Preparing Your Vegetable Garden for Winter

by Catherine Stratford  (October 2024)

While picking the last produce, you might want to keep some of your better tomatoes/ beans (if they are not hybrids) for seed for the following year. Just remove the seed and put it to dry on a paper towel and label it with the variety and the year it was harvested.

When removing old plants, rotting vegetables and debris from the garden, do not pull the roots, other than root crops of course! Cut the plants (bean, tomatoes, basil…) at the base and let the roots die off and feed the soil. Remove any surface weeds and garden structures. Do not put any diseased leaves or leaves with blight in your compost. You do not need to till your garden! Preserve the soil structure.

You can plant your garlic at the end of October, by simply separating the cloves of a head of garlic Be careful not to damage the fine skin covering the cloves. Plant them about 2” deep, with the point up, six inches apart. Then cover the soil with mulch (dead leaves are fine!) This is a very easy crop and it gives twice a year, garlic scape in mid-July and heads of garlic when the leaves start to yellow.

Prepare leaf mould for next year’s garden by mowing tree leaves, mixed in with grass clippings. Wait until after a first frost before putting down the new mulch. You can sprinkle the surface of the soil with wood ash. If you have compost you can put some down at this time and/or in the spring. Cover your garden soil with 3-4 inches of mulch.

Leeks can be lain in a trench about 2 feet deep, covered with leaves. Mark the trench to easily pull leeks up all winter long. Squash can be kept in a cool dry room over winter.

Late summer sowings of spinach/kale sometimes winter over if covered with mulch as our winters are milder. You may prefer to plant crop cover like Winter Rye or Legumes to help keep nutrients in the soil and prevent run-off or soil-erosion (Usually planted from September to the beginning of October).You can also cover the garden beds with black concealment canvas to kill the weeds.

Want to keep a few green edibles growing inside in winter? Cut the bottom 2cm off of green onions or leeks (even store-bought ones) and plant them in a flower pot inside or consider growing sprouts.

Preparing the garden in the fall makes it easier to start up the new season in spring. Happy harvest and we wish all gardeners a good winter’s rest!