Tips for your Winter Garden

11/13/2020

Tips to prepare your Garden or Plants for Winter

Here in North Georgia in mid-November we are enjoying some great weather, but we see the signs that cooler times are coming. We have enjoyed our gardens and plants this summer but are there things we should do to prepare them for winter?

Doing some research, I found a varied answer based upon the plant. For tender vegetables, its time to harvest everything that may be left before the first frost strikes.  Then pull all the plant material and if there’s disease on the plant place them in the trash or burn them instead of composting to keep the disease from your compost bin.

Hardy vegetables like Brussels Sprouts, greens like Kale, Broccoli, and Garlic can tolerate 25-28 F so they can stay in the ground in our area. Some of these vegetables even become sweeter after a frost.

Semi-hardy vegetables can tolerate 29-32 F and some examples are Cabbages, Swiss Chard, Arugula, Leeks, Mustard Greens, English Peas, and Kohlrabi. So, in our area these vegetables would benefit from a row cover to protect them from damage.

Some herbs can over winter like Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme can over winter in our area with little to no protection.  Chives and Basil should be potted and brought in and they can continue to produce through the winter.

During the winter Inactive garden space can benefit from a cover crop or compost so nutrients can be restored to the soil over the winter. If weeds were a challenge during the year you might consider covering the garden with black plastic over winter to kill the weed seeds before its time to plant in the spring.

During the Winter we can miss our garden and plants, but an option might be to create a vegetable planter that you can enjoy even when its cold outside. We at the FM Aquaponics farm has prepared some vegetable planters that contain attractive leafy vegetable plants and with our liquid fish emulsion they should thrive in your home. Come check them out, take one home or maybe it will give you an idea to create one of your own.