For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."
how to nurse your soil back to health over winter
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I'm still deep in fall cleanup this weekend: collecting seeds from special plants, dividing perennials, and cutting down the last of my summer crops. We had a hard freeze last week, which wiped out the tomatoes and cucumbers (though the strawberries are looking solid—I even see some new flowers). As I'm rooting around in my raised beds, I can tell the soil is a bit tired. I've got weeds sneaking their way into now-empty spaces, the soil level has gone down a couple inches and I grew some BIG tomato and zucchini plants this summer, so I'm sure those beds could use a good feeding. I usually let half my garden rest over winter (while the other half is planted with perennials and overwintering crops). I use the time to "nurse" my soil back to health so when spring rolls around, those beds are ready to be planted again. (And I don't have to fuss with the soil during an already busy time in the garden.) While I was clearing out the last of the cucumbers this weekend, I found this: Baby tubers from a small cucamelon plant! The cucamelon had gotten buried among other cucumber plants so it stayed quite small. I didn't think its root system could compete with all my pickling cukes that grew over 6 feet tall, but here it is! Cucamelons are frost-sensitive perennials, so they won't survive below zone 7 but they can absolutely be overwintered indoors. The tubers can be carefully dug up and stored in moist potting mix in a frost-free area for the winter, then replanted in spring once things warm up. (Here's a guide I wrote on growing cucamelons.) Planting from tubers gives them a head start on growth and produces much larger and more productive plants! So if you grew cucamelons this season, give this a try. ​(I got my seeds here.)​ P.S. Here are 3 easy ways to nurse your garden soil back to health over winter. P.P.S. Do you know what to do with all your dead plants at the end of the season? Nope, don't pull them out. Don't even dig up the roots. I share exactly what I do in my garden every year—using my signature "lazy gardening" method—in my online course Lazy Gardening Academy. This course is full of smart tips and techniques for getting more out of your garden by doing less work. And the best time to start is actually in fall, when you can start building up your soil before letting nature take over. Check it out here.​ |
Garden Betty
For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."