prepping the garden for winter, and fall garden tasks · winterize the garden •shut off water and...
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
12/9/2016
1
Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks
Andy Waltke, M.S.
Creighton University
Common Soil Seed Library Lecture Series
What to do in the Fall?• Finish crop/herb harvests
• Take cuttings of any tender plants if desired
• Collect seeds/seed heads and store to dry
• Prune down perennials and garden plants• Chop and drop
• Mulch areas with compost and straw
• Plant bulbs, perennial/grass seed, cover crops & seed garlic
• Create bird feeders for migrating/returning birds
• Turn off water/winterize garden
![Page 2: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
12/9/2016
2
Setting up for Spring
• Fall is the time of harvest, but also the time for renewal and regeneration through decomposition
• You want to create little to no waste and utilize the nutrients in the system to setup the garden for the following season
• This primarily involves pruning, composting, and mulching
Harvest Crops and Herbs
• Remove from your plants what you want:• Finish harvests for all plants• Save seeds/cuttings from plants
• Cut down all green growth and let decay in growing area or use in compost• Utilize as Green Manure
• Either way the nutrients in the live plants are put where they can decompose
![Page 3: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
12/9/2016
3
ng Plant Cuttings
• Aka Cloning
• Rooting a stem piece
• Rosemary/lavendar/etc
Overwintering Plants
• Before fall frosts, dig up any tender perennial plants and repot them
• Bring the pots inside and place in a window
• Depending on the plant, will often prune the plant back hard
• Reduce watering in the winter, and the plant will enter a state of dormancy
• Then replant it outside in the spring again.
![Page 4: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
12/9/2016
4
Save Seed/Winter Processing• Once all fruits or flowers are harvested, save all the seeds you want from your garden
• It is easiest to remove the entire pod or seed structure then keep them in paper bags to dry for many weeks
• Accumulate seed and keep these in your basement or a dark, dry location
• Then process and clean them over the winter months!
Prune Perennial Plants
• For perennial flowers and grasses, you will cut down the green material to about 4‐5 inches above the ground
• Use all this plant material as compost or mulch
![Page 5: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
12/9/2016
5
Chop & Drop: What Not to Use?
• Cut down a plant then place it on the ground around the base of where it grew
• This will double as green manure and mulch
• The freeze/thaw will break down plant material well over the winter season
• DO NOT use weeds or plants full of seed as they will regrow in place
• Hot compost the seeded plants to limit spread
Continue Composting
• Finished compost is dark in color
• Separate out finished compost to top dress, then add all the new garden cuttings to the pile
• Mix with ripped up cardboard
• Sift out worms and start a worm bin to keep their population alive throughout the
winter months
![Page 6: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
12/9/2016
6
DIY Worm Bins for Your House
• Many designs to be found online
• If composting properly, they do not smell and the worms will eat half their weight in fresh scraps each day!
• Overwinters worms for outside bins
Composting Bins
Manufactured Tumblers
Wooden BinsCedar Wood orPallet Construction
![Page 7: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
12/9/2016
7
Top Dress Growing Areas
• Separate any compost that had completed breakdown over the growing season
• Spread a thin layer evenly over the growing areas
• Add more where larger plants grew – to replenish resources
• Compost will help to establish sustainable nutrient levels in growing spaces
ulches to Use
• There are many materials to use beyond wood chips such as straw, rocks, gravel, newspaper, etc.
• Avoid dyed mulches
• Be sure to use straw and not hay!
• Mulch will suppress weeds, and aid in water/nutrient retention
• Use straw to help thermally protect bulbs or perennial garden beds
![Page 8: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
12/9/2016
8
Leaf Mold• The best action is to use a lawn mower to mulch leaves as they fall
• You can also collect them in chicken wire bins to create a mulch that is supreme at weed suppression!
• Create piles and let it rot!
Mulch in the No Till Garden
• Limited to no digging in the garden
• Instead layers of natural mulches are used to suppress weeds and keep the natural soil strata in place
• Added over the season
• Add a heaping layerin the fall!
![Page 9: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
12/9/2016
9
What to Plant in the Fall?
• Bulbs
• Perennial Flowers
• Perennial Grasses
• Cover Crops
• Seed Garlic
lanting Bulbs
• Bulbs that are not pointed you will plant on their side, so water
doesn’t collect in them
• Most lilies or larger bulbs are this way
• Most are planted 4‐6” deep
• Very reliable growers!
![Page 10: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
12/9/2016
10
Crocus
• Source of saffron, most expensive spice in world
• Fall blooming and spring blooming
• Only 5‐6 inches tall
Perennials• The seeds of perennial plants have adapted to need a period of cold temps for germination• Cold Stratification
• Therefore, the easiest way to grow perennials is to plant blocks of their seed in the fall months
• These will emerge and geminate very easily in the spring, especially the grasses
• This will suppress weeds emerging and is much less time consuming then transplanting small plants in the spring!
![Page 11: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
12/9/2016
11
Planting Seed Garlic• Do not use store bought garlic but you can purchase seed garlic
• Each clove will become a new head of garlic
• Plant in the fall and it will be ready to harvest next season
• Space 4‐6 inches apart and plant 2 inches deep
Cover Crops
• Retain top soil in place and are often low growing plants
• Many are in the bean family so will fix nitrogen from the air into a usable form
• These may be grown in the time between crops or overwintering
• Some grasses are grown to uptake excess nitrogen in soil if it was overfertilized
![Page 12: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
12/9/2016
12
Annual Cover Crops• Between crops during the warm season you may plant a cover crop to retain soil
‐ Buckwheat or Vetch
• In fall after harvest, plant cover crops that will emerge early in spring to activate soil before the growing season• Clover or Winter Rye
Cover Crop Examples
Annual Rye GrassWhite Clover
![Page 13: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
12/9/2016
13
Add Bird Feeders
• Some birds will overwinter in our area and others will pass through migrating south for the season
• It is a great help to nature to install birdhouses, birdfeeders, and birdbaths in your yard
• During the growing season they are great at eliminating insects and plant pests
Amazing World of Fungi
• Almost all plants will grow in combination with fungi and those in turn will link plants or plant communities together!
• How plants communicate with one another
• Often the vehicle to deliver compounds between two different plants
![Page 14: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
12/9/2016
14
Capabilities of Fungi
• Remediate any form of toxicity from heavy metals to oil spills, and can tailor a fungus to a specific contaminant
• Kill or deactivate any form of disease or cancer
• Nutritious and easy to cultivate
• Perform the vast majority of soil mineralization and are the center of soil food webs
Step by Step Growth
• You can buy spawn or spores of various different edible and medicinal mushrooms
• To grow you simply provide it with new substrates and larger containers to grow in
• The progression is small plates, then jars of grain, then 5 lb bags of sawdust.
![Page 15: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
12/9/2016
15
Start Growing in Winter
• You can grow out samples of fungi into bags of spawn over the winter months
• You want to “plant” the fungus in the spring time after the danger of frost
• Therefore, you can begin replicating jars and bags to build up stock to utilize outside
• Research the process, or just buy bags of spawn online and plant them in your yard!
Making Mushroom Garden Beds
• Many species grow on wood, so you can create garden beds that will grow mushrooms
• Add cardboard below
• Layer mulch and straw with sawdust spawn
• Build in shade where you usually do not want to garden
![Page 16: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
12/9/2016
16
• kjk
![Page 17: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
12/9/2016
17
Winterize the Garden
• Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing
• Secure any garden structures that may buckle or fall under wind or weight of snow
• Begin cleaning and saving seed once all the outside tasks are complete
• And begin research and planning for next year!
![Page 18: Prepping the Garden for Winter, and Fall Garden Tasks · Winterize the Garden •Shut off water and insulate the pipe from freezing •Secure any garden structures that may buckle](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022013003/5fc1128ac3abce071250a187/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
12/9/2016
18
Online Resources• Many sites with info on fall garden tasks
• Baker Creek Seeds for Garlic
• Old House Gardens for Heirloom Bulbs
• Research the work of Paul Stamets
• Mushroom Info: http://www.mykoweb.com/articles/cultivation.html
• November Lecture: Medicinal and Alternative Uses for Plants!