With old man winter just around the corner it’s time to start doing some prep for the coming months. Many things can be done and prepped for spring to start your garden out. You could sow cover crops, cut back your perennials, try to protect your tender annuals, mulch your plants, protect your roses, dig up tender bulbs, bring house plants inside. I also like to start a calendar about now so I can look ahead and have no surprises.

One of the things that I like to do is to spread a thin layer of manure down and cover it with either leaves or grass clippings that I saved from the previous year. I believe that this helps to rejuvenate the soil as well as protect from weeds and other nasties that we just don’t care to have come up.

I also like to make sure that my fruit trees, and other trees and shrubs get the water they need over the winter, Yes, it seems like everything’s dead, but they still like having that water down around the roots. A well watered plant is a protected plant. Make sure that you water any plants that you dug up and put into pots, because they dry out very easily. ( just don’t over do it) It’s probably a little late in the season for fertilizer, just make a reminder to do it early spring.

It’s also really a good time to start plotting your garden out for next year. I suggest making a map of your gardening areas and deciding what plants you want to grow where. Remember that a lot of plants like companion plants so once you decide where you want to locate your plants, then you can look up the companions that will benefit the plants.

By now you should have your garlic in and mulched over with leaves or dead grass. Some of you have already planted your onions, I prefer to do that in the spring. It’s not too late to put cover crops down. Austrian peas do real well adding nitrates back into the soil. If you have sandy clay soil you can also try the rye cereal seed. The roots will help break up the soil and allow water to penetrate more easily. Come spring simply cut the rye back to the dirt and make holes where you want to plant.

On the days that the temperatures get warm enough, I like to water my leaf and grass piles to help them continue to decompose and develop that leaf and grass mold underneath that we really like putting back into our soil. Remember just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean that there’s not things that we can be doing out in the garden. Granted you don’t have to do as much work but all the little things that you do now will really cut down on the work you have to do in the spring.

We here at Roknkor would like to wish you Happy holidays and happy growing till next time.

You can check me out on FB @Rokngrow for more tips and tricks.