Putting the Garden to bed for the Winter

[wiperhunter2]

I'm sure most of you that have gardens have things you do when you are done with your garden for the year. This pic shows my method. I dig up half my box, then put leaves in it, then dig up the other half, throwing the dirt on the half with the leaves, then I put leaves in the other half and cover it with the dirt I put on the tarp. During the Winter the leaves decompose, come Spring I do it again with cow manure.




What if anything do you do in your garden?

[jjannie]

Besides leaves - we do the same thing as well. I looked into adding sawdust since our woodshop central vacuum system is just about ready to need to be dumped. However, looking online I found doing so we'd need to then add about a high amount of a high nitrogen fertilizer - such as ammonia sulfate - 21-0-0 to the soil as it will rob soil of nitrogen as it breaks down, kind of defeating the concept of using it.  Of course, any worms would be happy, but the plants will not. 

 This week with all this 'warmer' weather we've been having, we're going to check the greenhouse for carrots still in it to see if they will still be edible.

[Kent]

I just gather all of the leaves that I can from several neighbors. I end up piling leaves, on the garden, at least 4' high and maybe even a little higher. For the past few years, I have gone to no-till garden, so if the leaves aren't totally broken down when I am ready to plant, I just push them aside enough to be able to plant my garden. I do add some nitrogen to the soil, because decomposing that many leaves uses up some nitrogen (or so I have been told).

[wiperhunter2]

Besides leaves - we do the same thing as well. I looked into adding sawdust since our woodshop central vacuum system is just about ready to need to be dumped. However, looking online I found doing so we'd need to then add about a high amount of a high nitrogen fertilizer - such as ammonia sulfate - 21-0-0 to the soil as it will rob soil of nitrogen as it breaks down, kind of defeating the concept of using it.  Of course, any worms would be happy, but the plants will not. 

 This week with all this 'warmer' weather we've been having, we're going to check the greenhouse for carrots still in it to see if they will still be edible.

What I have found from past tries at carrots, is that if it's warm enough, the bugs will get to them and chew them up around the tops but the bottoms are still good. How is that new snow thrower working out for you two this Winter?

[wiperhunter2]

I just gather all of the leaves that I can from several neighbors.  I end up piling leaves, on the garden, at least 4' high and maybe even a little higher.  For the past few years, I have gone to no-till garden, so if the leaves aren't totally broken down when I am ready to plant, I just push them aside enough to be able to plant my garden.  I do add some nitrogen to the soil, because decomposing that many leaves uses up some nitrogen (or so I have been told).

Wow that's a lot of leaves Kent. You are right about the nitrogen, it really does help decompose those leaves. In years past I have added it to the soil, to help the leaves decompose but I read an article last year that said that it a good practice to leave those leaves on top of your lawn during the Winter and not rake them because during the Winter the leaves will decompose and add nutrients to the soil and be like a natural fertilizer for your lawn, so I quit adding nitrogen to my garden. With that many leaves, that you put in your garden, it sounds like it's a good idea.

[Kent]

I just gather all of the leaves that I can from several neighbors.  I end up piling leaves, on the garden, at least 4' high and maybe even a little higher.  For the past few years, I have gone to no-till garden, so if the leaves aren't totally broken down when I am ready to plant, I just push them aside enough to be able to plant my garden.  I do add some nitrogen to the soil, because decomposing that many leaves uses up some nitrogen (or so I have been told).

Wow that's a lot of leaves Kent. You are right about the nitrogen, it really does help decompose those leaves. In years past I have added it to the soil, to help the leaves decompose but I read an article last year that said that it a good practice to leave those leaves on top of your lawn during the Winter and not rake them because during the Winter the leaves will decompose and add nutrients to the soil and be like a natural fertilizer for your lawn, so I quit adding nitrogen to my garden. With that many leaves, that you put in your garden, it sounds like it's a good idea.

I wouldn't leave the leaves on the lawn if they are very thick.  It would be easy to suffocate the lawn or cause mold.

[wiperhunter2]

I just gather all of the leaves that I can from several neighbors.  I end up piling leaves, on the garden, at least 4' high and maybe even a little higher.  For the past few years, I have gone to no-till garden, so if the leaves aren't totally broken down when I am ready to plant, I just push them aside enough to be able to plant my garden.  I do add some nitrogen to the soil, because decomposing that many leaves uses up some nitrogen (or so I have been told).

Wow that's a lot of leaves Kent. You are right about the nitrogen, it really does help decompose those leaves. In years past I have added it to the soil, to help the leaves decompose but I read an article last year that said that it a good practice to leave those leaves on top of your lawn during the Winter and not rake them because during the Winter the leaves will decompose and add nutrients to the soil and be like a natural fertilizer for your lawn, so I quit adding nitrogen to my garden. With that many leaves, that you put in your garden, it sounds like it's a good idea.

I wouldn't leave the leaves on the lawn if they are very thick.  It would be easy to suffocate the lawn or cause mold.

If that were the case wouldn't having all that snow covering your lawn do the same thing but I agree, it could depend on how thick the leaves are.

[jjannie]

Besides leaves - we do the same thing as well. I looked into adding sawdust since our woodshop central vacuum system is just about ready to need to be dumped. However, looking online I found doing so we'd need to then add about a high amount of a high nitrogen fertilizer - such as ammonia sulfate - 21-0-0 to the soil as it will rob soil of nitrogen as it breaks down, kind of defeating the concept of using it.  Of course, any worms would be happy, but the plants will not. 

 This week with all this 'warmer' weather we've been having, we're going to check the greenhouse for carrots still in it to see if they will still be edible.

What I have found from past tries at carrots, is that if it's warm enough, the bugs will get to them and chew them up around the tops but the bottoms are still good. How is that new snow thrower working out for you two this Winter?

Snow blower working well. I was making a video of it in operation, but it just didn't work out. First, we run our walk behind snowblower to do the perimeter edges plus it'll get into tighter areas the tractor can, which is super nice - it even throws the slushy wet snow. Plowing from inside the cab you get quite warm, never need gloves and then if the snow blow back happens having the wiper and windshield its WAY nicer than getting face full. Also, it handles those deeper amounts of snow way better than walk behind does. 

Hopefully they won't have too many bugs - guess we'll see. We didn't get to it yesterday, so maybe this afternoon. We've been in heavy fog clouds all morning even after sunup.

[wiperhunter2]

Besides leaves - we do the same thing as well. I looked into adding sawdust since our woodshop central vacuum system is just about ready to need to be dumped. However, looking online I found doing so we'd need to then add about a high amount of a high nitrogen fertilizer - such as ammonia sulfate - 21-0-0 to the soil as it will rob soil of nitrogen as it breaks down, kind of defeating the concept of using it.  Of course, any worms would be happy, but the plants will not. 

 This week with all this 'warmer' weather we've been having, we're going to check the greenhouse for carrots still in it to see if they will still be edible.

What I have found from past tries at carrots, is that if it's warm enough, the bugs will get to them and chew them up around the tops but the bottoms are still good. How is that new snow thrower working out for you two this Winter?

Snow blower working well. I was making a video of it in operation, but it just didn't work out. First, we run our walk behind snowblower to do the perimeter edges plus it'll get into tighter areas the tractor can, which is super nice - it even throws the slushy wet snow. Plowing from inside the cab you get quite warm, never need gloves and then if the snow blow back happens having the wiper and windshield its WAY nicer than getting face full. Also, it handles those deeper amounts of snow way better than walk behind does. 

Hopefully they won't have too many bugs - guess we'll see. We didn't get to it yesterday, so maybe this afternoon. We've been in heavy fog clouds all morning even after sunup.

Hopefully who won't have too many bugs? Not sure what that last paragraph means

[jjannie]

Besides leaves - we do the same thing as well. I looked into adding sawdust since our woodshop central vacuum system is just about ready to need to be dumped. However, looking online I found doing so we'd need to then add about a high amount of a high nitrogen fertilizer - such as ammonia sulfate - 21-0-0 to the soil as it will rob soil of nitrogen as it breaks down, kind of defeating the concept of using it.  Of course, any worms would be happy, but the plants will not. 

 This week with all this 'warmer' weather we've been having, we're going to check the greenhouse for carrots still in it to see if they will still be edible.

What I have found from past tries at carrots, is that if it's warm enough, the bugs will get to them and chew them up around the tops but the bottoms are still good. How is that new snow thrower working out for you two this Winter?

Snow blower working well. I was making a video of it in operation, but it just didn't work out. First, we run our walk behind snowblower to do the perimeter edges plus it'll get into tighter areas the tractor can, which is super nice - it even throws the slushy wet snow. Plowing from inside the cab you get quite warm, never need gloves and then if the snow blow back happens having the wiper and windshield its WAY nicer than getting face full. Also, it handles those deeper amounts of snow way better than walk behind does. 

Hopefully they won't have too many bugs - guess we'll see. We didn't get to it yesterday, so maybe this afternoon. We've been in heavy fog clouds all morning even after sunup.

Hopefully who won't have too many bugs? Not sure what that last paragraph means

Still haven't made it out there to check yet, our project and some appointments just keep interfering with the plan - maybe today. if we're lucky.

[wiperhunter2]

Besides leaves - we do the same thing as well. I looked into adding sawdust since our woodshop central vacuum system is just about ready to need to be dumped. However, looking online I found doing so we'd need to then add about a high amount of a high nitrogen fertilizer - such as ammonia sulfate - 21-0-0 to the soil as it will rob soil of nitrogen as it breaks down, kind of defeating the concept of using it.  Of course, any worms would be happy, but the plants will not. 

 This week with all this 'warmer' weather we've been having, we're going to check the greenhouse for carrots still in it to see if they will still be edible.

What I have found from past tries at carrots, is that if it's warm enough, the bugs will get to them and chew them up around the tops but the bottoms are still good. How is that new snow thrower working out for you two this Winter?

Snow blower working well. I was making a video of it in operation, but it just didn't work out. First, we run our walk behind snowblower to do the perimeter edges plus it'll get into tighter areas the tractor can, which is super nice - it even throws the slushy wet snow. Plowing from inside the cab you get quite warm, never need gloves and then if the snow blow back happens having the wiper and windshield its WAY nicer than getting face full. Also, it handles those deeper amounts of snow way better than walk behind does. 

Hopefully they won't have too many bugs - guess we'll see. We didn't get to it yesterday, so maybe this afternoon. We've been in heavy fog clouds all morning even after sunup.

Hopefully who won't have too many bugs? Not sure what that last paragraph means

Still haven't made it out there to check yet, our project and some appointments just keep interfering with the plan - maybe today. if we're lucky.

LOL, now I know what you mean by too many bugs, in the carrots. I was having a hard time figuring that out.

[jjannie]

What I have found from past tries at carrots, is that if it's warm enough, the bugs will get to them and chew them up around the tops but the bottoms are still good. How is that new snow thrower working out for you two this Winter?

Snow blower working well. I was making a video of it in operation, but it just didn't work out. First, we run our walk behind snowblower to do the perimeter edges plus it'll get into tighter areas the tractor can, which is super nice - it even throws the slushy wet snow. Plowing from inside the cab you get quite warm, never need gloves and then if the snow blow back happens having the wiper and windshield its WAY nicer than getting face full. Also, it handles those deeper amounts of snow way better than walk behind does. 

Hopefully they won't have too many bugs - guess we'll see. We didn't get to it yesterday, so maybe this afternoon. We've been in heavy fog clouds all morning even after sunup.

Hopefully who won't have too many bugs? Not sure what that last paragraph means

Still haven't made it out there to check yet, our project and some appointments just keep interfering with the plan - maybe today. if we're lucky.

LOL, now I know what you mean by too many bugs, in the carrots. I was having a hard time figuring that out.

Finally made it out today as Jeff didn't need me in the shop. No bugs at all just brown tops for the most part. some of the under-developed carrots were pretty soft though. Still, I got about 1/2 a 5gal bucket of them. We don't eat very many at a time anyway.

[wiperhunter2]

Snow blower working well. I was making a video of it in operation, but it just didn't work out. First, we run our walk behind snowblower to do the perimeter edges plus it'll get into tighter areas the tractor can, which is super nice - it even throws the slushy wet snow. Plowing from inside the cab you get quite warm, never need gloves and then if the snow blow back happens having the wiper and windshield its WAY nicer than getting face full. Also, it handles those deeper amounts of snow way better than walk behind does. 

Hopefully they won't have too many bugs - guess we'll see. We didn't get to it yesterday, so maybe this afternoon. We've been in heavy fog clouds all morning even after sunup.

Hopefully who won't have too many bugs? Not sure what that last paragraph means

Still haven't made it out there to check yet, our project and some appointments just keep interfering with the plan - maybe today. if we're lucky.

LOL, now I know what you mean by too many bugs, in the carrots. I was having a hard time figuring that out.

Finally made it out today as Jeff didn't need me in the shop. No bugs at all just brown tops for the most part. some of the under-developed carrots were pretty soft though. Still, I got about 1/2 a 5gal bucket of them. We don't eat very many at a time anyway.

Sounds like a good haul.

[jjannie]

Hopefully who won't have too many bugs? Not sure what that last paragraph means

Still haven't made it out there to check yet, our project and some appointments just keep interfering with the plan - maybe today. if we're lucky.

LOL, now I know what you mean by too many bugs, in the carrots. I was having a hard time figuring that out.

Finally made it out today as Jeff didn't need me in the shop. No bugs at all just brown tops for the most part. some of the under-developed carrots were pretty soft though. Still, I got about 1/2 a 5gal bucket of them. We don't eat very many at a time anyway.

Sounds like a good haul.

It was, Jeff was very surprised and happy about them. It sure beats wasting them.  It's been such a weird winter, kind of makes you want to get out and garden in the greenhouse. It's certainly not looking to too nice for doing much safe ice fishing this year. We're glad we've got our wood project to work on. We're almost to the stage of staining the wood and then adding the hardware.

[wiperhunter2]

Still haven't made it out there to check yet, our project and some appointments just keep interfering with the plan - maybe today. if we're lucky.

LOL, now I know what you mean by too many bugs, in the carrots. I was having a hard time figuring that out.

Finally made it out today as Jeff didn't need me in the shop. No bugs at all just brown tops for the most part. some of the under-developed carrots were pretty soft though. Still, I got about 1/2 a 5gal bucket of them. We don't eat very many at a time anyway.

Sounds like a good haul.

It was, Jeff was very surprised and happy about them. It sure beats wasting them.  It's been such a weird winter, kind of makes you want to get out and garden in the greenhouse. It's certainly not looking to too nice for doing much safe ice fishing this year. We're glad we've got our wood project to work on. We're almost to the stage of staining the wood and then adding the hardware.

I know what you mean, I've been thinking about working in my garden too, just not sure if the ground is still frozen or not, guess I should check it. Sounds like you and Jeff have been working on a big wood project.

[jjannie]

LOL, now I know what you mean by too many bugs, in the carrots. I was having a hard time figuring that out.

Finally made it out today as Jeff didn't need me in the shop. No bugs at all just brown tops for the most part. some of the under-developed carrots were pretty soft though. Still, I got about 1/2 a 5gal bucket of them. We don't eat very many at a time anyway.

Sounds like a good haul.

It was, Jeff was very surprised and happy about them. It sure beats wasting them.  It's been such a weird winter, kind of makes you want to get out and garden in the greenhouse. It's certainly not looking to too nice for doing much safe ice fishing this year. We're glad we've got our wood project to work on. We're almost to the stage of staining the wood and then adding the hardware.

I know what you mean, I've been thinking about working in my garden too, just not sure if the ground is still frozen or not, guess I should check it. Sounds like you and Jeff have been working on a big wood project.

 Yes, we are finally finishing our wall unit's side sections. I'll post a few pics of it once we get it all completed. I'm just happy we have this to do while we are NOT ice fishing, LOL The only hold up on them right now is we need some 1 1/4-inch screws that we'll pick up tomorrow when in town along with some super fine sandpaper. Today and tomorrow are sanding days, then we can assemble, stain and seal it.  

I didn't dig down into the outer raised beds to know if they were frozen or not.

I've been growing and propagating terrarium plants this winter, so I've had something to 'garden' with for now. These terrariums are for raising dart frogs and small geckos in them - they are fascinating to watch and listen to. (I made a video of the frog calling but not sure how to post a link here to it just yet, I'm still learning)