DibbleWinterizing a garden is a short list of jobs, most of them done in the weeks after your first fall frost: clear out plants that could carry disease into spring, cover the soil, and put away anything winter would damage. None of it is hard, and most of it fits into a weekend. A few jobs, such as sowing a legume cover crop, come earlier, so look up your first fall frost first.
Clear out the spent plants
Pull annual vegetables and flowers once frost has finished them. Compost the healthy tops. Put anything with disease in the trash instead, such as tomato vines with blight or squash leaves coated in powdery mildew, because a backyard pile often does not get hot enough to kill what is on them.
In the perennial beds, leave some stems standing. Hollow stems shelter native bees through winter and seed heads feed birds. In spring, wait until nights stay above about 50°F, then cut the stems back to 12 to 18 inches and leave those stubs for nesting bees.
Keep the soil covered
Bare soil loses structure to winter rain and wind. Cover it with a few inches of shredded leaves, straw or compost, or sow a cover crop. Winter rye is the most forgiving about late sowing and can go in after frost-killed crops come out. Legumes such as crimson clover and hairy vetch add nitrogen, but they need to be sown in late summer or early fall, before your first frost.
Plant what goes in now
Fall is the planting time for garlic and spring-flowering bulbs such as tulips. In every zone from 3 to 11 there is an October window for both, and what to plant in October lists the rest by zone. In zones 8 to 11, tulips and garlic need a chill first, so buy pre-chilled bulbs or keep them in the refrigerator for several weeks before planting. In the milder zones, hardy greens and roots can still go in, under a row cover if nights are getting cold. The fall planting page lays out the whole season.
Protect perennials after the ground freezes
Wait for the ground to freeze before you mulch newly planted or tender perennials, strawberries and bulb beds. Mulch keeps the soil frozen once it has frozen, which stops the freeze and thaw cycles that heave shallow roots out of the ground. Mulch put down too early delays the freeze. Four to six inches of straw, shredded leaves or evergreen boughs does the job. In spring, pull it back gradually as the soil warms.
If fall has been dry, water new trees and shrubs deeply until the ground freezes.
Put away what winter breaks
- Drain hoses and store them. Shut off outdoor spigots and drain drip lines before a hard freeze, because water left in a pipe expands as it freezes.
- Empty clay and ceramic pots and store them under cover. Wet soil that freezes inside can crack them.
- Bring tender container plants indoors before the first frost.
- Clean your tools, sharpen the blades and wipe the metal with a little oil.
- Store leftover seed somewhere cool and dry.
Stretch the season where you can
A row cover or low tunnel over kale, spinach and other hardy greens can carry the harvest weeks past the first frost. Kale and carrots taste sweeter after a few frosts, so there is no hurry to pick them.
Write it down before you forget
Make notes on what grew well, what failed and which bed held which crop. Crop rotation depends on knowing where each plant family sat. In the Dibble app, the off-season planning mode counts down to your last frost, looks back at your harvests, and lists what to start and which seeds to order for next season.
