegetables.
Fall mulch insulates soil, providing a warmer environment for the soil-food web, including earthworms and microbes. Warm soil means these organisms stay active longer into the cold season, improving your soil. Fall mulch insulates plant roots.
A perennial with an insect or disease problem should always be pruned in fall, no matter the type. Trim and discard of any infected plant stems to stop an infestation from carrying over into next year's growing season.
Yes, leaving fallen leaves to decompose does return valuable nutrients to the soil, provides habitat for lots of important and valuable insect species over winter, and acts as a natural mulch.