Fall garden cleanup prepares your food garden for winter and a great growing season next year. Fall vegetable garden cleanup checklist:
Before frost, harvest any remaining garden vegetables. Pick ripe fruits and vegetables to eat fresh or preserve.
1. Harvest Remaining Crops
Clean up garden beds of dead or sick plants. Clean up the garden by pulling out finished annual veggies and cutting back perennials.
2. Remove Spent Plants
Throw in leaves, stems, and wasted foliage to your compost pile. Organic composting recycles nutrients and improves soil health for next year's crops.
3. Compost Debris
Clean and sanitise shovels, hoes, and pruners before winter storage. To prepare instruments for next season, clean and sharpen blades.
4. Clean Garden Tools
Organic mulch like straw, crushed leaves, or compost insulates garden beds and protects plant roots from freezing. Mulch retains moisture and suppresses weeds.
5. Mulch Garden Beds
Garden bed pH and nutrient levels should be tested. Add lime to boost pH or compost or old manure to promote soil fertility and structure.
6. Test and Amend Soil
Protect perennial roots from freezing by mulching their bases. Protect delicate plants with hessian or frost blankets.