How to Properly Prepare Garden Beds for Winter: Many Start with the Wrong Thing

20.08.2024 22:41

Preparing garden beds for the winter season always starts with the same thing, and it is not digging the soil or even adding fertilizer.

Following these rules will help you get a good harvest when planting winter crops, as well as in the new summer cottage season, which is high time to think about.

Experienced gardeners told us how to properly tidy up former beds at the end of the season.

The first thing you need to do is remove any remaining vegetation from the beds and weeds.

The habit of leaving cabbage leaves, cuttings and other plant remains in the beds after harvesting in the hope that they will rot and fertilize the soil only attracts pests.

Hotbed
Photo: © Belnovosti

They serve as food and a place for wintering of insects. Together with the appearance of pests, the risk of spreading diseases that affect vegetable crops increases.

In addition to insects, rodents are drawn to the smell of food - field mice and rats, which, with the onset of cold weather, look for food in summer cottages.

After this, you can apply fertilizers appropriate to the time of year and dig up the soil.

Greenhouses require even more attention, as they not only need to be weeded and the remains of vegetation thrown away, but also disinfected, and in some cases the soil needs to be replaced.

After this, you can plan the beds for next year’s harvest, taking into account crop rotation and neighborhood for next year and for winter plantings.

Igor Zur Author: Igor Zur Internet resource editor