After spending spring and summer tending to the soil, you may be tempted to take a break while you wait for Jack Frost to bring your vegetable garden to its inevitable end. Yet a thorough fall cleanup and basic soil preparation now will ensure a healthy, vibrant garden in the spring.<\/p>\n

Agronomist Richard Affeldt of Cascade Mineral Products offers five tips for putting your garden to bed this winter:<\/p>\n

1. Cut back and clean up<\/strong>
\nRemove dead foliage from perennials and cut plants down to approximately 6 to 8 inches above the ground. Remove spent annuals and vegetables like tomatoes, peas, squash and beans. Pull up weeds and any other debris where insects and diseases might try to overwinter.<\/p>\n

2. Amend with organic materials<\/strong>
\nNatural amendments like homemade compost, manure, leaves, blood and bone meal improve the long-term health and structure of the soil. Top dressing them onto the soil surface before the first frost will give these materials time to break down slowly over the winter so you\u2019ll be ready to till in the spring.<\/p>\n

3. Remineralize\u00a0<\/strong>
\nNow is a great time to replace minerals and trace elements (such as magnesium, calcium, silicon and iron) that have been depleted and which are essential to plant and human health. By applying an all-natural product like ground volcanic basalt in the fall, you allow winter rain and snow to make micronutrients and trace elements available to soil microbes and plants.<\/p>\n

4. Mulch.<\/strong>
\nIn perennial beds a fresh layer of mulch gives shelter to plant roots and protects evergreen foliage from soil borne diseases that can splash back during rainy weather. In colder climates, add mulch after the ground freezes. This will help prevent frost damage, discourage pests and help regulate soil temperatures during the winter while protecting roots.<\/p>\n

5. Sow cover crops.<\/strong>
\nPlant cover crops (like ryegrass or mustard) in empty garden beds to retain nutrients, protect soil from erosion, and to keep cool-weather weeds from germinating. Cover crops are tilled back into the soil in the spring, providing the soil with valuable organic material. Many mustard cover crops also suppress diseases and weeds.<\/p>\n

Consider this time of the year as a beginning rather than an end. As every avid gardener will tell you, the time and energy that you put into the soil this fall will pay big dividends next year, in the form of healthier plants that require less work.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Cascade Minerals Remineralizing Soil Booster<\/strong> is an all-natural remineralizing soil booster made from massive basalt stones from Central Oregon\u2019s Cascade Mountains. Rocks are crushed to produce a finely ground, 100% natural product that is approved for organic production and releases the essential minerals and trace elements that plants and humans need to flourish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After spending spring and summer tending to the soil, you may be tempted to take a break while you wait for Jack Frost to bring your vegetable garden to its inevitable end. Yet a thorough fall cleanup and basic soil preparation now will ensure a healthy, vibrant garden in the spring. Agronomist Richard Affeldt of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[19,5,15],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Frosty-Leaves.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YalT-9O","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2063,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions\/2063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}