prepare a winter vegetable garden

 How to prepare a winter vegetable garden

Autumn and winter crops will be replaced by summer crops as the days begin to drop in temperature. Like most leaf crops, root crops thrive in cold climates.

In hot climates fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, and squashes — as their year ends, remove them and prepare planting beds for fall and winter crops - beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, cabbage, lettuce, lettuce, and cabbage.

Pay the same attention to giving planting beds for cold weather crops and you care about spring and summer crops. Clean the beds from plant debris and feed the soil.

10 Tips for Preparing a Winter Vegetable Garden:

1. Remove the remnants of the summer garden - spent crops - and place the green and brown plant material in the compost pile. Cleaning the planting beds of spent plants will ensure that the summer garden does not give winter to pests and diseases. Avoid composting diseased or pest-infested plants.

2. Turn the soil with a garden shovel; Turn the soil hoe deep (approximately 12 inches) to break the air and lumps into the garden.

3. Add organic modifications to planting beds - manure, poultry manure, sponge and kelp, and homemade or commercial compost. Use a garden fork to mix the corrections into the planting beds that have already been replaced with a shovel.

4. Add blood diet (nitrogen-rich, average NPK ratio 11-0-0), cottonseed diet (nitrogen-rich, average NPK ratio 6-2-1), bone meal (phosphate-rich, average NPK 1-11- 0), Or bag organic vegetable foods throughout the planting beds. Follow the instructions for each product and work them into the top 6 inches of soil.

5. Design winter garden planting beds so that they are at least 3 to 4 inches high and slightly sloping to the south — the north side is high and the south side is low; Southern exposure will warm the soil and lead to cooler air from winter crops.

6. Prepare furrows or plant mounds with a spade; This is important in heavy soils. Make sure the crops run north and south in full sun during the day.

7. Plant taller crops in the north and shorter crops in the south so that shorter crops are not overshadowed by taller crops.

8. Remember that winter vegetables need full sun; Use only planting beds that are exposed to sunlight throughout the day. South-facing wooden fences, stone walls, or garden beds near the building are ideal; They absorb the sun's heat during the day and direct it back into the garden at night.

9. When forecasting the first frost or frost, keep portable plastic row covers or portable cool frames ready to set on top of crops. You can bend the PVC pipe over the beds and put them in place. When freezing weather comes, cover the arches with clear plastic (4 to 6 ml is best); To create a mini-greenhouse for crops, be sure to hang plastic on the side.

10. Add gravel, bark, or straw to all-weather routes or set up raised boards to keep your feet out of the mud when the autumn and winter rains come.