Covering Your Garden Beds for the Winter Winter is a time of transition for any gardener. Rather than focusing on growing anything, the cold months are all about preparing for the next year. Since winter is the time when it gets very cold, a lot of plants are going to die as a result of this cold. Covering your raised garden beds is a good way to both prepare them for the next year, but it can also protect what is underneath the cover.
Different Covers These covers can come in two varieties- using natural or synthetic options. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but it pretty much comes down to personal preference. Those who want to use a synthetic cover can use a foamy plasticized option which comes in sheets. All you have to do is spread the sheets out in layers, cover your garden beds with it, and then cut it to fit. Those who want a more natural cover can collect their leaves from their trees during the autumn release of said leaves, and then cover the beds with those. In either case, the point is to keep the soil levels intact, keep any perennial plants which are underground warmer and preventing them from freezing. It is generally about protecting the spot from contamination.
Doing this will allow for a better growing season during the next year. These preparations serve to make things easier, and are an investment. Doing this during the fall will save you a lot of difficulty down the road, making this an investment which is prudent to make. Getting off to a good start in the spring is likely to set the tone for the results you are able to achieve when you plant again then. Organic covers such as those made out of leaves can be especially useful. Leaves are organic matter which turns to mulch as they begin to break down.
Added Benefits Such mulch will add to the nutrients found in the soil of your raised garden beds. As such, covering them with leaves not only serves to protect things and keep them warmer, but it also adds a nutritional kick to the process by infusing the soil with a steady stream of nutrients as the leaves break down over the winter. As a side note, this also saves you from having to exhaustively bag all of your leaves in the fall. Simply move what is needed to the garden beds and spread them over the top of the dirt there. A thick layer is needed, so don’t be afraid of putting on too much! When it all comes down to it, the care we take of our gardens during the course of the entire year is going to affect the results gotten when things begin to grow. The preparatory work which is done is going to have perhaps the most pronounced effect of all. As such, these measures are well worth doing, because they lead to a set of bigger and better things down the line, after the cold has gone away. Photo Credit: OSU Master Gardener