End of Season Gardening Tips

The end of gardening season may be the close of gardening for some, while others are starting or tending winter gardens. Many people begin preparing their garden for next years season early. Helpful tips for the end of season gardening can give you a great head-start on next years garden, provide new ideas and hopefully a richer harvest.

Cleaning Up the Old Garden

If you still have crops in the garden, you will want to harvest the last of the lot before the temperature drops less than 40 degrees. Bring unripened tomatoes indoors and put them in a paper bag. Add an apple in the bag and you can ripen them indoors. Harvest carrots, summer squash, onions, potatoes, peas and beans before they get ruined with the first frost.

There are two schools of thoughts about what to do with all the old bean and pea plants, tomato vines and corn stalks. Some folks prefer to yank them out of the ground, throw them in a big pile and burn them to remove any traces of disease. Others get a twinkle in their eye knowing what a fine addition they will be to the compost pile. If you can heat your compost to 140 degrees this should take care of old weed seeds and diseases.

Tending Winter Gardens

For those people that are fortunate enough to still have pretty fair weather left in the winter months continue gardening. If you planned ahead and put in kale, cabbage and collards mid-summer, you should be able to grow them for a few more months. Turnips, beets and carrots can be mulched and harvested up to about New Years. 

Preparing for Next Year

It is a good idea to clear out old vegetable plants and debris to prevent diseases from carrying into the next gardening season. While you are removing old plants, consider putting in a winter cover crop like winter rye or oats. Winter cover crops can be planted in late September through mid October in the same beds with crops that are still growing. Grow the oats or rye to maturity and turn them under the soil to take advantage of fresh nutrients and nitrogen for next year's crops.

Prepare you garden beds ahead of time for next spring by tilling in lime, potassium and phosphorus. Now is your chance to sit down and sketch out designs for next years garden. Consider garden expansion and additional fencing for a bigger, better garden next year.