Autumn is always bittersweet for gardeners: We celebrate the end of weeding while simultaneously mourning the end of the harvest.
And we scheme: Next year, I'm going to put those carrots here. Next year, we'll have drip irrigation. Next year, more flowers among the veggies. Next year, . . .
But the best thing you can do for next year's garden is tend its soil this year by putting it to bed — though that involves a bit more sweat than a marathon reading of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."
Lay out tomorrow's preschool clothes. Try to sketch out where next year's veggies will go. Your 2011 plan should rotate plant families (especially tomatoes), move plants that need more water near irrigation sources, eliminate stuff you just didn't eat and plant more of the veggies that did well and you couldn't get enough of. Try to group plants that need more water and fertilizer together (tomatoes and peppers; beans and squash) and those that need less together (herbs and flowers). With your rough plan in hand, you'll know which areas of the garden should get more compost now and which can get by with less.
Face-washing and toothbrushing. Remove any plant material that showed a hint of disease. Some gardeners remove all nightshade plant debris on principle to deter blights and viruses. Fall is also a fine time to prune any damaged tree limbs, and uproot anything you don't want self-seeding next year (rogue dill, for example). Remove and inventory trellises, cages, temporary fencing, plant markers. Pull fall weeds.
Bedtime snacks. There is nothing like manure — nothing in the world, soil experts agree.
To gardeners, it's like duct tape: It holds the soil universe together. It's The Force and The Secret, all rolled into one. The best time to add it is fall.
"A lot of people spend a lot of money on bagged manure in the spring, but if you can get the stuff locally and spread it in the fall, you'll be way ahead in the spring," says Joel Reich, a soil scientist for Colorado State University Extension Service.
What kind of manure? "Cow would be No. 1" in the world of No. 2, says Colorado State Fair vegetable judge Larry Propp. "And after that, horse." Sheep is fine, he adds, but can be difficult to obtain. If you have neighbors with sheep, count your blessings and find ways to ingratiate yourself.
In the kitchen garden or vegetable patch, Reich recommends spreading an inch-thick layer of composted manure. Then he likes to sprinkle blood meal on top.
Into that 1-inch layer can also go kitchen or garden waste, or compost — well chopped — as long as it's nothing from the nightshade family. Bags of crushed fall leaves can join the mix; so can chopped straw if you've got it, Reich says.
A trip to the restroom. Remember that child who kept popping back up like a prairie dog for one more glass of water?
Treat your newly fed garden to a long, slow drink. The worms, bugs and bacteria that pre-chew compost's nutrients, making them chemically available to plant roots, need moisture to do their work.
"Lay it out and wet it down," Reich says, but "don't firm it — let the water settle things."
Tuck it in with a blanket. That's right, a blanket. It can be any kind of covering you can muster, says Reich — tattered old bedsheets, tarps or row covers work well. Reich has even used large, flattened cardboard boxes from appliance stores, well-wetted down and secured with rocks or pavers. He's used old sheets of plywood: "Reusing is an even higher purpose than recycling," he says.
If the winter months produce successive warm or windy days without snow, you'll want to peel back the blankets and check to make sure the soil is still moist, and water if it's dry.
Sweet dreams. Here's why the blanket is key: It creates a compost pile right there in your soil, Reich explains.
"When it's freezing, when it's 20 degrees, that garden patch will heat up because it's bioactive," Reich says. "You've added food with the leaves or manure, nitrogen with the blood meal, and water. That's your six-month winter compost."
Earthworms will be more active in that warmer soil, moving things around, making next year's spring digging much easier. The blanket holds in topsoil and nitrogen that scouring winter winds would blow right off your property.
And as every parent knows, a child that's had a good night's sleep is a lot easier to deal with in the morning.