Closing One Season Preps for the Next

Sunday, October 19, 2008 03:57 AM

If you have any vegetables left in the garden, then this is the time to get them out.

With temperatures becoming colder and snow not too far off the remaining vegetables need to be harvested and the garden should be cleaned up. There are a few vegetables that can remain in the garden such as parsnips and leeks as these will over-winter in the soil and be good to eat next spring. If you plan on leaving parsnips and leeks in the garden you have to make sure that there is proper drainage, or else they will rot due to wet conditions. You can dig a small trench around the vegetables, which allows the melting snow water to run off if you do not have very good draining soil. In our garden we leave a small row of parsnips that we dig up in the spring and they are very sweet and tasty.

Strawberry plants can get some extra winter protection by mulching them in with peat moss. Then, in the spring as soon as temperatures begin to warm up the peat moss is taken off the plants and mixed into the soil which lowers the pH making the soil more acidic. This is good for the strawberries as they prefer a soil that is a little more acidic (5.8-6.5).

After you have harvested all the vegetables out of the garden it is time to clean it up. Any remaining vegetables, or stalks and foliage of plants that have, or had been infected with disease or insects should be removed from the garden and put into the garbage. All other healthy old stalks from cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, corn, etc. can be tossed into the compost pile, and all healthy stems and tops from potatoes, peas, beans, carrots, etc. should also be cleaned up and tossed into the compost pile so that the garden is clean. This includes all weeds as some of them tend to be able to withstand cold temperatures and will continue to grow well into the fall and are the first things to start growing in the early spring, so you want to get them out before they take over the garden.

After the garden is clean of debris you can dig up the garden with a shovel, leaving the soil in large chunks. By doing this you are exposing overwintering larva, insect eggs, and weed seeds to the cold winter temperatures, and birds that will eat them.

As you are cleaning up your garden make notes of where you had things planted, variety names, any problems, and successes so that next spring you won’t have to try and remember everything. It is important to rotate your crops as different vegetables take out different nutrients from the soil than others and you do not want to deplete the soil.

Also some insects, and disease will only affect certain vegetables and so by moving the vegetables around you will help in having a healthier garden. For example, if you had scab on your potatoes this year and you were to plant them in the same spot again next year you will more than likely get scab again. This is also true for the carrot rust fly that lays its eggs on the soil and then when they hatch the maggot feeds on the carrots. If you had this problem this year it will be back again next year. Crop rotation is important for a healthy and successful garden.

-Jos

Jos Van Hage owns and operates two Art Knapp Garden centres in the Prince George aarea:

Highway 16 West at Kimball Road
Highway 97 North at Northwood Pulpmill Road

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Closing One Season Preps for the Next

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