How to Prepare your Garden for Winter

There is snow on the ground as I write this - it started drifting down in a surprise flurry during the evening commute. My snow tires are sitting uselessly next to the driveway, my appointment not until next Tuesday.

Luckily I’m better at preparing the gardens for winter than I am at preparing myself. When the first chill hits the air, I know winter is imminent and it’s time to start saying goodbye to the summer abundance that has graced the gardens for a few short months.

So how exactly do I prepare the gardens for winter?

For me, it’s ideally a long process that involves a lot of wandering around the yard and taking care of things as I notice them. My favorite days are spent in this wandering state, accomplishing myriad little tasks that all add up to feeling like I got something done with my day. Nowadays, though, I have two kids who can’t quite keep themselves entertained for a whole day (one is three and the other is five months old), so I have to do less wandering and more focused work to make sure everything gets done that needs to before the garden is completely covered in snow.

Flower Gardens

My flower gardens are virtually all perennials. After it gets cold - some people even recommend waiting until the ground is frozen solid, but here we often have too much snow by then - I cut them all back. Literally just chop your perennials to within a few inches of the ground.

If things like lilies still have mostly green leaves, you can leave them until the leaves turn totally yellow and even then you can really just let them be. The leaves will die back on their own and pretty much turn to mulch so you don’t even have to worry about them.

More woody plants, however, really do need to be chopped back every fall. Sure, they’ll die back on their own and grow some new stems in the spring, but their growth will be much more abundant if they haven’t been putting resources into those dead stems all fall and winter.

My mom taught me the best way to cut back a lot of perennials in a small amount of time - a hedger! It’ll power through almost all perennials so fast you’ll find yourself with enough time to sit on the back step with a cold beverage and congratulate yourself for being awesome.

Vegetable Gardens

It generally requires a little more work to get vegetable gardens ready for winter, but it really depends on how serious you are about the whole endeavor.

If you’re not sure if you’re going to have a veggie garden next year, or if you’re going to move it to a new location, then simply ripping everything out or cutting it down and leaving it is an option. You can throw all the plants in the compost pile and call it a day.

*note on compost piles: I like to keep two compost piles going - one for household and yard waste and one for garden waste. Why the difference? Because if your garden plants have any diseases - which is highly likely - the compost must be maintained under certain conditions to kill off said disease, otherwise it will persist in next year’s garden. And, truth be told, I’m a lazy composter who doesn’t even own a compost thermometer, let alone check the compost regularly!

But if you’re here to learn a little about putting your regular veggie garden to bed for the winter, and you want to be prepared to start strong in the spring, there is a bit more to it.

Since you’re at the point of preparing for winter, most of your crops have probably been enjoyed and there may just be a few stray greens and squash laying about. Pull up any plant material and compost or dispose of it. Take out any stakes, trellises, or netting and store them away.

Leave root crops like carrots and turnips in the ground for at least a couple frosts, to sweeten them up. Same goes for brussel sprouts, which can handle a few cold nights before needing to be harvested. Harvest all of these before the ground freezes solid - a sweet carrot is no good if you can’t even get it out of the ground!

Gently till the soil (with a rake), and consider planting a winter cover crop to build nitrogen and soil structure. What might grow (or not) for you will totally depend on where you live.

Don’t forget to put all your tools away. It’s amazing how much one winter outside will weather a seemingly solid shovel or rake. Drain hoses and outdoor spigots; turn off water sources so you don’t end up with frozen and burst pipes.

Prepare for next year

If you want to expand or move your garden next year, fall is a great time to lay out some black plastic in the new area. When the sun hits it in the spring, it’ll warm up quickly and keep the weeds at bay, making it easier to till up and turn into a garden.

Another option is to lay down some wet newspaper or cardboard and a thick layer of leaf mulch, which will decay into organic matter that’s delicious for your garden and also keep weeds at bay long enough for you to get a garden started.

The last step is to wander around the yard, taking care of any odds and ends that remain. Put outdoor tools and toys under cover, chop down any stray perennials (this fall I had missed an entire garden during my perennial cutting spree!), and move anything you need for winter into an easy-to-get-to place.

Then, head inside to keep the house warm.