Feed your garden now to win next year
Your soil is the cradle that will nurture your garden next year.
And now that your plants, flowers and veggies are fading away for the season, it is important to give back to the soil so it can return a bounty for the next gardening season.
Here’s our list of important autumn jobs that will feed and protect your garden through the winter: Compost — finished organic matter. If you have a backyard composter, now is the perfect time to spread the black gold that’s inside of it across the surface of your soil, about eight to 10 centimetres thick. If your backyard composter has not produced finished compost, purchase it in by the bag at a garden retailer. Buy quality.
Resist the urge to dig it in. This is an old-fashioned practice which destroys soil structure. Instead, simply leave the compost on the surface of the soil to allow earthworms and microbes to pull nutrients into the root zone in spring. Disturbing the soil by digging or rototilling is counter-productive as the loosened soil is vulnerable to erosion and exposes organic matter, which leads to loss of soil carbon. The result is reduced soil health. Leaves and mulch — raw organic matter. Leaves and mulch serve two purposes, by “feeding” and “protecting” your soil. Beneficial organisms draw decomposing leaves or mulch down into the dirt, which creates more diverse and active overall soil life.
Rake fresh leaves onto your garden. As soon as they make contact with moist soil, they will begin to break down. The decomposition of fresh leaves is remarkably fast, which is why you do not need to put them in your composter.
Fallen leaves or mulch will help hold soil in place during the shoulder seasons. Fall rains and the slow spring snow melt can easily carry away bare soils, which have a better chance of staying put under a thick layer of leaves or mulch.
You have some choices in mulch — our Ben prefers straw and Mark likes shredded bark mulch. There is no harm in adding eight to 10 cm of mulch on top of your layer of compost.
If you have enough leaves to create this layer, consider shredding them or running over them a couple of times with a mulching power mower. Shredded leaves break down more quickly, which ensures the nutrients will be available come spring As well, shredded leaves are less likely to pack together and seal out the moisture and air that feed the organisms below. This is essential for oak leaves to break down within a season. Optional for all others. Soil amendments. Like a spoonful of cold syrup before bed, amendments help notquite-healthy soils before they go to sleep for the winter so they can wake up feeling fresh.
Rock phosphate, kelp meal, and bone meal are all organic fertilizers that take a while to break down. Applying them now ensures their nutrient availability come spring. There is a strong possibility you can save money by picking them up on end-of-season clear-out at your garden retailer.
If you have tested your soil and know that it is either too acidic or too alkaline, now is also a good time to start adjusting the pH. Add lime to acidic soils, and pine or spruce needles if you know your soil is too alkaline. Soil pH changes slowly, so it is good to add an application in the fall and again in the spring if you are really trying to grow blueberries (they prefer acidic soil) or honeysuckle (prefer alkaline). Green manure. If you are looking at a bare patch of soil going into the winter, consider planting a cover crop.
We recommend winter rye, field peas, clover, hairy vetch or ryegrass to feed and protect your soils naturally. Living soil cover protects against erosion by putting down roots, while the green plant material adds nutrients when it dies off over the winter or gets tilled down in the spring.
Winter is hard on everyone, including our soils. Put them to bed with care this winter and the cradle of your garden will spring to life come spring.