As the outdoor gardening season winds down, I hope you enjoyed both the gardening and the fruits of your labor this year. If you have cleaned up your beds, planted cover crops or mulched them, and have protected cool weather vegetables that are still yielding, you have earned a break. In any case, now is the time to review this year’s lessons and results while beginning to think about next year.
Reduce Chemicals, Build Soil, Add Diversity
The winter offers time to think about how to improve gardening techniques and be more ecologically responsible next year by:
Reducing chemical use through Integrated Pest Management (IPM). IPM is a process based on observing pest issues, understanding them, taking action only when the damage is significant and using chemicals as a last resort. It requires regular observation and a time commitment. But the environmental damage that is evident from pre-emptive chemical use makes it important. For information about implementing IPM, check out the Garden Shed article Integrated Pest Management.
Building your soil. Healthy soil can reduce the need for chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Insights about productive ways to improve soil “naturally” come from the Regenerative Agriculture movement. It is a soil-focused approach to growing crops that advocates:
- Keeping the soil covered with densely planted crops and employing cover crops or mulching in the off season.
- Minimizing soil disturbance and preserving soil structure by minimizing tilling, adding amendments on or near the surface, relying on soil organisms to carry them deeper.
- Keeping living roots in the soil to reduce erosion, improve structure and add carbon-based nutrients.
- Adding diversity by varying and rotating crops, interplanting, and utilizing diverse cover crops.
- If a soil test recommends raising pH to reduce acidity, add dolomitic limestone as recommended so that winter moisture can move it into the soil before planting in the spring.
While year-round soil management practices are not yet universally followed in commercial agriculture, their use is growing and providing guidance to home gardeners that is ecologically and horticulturally healthy. The Garden Shed article It’s All About the Soil explores it more deeply. The YouTube video Healing the Earth Through Regenerative Farming with Gabe Brown is also a convincing summary of the practice by a regenerative commercial farmer.
If weeds are your problem, consider occultation or solarization on beds over winter to help reduce their presence in the spring. The article Using the Sun to Kill Weeds and Prepare Garden Plots from the University of Minnesota Extension offers guidance.
Create a diverse home landscape. Creating a diverse home landscape of native trees, shrubs, and flowering perennials is essential to reduce the decline in insects and birds in recent decades. It also builds their populations to help manage garden pests naturally. This has worked wonders at reducing cabbage moths and Japanese beetles in my own garden. Get guidance on how to start with a pollinator-friendly landscape from the Garden Shed article Plant A Pollinator Paradise. If you need more convincing, watch the video Nature’s Best Hope with Dr. Doug Tallamy, a leader in understanding and repairing native ecology.
Other helpful information, including video material, is available in the references at the end of this article and from the VA Cooperative Extension website.
As the interdependence of all aspects of our environment becomes increasingly clear, our need to integrate key ecological elements increases with it. Improving our practices in these three areas is a good start.
Other December Tasks
- If you haven’t trimmed your asparagus fronds yet, you can cut them down to a couple of inches above the soil level. Mulch the bed to protect the crowns from extreme cold.
- Placing spun fabric row covers over winter hardy vegetables adds several degrees to the temperature under the cover while allowing sunlight and water to reach the plants. For tips on constructing simple hoop style row covers, consult The Garden Shed article Row Covers: A Season Extender with Benefits.
Put Your Leaves to Good Use:
- Chopping or shredding leaves is a good idea to help speed decomposition while allowing water penetration when used as a mulch.
- Leaves can be used to set up new compost batches, adding winter-generated fruit and vegetable scraps as they become available. When spring temperatures rise into the 50s, the batch’s carbon-to-nitrogen ratio can be fine-tuned to stimulate decomposition. With good moisture and aeration management, you should have compost for use prior to planting summer vegetables. Find guidance for home composting in the article Home Composting: A Guide for Home Gardeners, from the Penn State Extension.
- Leaving your leaves: Leaves left in place provide excellent cover for over-wintering beneficial insects that will help build a natural pest management system in your gardens next year.
- I try to find a balance between composting leaves and leaving some behind for wild life use during winter. When I see my compost bins full while birds hunt through the leaves left on the lawn and beds all winter, I feel like I have it about right.
Small Fruits
- Blueberry bushes can be pruned any time from leaf drop to the start of spring growth. During the first 3 years, remove the low growing canes. After fruit production starts, prune out canes over 5 years old as close to the ground as possible. Aim for about 10-15 total canes, with equal numbers of 1, 2, 3, and 4 year old canes.
- Strawberries should be protected from the cold; 6-8 inches of straw or leaf mulch works well. Plants growing in barrels or pyramids benefit from having the mulch covered with burlap as well.
- It is a good idea to prune diseased parts of fruit trees during cold periods to minimize the risk of spreading viral infections.
- Additional detail about caring for these and other small fruits is offered in the publication Small Fruit in the Home Garden from VCE.
Seasonal Tasks
- Drain your hoses. Disconnect them from faucets and lay them out on the ground, both ends open, to let them drain. Then roll them up for winter storage.
- Drain rain barrels and redirect downspouts to ground, rather than refilling the barrels during the cold months.
- Review journal entries and think about improvements for next year in plant selection, location, and techniques.
- Apply your learning when reviewing new catalogs and communication from seed suppliers for next season. It is fun to browse them, looking for new items to grow and assessing different varieties that help avoid disease and insect issues. Pay attention to “time to harvest” and “disease resistance” data. For help interpreting seed catalog and seed pack information, check out Garden Shed article Using Seed Pack Information to Help Your Garden Grow.
- Make a first pass at laying out your crop arrangement for next year. Remember to rotate specific plant families to different parts of the garden, preferably on a 3-to-4-year cycle. The benefits are disease and pest reduction and soil enrichment through plant diversity.
- Care for your tools. Clean, disinfect, sharpen, and generally prepare them for the work ahead. It is also a good time to clean pots and flats if you have a warm enough place to do the wet work. Come spring, you’ll be happy you did it.
Winter gardening
- An enjoyable way to keep your hands in the soil during winter is to grow herbs indoors. You need a sunny window, preferably with a southern exposure. Use premium potting soil and add nutrients as recommended. It is best to use clean plastic or glazed containers to reduce watering. Be sure the container has drainage holes and use a non-porous dish to catch excess water. Keep the soil surface moist between planting and germination. Herbs do best with temperatures above 65 degrees, the warmer the better. Basil likes temperatures above 70 degrees, so doesn’t want to be too close to the window during cold weather. Check out Garden Shed article “Be Inspired With Indoor Herb Gardening” for information on growing herbs indoors this winter.
In any case, enjoy your December gardening and happy holidays. Let’s talk again next month at The Garden Shed.
References:
Cover photo: Vegetable Garden in December, R. Morini
Cool Season Planting Chart for Companion, Interplanting and Square Foot Gardening, Washington State University: https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/2056/2018/10/Cool-Season-Planting-Chart-for-Companion.pdf
Virginia Native Plant Society website: Resources for Creating Native Plant Habitats: https://vnps.org/
December Gardening Tasks | N.C. Cooperative Extension
PMG Website Monthly Task List: https://piedmontmastergardeners.org/gardening-questions/monthly-gardening-tips/