WINTERIZING YOUR GARDEN & TIPS
Saying Goodbye To The Veggies For Now
Gardening is a love affair for some and a nightmare for others. I started working in the vegetable garden with my dads mom (my nana) at a very young age. I saw the happiness it brought her and the rewards it grew right in the backyard. I was hooked!
After a fun, or trying season in the garden, late October is the time to pack it up and clean it up. I find the peppers are one of the last to survive, along with cold loving plants like broccoli, kale, cabbages, carrots, and anything under the ground. All the rest, it is time to say goodbye. As much as I like gardening, this point in the year I need a rest from it all.
You want to take the plants, root and all, and get them out of the garden. I love to place all the plants in a compost are in the yard, which one day will become beautiful mulch. There is no need to turn over your soil or add any nutrients, we save that till late winter and early spring. This is the easy task of just getting it down to just dirt. Without the garden clean, I wanted to share some tips I tried this year and they worked like a charm.
BAMBOO!
I have lots of bamboo in the yard. It is a love, hate relationship. It stay green all winter and acts like an evergreen, but it is very invasive. If you don't cut it back, or thin it out, it will take over! So thin out the tall dead bamboo or tall live bamboo and cut them into 9 foot poles. It is so easy to cut bamboo since they are hollow inside. I used these instead of wooden stakes or any other metal made stakes you buy at a home improvement store to tie up your tomato, pepper, or any other climbing vegetable. They look cool and it is environmentally friendly. So, find a friend with bamboo if you don't have it.
DON'T TRASH OLD TOWELS
Ok, old smelly stained towels or even clothes is not for the trash can anymore. It is for your garden. Let's be honest, plants could care less. Instead of buying ties, or tomato friendly string to hold up your plants is not needed. Keep the cash in your pocket for that beautiful plant you want to buy. I take the old towels and cut them into 1" wide long strips. These are soft and friendly to your tender plants and work amazing as ties. When it comes to this time of year, you can't recycle them, but if you have a fire pit throw them in to help start the fire!
WEED BLOCK (BLACK FABRIC)
I have never tried it before this year and so happy I did finally. I HATE weeding, no matter the weather, weeds grow so quickly. It is like salt being thrown into an open wound for gardeners. You want to choose weed block fabric that still allows some water through. You also don't want it to be thin and flimsy. So do not buy the one that allows most of the water through (the packaging will have a diagram indicating this), and do not buy the one that barely allows water through. Go for the middle road, it will be perfect. You want the material that won't rip if you walk on it and you won't be able to tare with your hands. Just make sure it says fabric and NOT heavy duty. You will also need the plastic pegs to hold the fabric down so it does not blow away. You can reuse the following year. I plan on covering the whole garden next year and then cutting holes where I want the plants to grow.