Prepping Your Garden for Winter

Okay, so I know fall just started, but right now is an opportune time to prep your garden for winter before it gets too cold. Here are a few tips I've learned along the way (some of these tricks will end up saving you time in the spring, so definitely worth trying out!).

1. If you have plants that have rotted or gone bad, remove them from your garden. Diseased plants actually shouldn't be composted so make sure to burn those or get rid of them separately. Plants that are disease free but are just past their prime can absolutely be buried or composted, which will add to your soil's health.

2. Get rid of the weeds that have taken over! This will save you time come spring. Make sure, again, that you burn invasive weeds or throw them out vs putting them in your compost.

3. Now is the time to add compost, manure, bone meal, etc to your soil. Doing so in the fall will allow the nutrients to breakdown and enrich your soil over the winter. Be sure to cover your soil over the winter with a layer of straw or mulch so that the nutrients don't get washed away. You could also plant cover crops, more info on that here.

4. Pruning. Certain plants do best with a fall pruning, like raspberries, asparagus, rhubarb, etc. Look into which perennial plants you have that may enjoy a fall pruning.

5. Harvest your compost, if you have it. Now's the time to use that summer compost (see tip number 3) to make way for a new batch. Plus, you'll likely need to make room to add all of your leaves to your compost pile.

6. Clean and organize your garden tools! Sharpen them, oil them, etc-- this will again save you some time come spring, and I'm all about that. This will feel so good when you go to use them next time.

What other tips do you all have to prep your gardens for winter? I'd love to hear them!