Prepare Garden Beds for Winter: Tasks and Fertilizers

In autumn you need to look after the soil so the next year is productive. Over the season, plants have drawn down nutrients, and pests and diseases have settled in the ground. Autumn tillage differs from spring work, as does the necessary fertilization — here is how to do everything correctly.

How to prepare garden beds for winter

It is time for zyablevaya vspashka — autumn digging and soil preparation not just for winter but for the coming spring. The quality of this work determines what the next growing season on the plot will be like, so it should not be neglected.

«During the season — and in autumn too — as soon as a bed is cleared, we dig it over immediately. Now you need to do a coarse digging, leaving clods of soil. There is no need to loosen it,» warned Lyudmila Shubina, agronomist, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences.

In autumn it is important to flip the clods so that the topsoil ends up at the bottom of the furrow. Every plot has slugs that will happily destroy a harvest, and you need to make sure as few of their eggs as possible survive.

«A slug lays eggs beneath small clods of earth, so to eliminate the pest in the beds, it is important to carry out this coarse digging,» the specialist explained. «And, of course, in the greenhouse you also need to dig everything so there are large clods.»

Autumn plan for the vegetable garden

It is precisely in autumn that you should decide what will grow where next year, because the time to plant winter crops is approaching. Do not apply fertilizers across the entire plot — it is too expensive. It is better to lay out the beds and fertilize the soil locally.

«For winter garlic and onions, apply humus now during digging. Remember crop rotation: you cannot plant onion after onion or garlic after garlic, but you can plant where cabbage, legumes, cucumbers, or other cucurbits grew,» listed Lyudmila Shubina. «You will need two–three buckets of humus per square meter. If you do not have it, incorporate post-harvest residues: cabbage, carrot, and beet leaves.»

To do this, make a furrow, throw in the leaves, chop them with a spade, and cover the furrow with soil — work along the entire bed this way. If possible, add a cup of wood ash per square meter right away.

«Organic fertilizers will partially decompose over the winter, creating an excellent foundation for the future harvest. You can do this with all beds, for any crop,» explained Lyudmila Shubina. «For potatoes, it is advisable to apply both humus and phosphorus–potassium fertilizers in autumn.»

All root crops — starting with carrots, beets, turnips, and potatoes — benefit from good autumn applications of potassium fertilizers. It is acceptable now to apply potassium chloride in the dosage indicated in the instructions. The chlorine will dissipate by spring, leaving soil rich in potassium. You can also apply double superphosphate now, or you can do it in spring.

Protecting garlic

A warm end to September can cause early plantings of winter garlic to sprout ahead of time due to the lack of cold. That is a bad scenario that could leave a gardener without a harvest. If the cloves are already in the ground, you can try to prevent this by mulching.

«Such early plantings should be mulched with humus or peat, otherwise they will freeze. And it is best to postpone planting garlic until October, when frosts begin,» the specialist advises.

It is best to mark the bed with winter crops using stakes or other markers so that in early spring you do not harm them and, even before the snow melts, you know exactly where the first shoots should appear.

Important for the orchard and vegetable garden

Be sure to prune: when to plant raspberries in autumn and how to prepare the bushes for winter — effective methods.

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How to prune grapes in autumn and cover them for winter — video.