Preparing for winter

Something I recently read was the importance of preparing your garden beds for winter....or rather for the following spring.  Granted nature takes care of it's self out there with out our help but there are things that we can do to help nature along. 

As your growing season comes to a close like mine has it is important to understand a few things:

1) The difference between Annual and Perennial plants 
2) Dead and dormant plants
3) Protection vs no protection.

First lets talk about #1....Annual vs Perennial.  Well Annual plants are good for one growing season.  They more than likely can't survive a winter.  Does this mean that inside they can continue to grow?  Not always.  It just means that they can't take the cold and that they do not reseed them selves.  Some though have a very specific life cycle.  Now a Perennial plant is one that reseeds it's self and or can survive outside in the winter.  Morning Glories for example are actually a Perennial.  Though most of us will cut the plant back to the ground they will grow back the following year...in the same place.  But they will also spread...as they are a self seeding plant...unless you catch all the seeds.

Something that I have most recenly learned is to watch your plants durring a few frosts.  My rose bushes still have leaves and look fine...just a little stiff in the morning.  But my basil became droopy and died.  The Morning glories also did this...and they also started to smell rotten...but again they will come back.  Watch your plants and find out what they do.  Get a book and find out if they are annual or perennial. 

Ok for #2-  Dead vs Dormant.  A tree that has lost all it's leaves during the fall is not a dead tree right?  Mostlikely it is just dormant.  And come spring new leaves will emerge.  Dormant plants can look as though they are dead for a while but dead plants will usually start to take on a very different look.   This is also where knowing perennial vs annual will come in handy.  Some of my Mint plants have lost all their leaves and appear to be dead but I know that they are perennials so I leave them be cause they are just dormant.  Where my basil plants the leaves didn't fall off they just dried up and the stems became a lot thinner. 

Now for #3 Protecting the garden or not.  Well honestly I beleive you can go either way.  Established plants I feel are ok to go unprotected.  By Established I mean have been planted and survived at least one winter.  The baby trees we planted this past may although they had leaves and are there for good....they are still young and have not weathered a winter yet....so they could use some protection.  What kind of protection should you use?  Well I am going to say what ever you feel  you need.  In NY putting row coveres over small fragile plants is not really an ideal situation...at least I don't think so...we get so much snow I think it would just end up crushing them.  Being this is my first true year of gardening I have chosen to use a ground cover.  This past August we accuired bags of ceder shavings from the fair grounds.  I used these to cover the ground around young plants and over all the gardens that will be planted as edible next year. 

Here is the kitchen garden now covered in wood shavings....on the right you can see some lettuce still growing.  An annual plant that can take a little freezing.  And on the left you can see the broccoli trying to poke thru the shavings.  Also another annual plant that likes the cold. 

 And here is the garden that had the corn in it this year.  After this was taken the pea plants still planted here were removed as they were actually dead.  But underneath the shavings is chives and mint...both Perennial plants.

And here is my now very empty greenhouse.  On the right there are carrots still planted.  Although these are grown as annual plants they are acctually biennial plants.  If left planted for 2 growing seasons they will go to seed.  But in addition to that if planted before the first frost you will have some ready to eat as soon as the ground thaws.  Oregano, Mint, Chives, Lettuce, and Chocolate Mint are also planted in here....though they are hard to see as they are under the shavings.


Although ceder may not be a good choice...although my greenhouse smells wonderful....there is an advantage to this.  Like leaves the wood shavings will become compost.  They will give the young plants still in the ground a few extra degrees of warmth during the winter and also help keep moisture in as the spring thaws the ground. 

Once the gardens are ready for the winter you can start planning for the spring.  Granted you may not beable to get the seeds you wish to plant yet but you can deside where you want to plant them.  How to start them.  And also how many and when you want to plant.  The winter gardener is still busy...it's just a lot of paper work till closer to spring.