FAQ: What post-harvest garden maintenance do I need to do to end the season well?
Answer: There are 10 things to do to end post-harvest gardening season well. These include pulling weeds, testing the soil, planting cover crops, and many other tasks.
In this blog post, you’ll learn these 10 tips to finalize your post-harvest season:
- 10 key tips for maintaining your post-harvest garden
- Extend your vegetable garden harvest into winter with a cold-frame
- Take the first step toward post-harvest gardening maintenance.
10 Key Tips for Maintaining Your Post-Harvest Garden
While it may be tempting to let your garden wither away at the end of the growing season, you’ll be putting more work on yourself come early spring.
Instead, finish the post-harvest season well by cleaning your garden, prepping the soil, and other maintenance tasks. Here are 10 key tips for putting your garden to bed for the winter:
- Pull annuals and spent vegetable plants:
- Put diseased plants in the trash
- Put healthy dead plants in the compost bin
- Collect any seeds and cut herbs for drying:
- If you store any seeds over winter, ensure that you collect them to store
- Cut back herbs to dry over the winter to use in your cooking
- Prep for next spring by pulling weeds:
- Pull weeds so you have less to contend with in early spring
- Put down weed control, such as Preen, to minimize perennial weeds
- Fix the soil after the harvest:
- Work in organic matter, such as compost, to revitalize the soil with nutrients
- Perform a soil test for pH levels and adjust it with garden lime or sulfur to soak into the soil over the winter
- Plant alfalfa, crimson and Dutch clover, annual ryegrass, or mustard greens as cover crops to suppress weeds and prevent erosion
- Maintain your gardening tools after the post-harvest season:
- Clean off your gardening tools in a mix of 10% bleach solution, which is 1 part bleach with 9 parts water to kill off any plant pathogens
- Repair, sharpen, oil, and put away your gardening tools for next year
Read more: How Often Do I Need to Check My Soil?
- Add a layer of garden mulch, such as compost, straw, or hay, to keep weeds at bay and for nutrients:
- Bark mulches are too heavy for garden soil
- Garden mulch gives a boost of nutrients as it breaks down over the winter
- Prevents soil from getting compacted
- Close up your drip irrigation system for post-harvest maintenance:
- Hire an irrigation contractor or landscape professional to close out your drip irrigation system
- If you prefer to go DIY, empty the drip system by turning off your home’s main water supply, remove the system’s faucet assembly, drain the lines, blow out excess water with an air compressor, and put all caps on the adapter and tubing ends
- Store your drip irrigation system where it’ll stay dry throughout the winter
- Winterize your drip irrigation system two to three weeks before the first frost
- Ensure no pests or diseases overwinter in your garden:
- Don’t collect seeds from diseased plants
- Only plant disease-resistant varieties
- Ensure that you pull all diseased plants and throw them away (not in the compost)
- Prune any perennials and shrubs around your vegetable garden:
- Keep some stalks and seedheads available for birds and insects
- Put mulch around the bottom of the plants to protect them from winter’s freeze-thaw events
- Keep a garden journal after your post-harvest maintenance tasks are finished:
- Record plants that did well and those that didn’t do well in your garden
- Decide how you’ll rotate crops next year to ensure plant health and vegetable production
- Sketch any potential new vegetable gardens for next year’s growing season
Extend Your Vegetable Garden Harvest into Winter with a Cold-Frame
If you’re not finished digging in the soil and your family still craves fresh vegetables, consider cold-frame gardening.
You can build a cold-frame for your garden or buy a kit from your independent garden center. Here’s a list of vegetables you can grow in your cold-frame:
- Arugula
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Peas
- Potatoes
- Radishes
- Spinach.
Read more: What You Need to Know About Cold Frame Gardening
Winter Gardening 101: Tips and Tricks for Growing Plants in Wintertime
How to Add Edibles to Your Landscape
Take the First Step Toward Your Post-Harvest Gardening Maintenance
No matter how large or small your vegetable garden is, you may feel overwhelmed by all the chores of maintaining your post-harvest garden.
Break it up into smaller steps instead of looking at your whole garden. If you work full-time and the evenings are spent running the kids to their activities, split your garden up to do one section at a time.
You can also get your kids to help you with these tasks. It’s excellent exercise, bonds you together as a family, and they learn about soil science.
Go With the Best Today in Lawn and Garden Tools from Brinly
If you’re ready to start your post-harvest maintenance jobs, you need Brinly’s garden tools to save you time and energy.
Be more efficient with our ground-engaging equipment to start new garden plots or turn over garden soil to allow it to breathe. Our tow-behind carts carry fertilizer, compost, and pulled weeds.
Finally, our tow-behind fertilizer spreaders will broadcast compost, seeds, and soil amendments accurately and efficiently.
What are you waiting for?
Buy our Brinly products online now and take the next step toward a well-maintained post-harvest garden.
Need assistance? Our customer service team is here to help. If you have any questions, fill out our contact form, and we’ll reply promptly.
Sources:
Angi.com, How to Winterize a Drip Irrigation System: 5 Steps to Success.
Extension.UGA.edu, Disease Management in the Garden.
GardenTap.com, How to Care for Your Garden After Harvest.
Preen.com, Tackling Garden Weeds in Fall.