We finally completed one of the hardest tasks of the year, which is getting the gardens ready for winter. Usually, we have this completed by mid-October. Because tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, and cabbage continued to trickle out of the garden, we held off starting a couple of weeks later than usual.
It all started by slowly removing trellises and tomato cages, and tearing up landscape fabric. The garden gates were thrown open, giving the chickens permission to pick through the plants and beds. Oddly, it seemed to take the chickens a while to spend time in the garden.
We then ran the lawnmower across most of the beds, and used a string trimmer to take down the plants in the raised beds. We cut plants off at grounds surface so the roots stay in place to aerate the soil in winter. We then did a final weeding of the raspberry and strawberry beds, and mulched the raspberries with grass clippings.
The big change this year was the placement of paper mulch across many of the beds, followed by a layer of wood chips. Maggie had finagled a couple of loads of wood chips from a local tree trimming company. These spent the summer in a big pile outside the garden, providing a place for the chickens and cats to climb and play. Using a wheelbarrow, we slowly moved the woodchip mountain to the garden, in hopes they would increase the organic content of the soil.
We then used a lawn sweeper to collect leaves and grass clippings from the yard, spreading them across the beds. We mucked out the chicken coop, and transferred the mix of manure, straw and wood shavings to the raised beds. One of our neighbors delivered a couple of skid steerer buckets of manure, which we spread across the two largest beds. Lastly, Maggie spread three bales of straw across the strawberries. Four weeks later we are done. The chickens still occasionally work their way through the garden, helping to mix the layers together.
The other plantings get the same care; a layer of coop manure on the garlic and asparagus beds, weeding around the orchard trees, and repairs to the deer fencing. The chicken coop got a layer of lime, some fresh wood shavings, and fresh straw in the nesting boxes. The bees received their final mite treatment, and mouse guards.
This always seems like a mad rush, trying to get things done before the ground, manure, and/or wood shavings freeze. This year, a warm and dry fall allowed us to push the work into the last weekend of October. The garden will now sleep for the winter, the soil replenishing itself to start the cycle again in the spring.
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