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Garden Gate:  How do you put your garden to bed?  |
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campchic
True Blue Farmgirl
312 Posts
Erin
Nebraska
USA
312 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 31 2009 : 6:07:02 PM
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How do you farmgirls put your garden to bed for the winter? It's cooling off here and my garden isn't producing much anymore. I was just wondering what you all did.
Erin
Farmgirl #190
www.concrete-and-grace.blogspot.com |
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katmom
True Blue Farmgirl
17470 Posts
Grace
WACAL Gal
WashCalif.
USA
17470 Posts |
Posted - Aug 31 2009 : 9:28:19 PM
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Don't laugh, I let my tortise have one good romp through my garden....but until then, I am still picking matoes, turnips and waiting for my sunflowers to bloom!
>^..^< Happiness is being a katmom.
"I've never met a sewing machine I didn't like!"
www.katmom4.blogspot.com & http://www.graciesvictorianrose.blogspot.com
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willowtreecreek
True Blue Farmgirl
4813 Posts
Julie
Russell
AR
USA
4813 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 05:47:07 AM
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Our climate is year round here. Most of my herbs will grow year round and once my corn and squash is done I plant lettuce and brusseles sprouts. Tomatoes will keep going for a while as will the peppers.
Farmgirl Sister #17
Blog
www.willowtreecreek.wordpress.com
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lisamarie508
True Blue Farmgirl
2648 Posts
Lisa
Idaho City
ID
USA
2648 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 06:05:16 AM
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The veggie/herb beds with stiff or woody type stems and vines get pulled and thrown in the compost pile while the rest get chopped up in their bed with the shovel and turned under. And that's it til spring when I add fresh compost and plant! Except the cool weather crops like peas, lettuce, spinach, etc. I leave them alone and I have had great luck in their surviving winter. In the spring, they start growing again and I have a huge jump start on salad fixings!
The flower beds get a thick layer of mulched leaves. In the spring, I pull some of the leaves off and put in the compost pile but leave enough leaves in the beds to help control weeds and conserve water. They decompose in the beds and by the end of the growing season, they're pretty much gone.
Farmgirl Sister #35
"If you can not do great things, do small things in a great way." Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)
my blog:
http://lisamariesbasketry.blogspot.com/
My apron website:
http://lisamariesaprons.bravehost.com |
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asnedecor
True Blue Farmgirl
1054 Posts
Anne
Portland
Or
USA
1054 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 06:43:08 AM
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After all is harvest - I cut up the tomato plants and pull the roots. The roots systems get tossed in the composter but the tomatoe vines, etc are left right on the bed and turned over once with a shovel. Then when my leaves fall I put a layer of leaves with some composted material (enough to keep leaves from blowing away) on all the beds, even over my garlic and leave for the winter. Come early spring it all gets turned over with fresh compost, maybe some steer manure and raked out.
Anne in Portland OR
"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them" Eyeore from Winnie the Pooh
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gramadinah
True Blue Farmgirl
3557 Posts
Diana
Orofino
ID
USA
3557 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 09:13:56 AM
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I take everything a put it through a chipper / shreader and it shoots it out all over the garden Then We till it into the dirt and let it sit all winter under 4 feet of snow then we till plant and do it again.
Diana
Farmgirl Sister #273 |
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windypines
True Blue Farmgirl
4550 Posts
Michele
Bruce
Wisconsin
USA
4550 Posts |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 5:26:45 PM
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Once mine are done, I spread manure and plow them under. It always looks so nice after plowing. ( the garden looks clean, and the work is done )
Michele |
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jpbluesky
True Blue Farmgirl
6066 Posts
Jeannie
Florida
USA
6066 Posts |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 5:40:34 PM
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My gardens never get put to bed (Florida), they just take a nap. I let them rest with mulch and new manure for a few weeks, and then plant something different than before in them.
Farmgirl Sister # 31
www.blueskyjeannie.blogspot.com
Psalm 51: 10-13 |
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Annab
True Blue Farmgirl
2900 Posts
Anna
Seagrove
NC
USA
2900 Posts |
Posted - Sep 03 2009 : 03:29:19 AM
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We turn everything under and finally let the older chickens out for the winter
SOmetimes hubby will plant cover crops |
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Jennifer Mulkey
True Blue Farmgirl
59 Posts
Jennifer
Arkansas City
KS
USA
59 Posts |
Posted - Sep 03 2009 : 09:33:17 AM
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| Depends on what is growing in that area. The beans get cut off at ground level and the roots left in the ground to take advantage of the nitrogen that has fixed on their roots. Next season they will be tilled in. The rest most usually is cut off, or pulled up and thrown away mostly in trash bags, as we are very prone to fungal diseases. I used to use them in the compost heap until I had year over year of rampant fungal disease. So we trash them now. Then we plant a nitrogen fixing cover crop. Most usually clover. What's not planted in a green manure, we cover, or leave open depending on how that patch did this year. If it had alot of fungal, we leave it open to freeze the spores down a few inches. If it was good, we cover it. We have beds that go all year round under glass, so those never get replanted with a green manure, they just get replanted with winter crops. |
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Bellepepper
True Blue Farmgirl
1207 Posts
Belle
Coffeyville
KS
USA
1207 Posts |
Posted - Sep 03 2009 : 11:27:19 AM
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We pull up and rake around the tomato plants. We have a blight problem so we burn the tomatoe vines. The rest gets pulled up and put in the compost. Never thought of leaving the bean roots in the ground. Will do that with what is left of the greenbeans. I planted winter lettuce in the herb garden and will have lettuce in a month and will be harvesting until it gets really really cold. Then it will come back early spring. So will the green onions. Working at putting a hoop house (kinda) over some of my raised beds. Hopefully can have some fresh veggies all winter. Sounds like (according to the news) that veggies will be really expensive and or imported this winter.
Jennifer, I just looked at where you are posting from. I'm over here near Coffeyville. HI Neighbor!! |
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Jennifer Mulkey
True Blue Farmgirl
59 Posts
Jennifer
Arkansas City
KS
USA
59 Posts |
Posted - Sep 03 2009 : 2:36:59 PM
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Yeah, any kind of legumes, beans, peas, etc, fix nitrogen on the root system, so if you just cut them off at ground level and if it is off season, just let them sit until you work it up again, or if you are replanting immediately, just till them in. They will slowly leach that nitrogen back into the ground, helping succeeding crops :)
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Brenda Kay Groth
True Blue Farmgirl
100 Posts
Brenda
Manton
MIch
USA
100 Posts |
Posted - Sep 10 2009 : 06:38:57 AM
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I live in Michigan and it is important to protect the tender plants from not only frost and cold but rabbits and deer and in some places mice. We put fencing around our baby trees, we pile leaves and mulch up over the plants (if the leaves fall before the snow does). If you grow berries, prune out the old canes, and prune off the dead on your perennials plants if you aren't leaving seedheads for ornamentation or birds to forage. Pull up expired annual plants and put them on your compost pile and remove seed heads and put them in the roadsides and fields for surprise of color in a year or two. I love to spread wildflower seedheads along roadways. Remember to put stabil in the gas in any machinery and remove the batteries to inside. Drain hoses and close vents in basements and crawlspaces. put your old compost out onto the garden and maybe put some rotted manure out to feed the soil as well..
bloom where you are planted |
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Garden Gate: How do you put your garden to bed? |
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How do you put your garden to bed?
