Winter Prep?

[sjonathan]

Bear with me, I am new.
I recently bought a house that has a vegetable garden. I am super excited and making plans now for the spring.

Right now it has a bunch of last season's tomato plants, and a lot of tall weeds.

What should I do in the winter time to lessen the weeds/prep in the spring? Is there something I can cover it with? Is there a spray or pre-emergent that I need to use?

 

[Meadowlark]

Remove all the old plants and weeds being careful not to allow weed seeds loose on your garden soil. Immediately overseed the space with a cereal rye e.g. winter rye and some clover. Let it grow until spring when you can turn that cover under/into the soil and have a ready to plant garden. That is what I would do.

 

[sjonathan]

Remove all the old plants and weeds being careful not to allow weed seeds loose on your garden soil. Immediately overseed the space with a cereal rye e.g. winter rye and some clover. Let it grow until spring when you can turn that cover under/into the soil and have a ready to plant garden. That is what I would do.

Will winter rye and clover grow when it's cold? The high this week is around 40

 

[Meadowlark]

Yes,
"Winter rye (Secale cereale) can grow in temperatures as low as 33°F and tolerate temperatures as low as -30°F once established:

• Germination: Winter rye can germinate in soil temperatures as low as 34°F.
• Growth: Winter rye can grow in temperatures as low as 38°F.
• Tolerance: Once established, winter rye can tolerate temperatures as low as -30°F. "
  The clover can germinate at 45 deg. F but won't grow much until the soil warms when it will take off providing great soil building.

 

[YumYum]

I use Crimson clover and from my memory about -10F is its lower limits. It won't really grow below freezing though.

 

[Anniekay]

Weed it out well and add compost, just spread it on top of your soil. When spring comes, since you're new to gardening, just grow a few things. Don't get really excited and put everything you like to eat in all at once because, being inexperienced, it will overwhelm you and if too much to handle is put in, you'll get discouraged.

Try some easy things for spring crops, like radish, lettuce, cabbage and when it warms up after your last frost, some tomato plants, and peppers, or just a couple of whatever you like to eat that doesn't grow well in cool weather .

As you get experience and confident growing these plants, then expand to one or two more types of vegetables, as time goes on.

Be sure to plant marigolds and other flowers around and amongst your vegetables because that will draw in polinators to help polinate your veg.

 

[GFTL]

All of those ideas are good but if you've never gardened before keep it simple. Cut everything to the ground leaving the roots. remove any tomatoes as they will reseed and be a problem. Cover the beds with about 2" of compost and cover the compost with leaf mulch or whatever mulch is available. Don't use wood chip mulch from the store unless it's shredded as it will make it difficult to plant next year. The soils bacteria and worms will take care of the rest. Next spring do a soil test to determine if you need to add any fertilizer. Check out this guy's videos for some good information (but speed them up, he talks slow)

 

[PGB1]

Perhaps this isn't according to rules, but you know the zillion leaves that you have to rake up in fall? I pile them and run them over with a lawnmower a few times to make them into very tiny bits.

Next, the bits get raked into the top couple of inches of soil. By the time that the snow melts, most of the bits have disintegrated. Those that didn't rise to the surface for easy raking away (or turning in if desired). I'm usually late in planting, but weeds don't show up in the gardens that got the leaf bits. (Except dill. I swear that stuff can grow through concrete.)

If a garden is to get acid loving plants in spring, I'll rake in pine needles, fallen pine bark and pine cones. In spring, i rake away the cones and turn the needles into the soil.

Keep in mind that we don't use any lawn sprays, so they leaf bits & pine needles are safe for vegetable gardens.

Just my Not By The Book method...

Paul