Winter maintenance for your garden in includes a number of things. We have listed out several items to get completed in your garden to prepare you for the cold weather.
What maintenance do I need to do for my Garden in the Winter?
In general, maintenance during the winter for your garden include planning next year’s garden, cleaning and pruning deciduous plants, and preparing the soil for the next season. There are several more tasks that you can work on as well.
Planning Next Year’s Garden
In the winter months, growing slows down for several plants, and a lot of the maintenance needed is planning for future gardens. When you are planning your garden for the next season there are a few ways to go about it, planning Month to month, yearly, or season to season.
I recommend a garden app called Planter. It allows you to create a garden space and gives you tips on what plants do well next to each other. Disclaimer, there is a free version, but to get extra benefits it does have a fee. You can access the link through this address: https://planter.garden/
Month to Month Planning
Planning month to month involves looking at your garden space and making a monthly drawing of it. Taking a rough sketch of what you want to grow each month in each bed depending on growing times.
For example, I have 3 garden beds I plant potatoes in one, salad mix in another, and peas in the final bed. In the bed of potatoes, I know that it will take approximately 90 days before I can harvest. So that bed will have potatoes for 3 months. My salad mix bed will be harvested after about a month and a half, so I can grow a different crop if I choose. With my pea bed, I will have a harvest after about 2 months.
Main point with month-to-month planning, you can prepare to grow more items based on the timing of your planting. This does take practice but will allow you to broaden your vegetable gardening skills.
Yearly Planning
Majority of the gardeners out there will follow a yearly planting plan. The make a list of all the vegetables and herbs they want and plan out what time of year to plant them based on the information on the seeds or transplants.
Yearly planting can be very successful for large scale gardens to allow for multiple crops to be growing at once.
Seasonal Planning
Seasonal planning in a vegetable garden involves knowing what crops are in season to plant and to harvest. Sowing seeds in the summer knowing you will have the harvest in the autumn, and sowing seeds in the winter indoors knowing you will have harvest in the spring.
Having a good idea of the plants you want to grow for each season can be a great budget friendly planting hack.
Cleaning, Pruning, and Weeding during the Winter Months
During the winter months, it is important to take care of any pruning, weeding, and cleaning while plants go into dormancy.
Evergreen vs Deciduous
For evergreen trees and shrubs, wait until the spring months to prune them back. You want to allow plenty of time for the new cut growth to harden before the next winter allowing the plant to protect the more tender shoots.
Deciduous plants, or plants that lose their leaves, need to be pruned as they are no longer producing leaves in the winter. Be sure to cut any limbs that rub other limbs, and to cut above nodes in the trees. You can watch this video about pruning apple trees for a good example.
Cutting and Cleaning
When cutting back herbaceous perennials like phlox or columbine, be sure to leave about 2 inches above the ground. By leaving a couple inches, this will help with the new growth for the next season. If you don’t cut back the plants, they will have to push through the dead material that was left from the previous season.
Another very important cleaning tip for your winter garden is removing any dead plants that are annuals. For example, peas are an annual crop will not come back after they have got to seed. These plants will need to be removed from the garden and placed in the compost if they are not diseased. You will also want to remove any dead or damaged leaves and limbs from fruit and flowering trees.
Weeding
Finally, when weeding your garden, be sure to get all the way to the roots to remove the full weed.
Some common weeds to look out for in Zone 8 are dandelions, clover, and sowthistle.
You will also want to cut down the grass if the ground is not frozen or waterlogged.
Preparing Your Soil during Winter Months
When doing winter maintenance for your garden, preparing the soil is a must. While the weather turns cold, you will want to make sure the soil retains its nutrients and keeps somewhat warm.
First, you will want to replenish the soil with more compost. Once all the dead plant material and weeds are removed, give a healthy top layer of compost to the garden.
Another option besides compost, is planting what is known as a “green manure crop.” A green manure crop allows the nutrients from these plants to replenish the soil with nutrients. You can purchase green manure crop seed packs or make your own. Common mixes include broad beans or winter peas, oats, or buckwheat. If you leave the seeds in the ground for a few weeks and then cut down the shoots before they flower, leaving the roots and turning them into the soil will allow the goodness from those plants to be retained into the soil.
You will also want to fertilize the plants that you have growing in the winter. Give them a good dose of liquid fertilizer a few months before you get a hard frost, and then apply mulch. Another helpful garden tip is to water well before a frost. This will allow the plants to retain their warmth for longer.
Seeds and Plants for Winter in Zone 8
In the early winter months, collect any seeds from plants that have finished out. You can collect the seed for next year’s planting. Be sure to save seeds properly to prevent them from rotting.
If you are not saving seeds, ordering your seeds is a key step in the winter. Making an early order for the seeds you are wanting is a better way to guarantee you get what you want. I always try to find one new variety to add a change in my garden. This can be beneficial in multiple ways. A new variety may grow better, will have a different flavor, and may even attract different pollinators!
However, one of the great things about Zone 8, is we have mild winters. There are several vegetables that you will still be able to grow. Here is a list of frost resistant crops for your Zone 8 winter garden:
- Cauliflower
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
- Kale
- Swiss Chard
- Collard Greens
- Peas
- Carrots
- Radishes
- Garlic
- Brussel Sprouts
- Bok Choy
Keep an eye on any pests in your garden, as during the winter, fresh leaves are hard to find, so critters will find a way to keep themselves alive from your hard work.
Other Maintenance for your Winter Garden
Other maintenance for your winter garden is doing a full garden checkup, cleaning, and sharpening your tools, as well as learning!
Doing a full garden checkup can be anything from the following:
- Fixing fences, removing rotting posts, fixing holes
- Repairing tears in your greenhouse or tunnels
- Checking the integrity of your raised beds. Do you have any wood that has rotted out and no longer supporting the garden? Do you have any diseased wood that needs to be removed? Get these taken care of while its cool outside and your focus doesn’t need to be on delicate plants.
One final pro tip, if you are expecting a hard freeze, get an old bed sheet (light in color is best) and place it over your plants you are trying to keep. The sheet will help retain the heat in the plant and hopefully save it from freezing solid.
For more check out our Checklist with a Free Printable here.
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