Winterizing the Garden

As fall winds down the plants are soaking up the last few days of sunshine and warm weather to hold them through the cold Pacific Northwest winter. So far to prepare the garden for winter Catherine and I have harvested all the dry green beans and took down the stalks, harvested the horseradish, radishes and green onion, mixed coffee in the blueberry pots and turned the compost bins. Although, we still have quite the list of chores to complete before the first freeze and intense rain arrive.

One concern for the winter is our empty above ground garden beds. As the weather becomes worse the soil will become compacted and lose nutrients if not protected or regularly turned. One method to combat this common PNW problem is using ground covers. Ground covers work by providing the soil protection from the rain and freezing weather as well as reintroducing nutrients to the soil and giving a little bit of life back to the garden. For the type of weather experienced here in Washington, it is important the ground cover plant does not need regular sunshine and can handle large amounts of rain and cold weather. A few plants that are ideal for this are: Hydrocotyle sieboldii commonly known as creeping crystal, Soleirolia solerolii also known as Baby's Tears and Mentha requienii also called Corsican Mint. These are only a few examples of the many ground cover plants that can handle the damp and shady PNW winter weather. These will be planted in the bins that previously held green beans, radishes, kale and onions. Ground cover plants will also fend off weeds over the winter so when we pull up the ground cover the soil will be perfectly ready for new plants.

Another project will be creating mulch for the grapes and kiwi plants as well as protecting the strawberries from the weather. To create a mulch for the grapes and kiwi Catherine and I will be gathering bags of leaves that may otherwise suffocate the plants they fall on to shred that will then be mixed into the soil around the roots of the plants. As for the strawberries they needs a thick layer of straw around the base of each plant to protect them from freezing. Oat, rye and wheat straw are best to be used as they are not heavy and won't smother the plants.

Finally, to get a head start on spring projects we are going to work on weed prevention. As our garden is organic we do not use pesticides and weed killer. Instead, we will be placing cardboard over the weeds that cover the pathways between planter boxes and cover that with bark. As the cardboard decomposes it will smother the weeds beneath and create new paths that are weed free. Giving our garden a nice and tidy look. This will be one of more labor intensive projects but will be worth the work when spring rolls around and we can focus all our attention on new plants and starts instead of weeding for two weeks to prepare.

Hope everyone has a beautiful pacific northwest day and found some use in this blog post about how to winterize your garden!