What are you doing to put your garden to bed for the winter time?

Maybe you are luck and your growing season is still in swing. We are nearing the first frost date. It has been too hot and dry for my Fall greens to germinate so I will need to start them in the greenhouse, where they can grow until Jan or Feb.

How do you clean up your garden beds?

For Milpa beds, I chop and drop the beans and other plants for mulch, cover with a little compost, and then some woodchips.

In the main garden:

• I loosen the soil with a broadfork. Not too much.
• I add amendments like lime, rock phosphate, and liquid kelp.
• Then a thick layer of compost.
• I add a thick layer of leaves that I collect from the curbside in town once the leaves drop.
• Then I cover it with a layer of woodchips.

If I am creating a new garden bed, I use the lasagna method:

• Break up or turn over the soil with a broadfork.
• Like Nick Ferguson, I may add a layer of animal feed pellets.
• I adda layer of compost or horse manure.
• Then I add a layer of molasses mixed with water to feed the soil bacteria.
• I cover it all with leaves and woodchips.

What do you do to put your garden to bed for the winter time?

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I also share in this episode -

• What happened to the podcast?
• My tour of Charlie's Chestnuts and the hybrid chestnut called Revival, which is almost as big as the palm of my hand.

Episode website:

Ep. 143 - How I Put My Garden to Bed for the Winter

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