November 18, 2025 • 27 mins
Today we’re talking about one of my least favorite but probably most important fall garden rituals: the great garden clean-up. This is the part of the year where we get to close one chapter of the garden season and start quietly writing the next chapter.
Now that most of the chaos of the garden is done, it's time to be putting things in order, protecting the soil, and setting yourself up for success next spring.
So, today on Just Grow Something we’re talking about:
• What to remove and what to leave in your garden beds
• How to handle diseased or pest-infested plant material
• Best practices for soil testing, amending, and protecting your beds over winter
• And a few tips for the gardeners who have really just had it for now and don’t want to completely clear everything out in this moment. Because I feel you.
Let’s dig in!
Resources:
How to Amend the Soil in Fall for a Better Garden in Spring - Ep. 222: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/how-to-amend-the-soil-in-fall-for-a-better-garden-in-spring-ep-222
Getting Started with Cover Crops - Ep. 166: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/getting-started-with-cover-crops-ep-166
Just Grow Something Merch and Downloads: https://justgrowsomething.com/shop
Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/18YgHveF5P/
Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JustGrowSomething
Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/justgrowsomething
Amazon storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/justgrowsomething
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
All right, my gardening friends,today we are talking about one
of my least favorite, but probably most important fall
garden rituals, and that is the great garden cleanup.
And I mean, I really should appreciate this a bit more
because this is the part of the year where we get to close 1
chapter of the garden season andstart very quietly writing the
(00:21):
next chapter. Now that most of the chaos of
the garden is done, it is the time to be putting things in
order, protecting the soil and setting ourselves up for success
for next spring. So today I'm just grow
something. We're talking about what to
remove and what to leave in yourgarden beds.
How to handle diseased or pest infested plant material, Your
(00:46):
best practices for soil testing,amending, protecting your beds
over the winter time. And also a few tips for the
gardeners who really have just had it for now.
And maybe you don't want to completely clear everything out
and do the soil testing and amending and all the things in
this moment because I feel you. Let's dig in.
(01:07):
Hey, I'm. Karen and what started as a
small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong
passion for growing food. Now as a market farmer and
horticulturist, I want to help you do the same.
On this podcast, I am your friend in the garden teaching
evidence based techniques to help you grow your favorites and
build confidence in your own garden space.
So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
(01:29):
just grow something. Let's start with why this garden
cleanup step is so important. When we harvest the last of our
tomatoes or our beans or whatever the final things are
that come out of the garden in the late fall and really signal
(01:51):
the end of the season, what's left behind is more than just
debris. It's kind of the organic matter
telling the story of what happened in our garden the
entire season. But if we don't manage that
material correctly, especially if we have had heavy pest
(02:14):
infestations or diseases that wehave, you know, had, it can
really harbor fungal spores, insect eggs or overwintering
adults of those pests and bacterial diseases that are
going to overwinter in the soil or in that debris.
So garden cleanup isn't just about tidiness, although that is
(02:39):
part of it. Because I'm telling you, the
kitchen gardens have looked an absolute disaster for multiple
months now and I'm honestly getting tired of looking at it.
So yes, it is partly about tidiness, but it really is more
about breaking up that pest and disease cycle.
So by removing that debris or bycomposting it safely, then we
(03:02):
can sort of help to prevent chews like early blight or
powdery mildew or the squash vine borers or the cucumber
beetles or whatever from showingup as fiercely next season.
OK. And so this really is super,
super important if we have seen any types of diseases or pests,
(03:24):
and there are very few of us gardeners who don't see
something like that in some partof our garden.
The other reason that this can be very important is we don't
want, even if it's healthy tissue to kind of be going to
waste. And we don't want to leave our
soil sort of just bare and exposed for the entire winter.
(03:47):
So even if we're not concerned about harboring diseases or
pests in that plant debris, we do want to take some steps to
recover the nutrients that are still in that dead and dying
plant material and utilize it insome way, shape or form, but
also to maybe add some nutrientsback into the soil and protect
(04:10):
that soil throughout the winter time.
OK, so we'll start with like what we should be removing or
maybe what to leave in our garden beds.
And absolutely the first thing to go is going to be that
diseased plant material. Anything showing signs of
disease should be pulled and discarded started.
(04:31):
And we really don't want to be composting this unless we are
hot composting and that means that your compost is getting to
140°F or higher. The reason that we don't want to
compost this if we are doing a cold compost is because it's
very unlikely that those plant diseases are going to die off in
(04:56):
a cool compost situation. And so all we're doing is
basically giving it a little home for the winter to hang out.
And if it's even warmer in that pile than it is out in the
garden, that you might actually be growing some of those
diseases in your compost pile. So just understand how your
compost pile works and know thatif you have very diseased, a
(05:19):
little bit of disease here and there is not going to be that
big of a deal, right? If you can chop it up and mix it
in there, then, you know, don't panic about that.
But if you have severely diseased plants, absolutely,
please do not compost that. You want to discard it and you
want to discard it in a manner where hopefully it's not ending
up in a landfill. So if you have a municipal
pickup of some sort that picks up material and takes it to a
(05:43):
commercial compost posting thingwhere it does get usually 160°
or higher, then you should be fine.
OK, so any of our spent annuals,the tomato plants, Peppers,
cucumber, squash, whatever, all of those plants that are done
with their production should be checked for diseases and if they
are diseased they should be pulled.
The other thing that you should pull and not compost would be
(06:05):
any weeds that have gone to seed.
So we don't want that seed bank waiting around for us in the
spring to just go ahead and sprout Willy nilly.
This includes again in your compost pile because if it's not
getting to that higher temperature, it's not going to
kill off those seeds. So you're just going to be
(06:25):
spreading that compost back out into your garden and spreading
those seeds to go along with it.I have no problem with you
composting weeds. I think it's fantastic so long
as they're not diseased, right? And it's all green material.
It's all got nutrients in it that can break down and be added
back into our soil. We just don't want the seeds
from those weeds. So those should be something
(06:46):
that you do pull and remove. Now what can stay is any healthy
plant material and yes, that includes the weeds.
So if you have spent annuals that look perfectly fine at the
end of the season, just drop them, chop them off at the base
at the soil level and you can just drop them in place.
(07:06):
So this is going to do a couple of things.
Number one, this is going to addorganic matter back into the
soil from the top down South. Everything that's healthy is
going to get returned into the soil.
Chop it down, let it lay down. If you do it that way, it's also
acting like a mulch. So this is going to protect that
(07:27):
soil from erosion, whether it's from wind or rain or whatever.
If you are chopping these at thesoil line, that means you are
also leaving the root systems inplace.
So if you cut up the soil surface and you leave those
roots in place, they're going todecompose naturally, which means
they are feeding those soil microbes and they are improving
(07:52):
the structure. The bonus to this is if those
roots are the root systems of a legume, so you grew beans or
peas or something in that family, then there are nodules
in place on those roots, and those nodules are what are
holding nitrogen. So you are actually returning
(08:14):
nitrogen or adding nitrogen to the soil because that nitrogen
didn't necessarily come from thesoil to begin with.
Those nitrogen fixing plants that are in the legume family
are pulling atmospheric nitrogeninto their systems and those
nodules are converting that intoa form that the plant can use.
It also means that it's stored in those nodules.
(08:36):
So when the plant is no longer using it, IE you've cut it down,
those nodules get to breakdown and decompose naturally and
they're going to release that nitrogen into the soil for next
season's plants to be able to use.
So you're feeding the soil microbes, you're improving the
soil structure, and you're adding nitrogen in this instance
if it's a legume, back into the soil.
(08:57):
So that is all really, really important.
The only ones that you may not want to leave in terms of the
root system might be something from things like corn, where it
gets a really hard base to it and the roots don't seem to be
the real fibrous roots. They seem to be the real, real
(09:20):
hard roots that kind of come outof the soil.
In that instance, you might wantto go ahead and pull that,
especially since when we're cutting it, you know, sometimes
you're leaving the base of that stalk right there in the soil,
and that can be very, very hard.It actually isn't bad to leave
it there over the winter time tohold the soil in place, but you
(09:40):
might find in the spring when you go to plant that you still
have the remains of that rootstock sort of sitting there.
So you may find that you have toremove it at that point.
That's entirely up to you. I have left it in place over the
season and just dumped straw over top just to kind of keep
things in place, but found that I've had to come back and
(10:01):
actually remove the large bits of that rootstock in the spring.
So you have to decide whether that's worth it to you.
But everything else, absolutely any of your annuals, you want to
go ahead and do that if you haveperennials or you have biennials
that are are capable of overwintering, right.
So you know, things like your your kale or your collards or
(10:26):
your spinach that obviously can overwinter in the more milder
climates without a problem. Obviously you want to go ahead
and leave those, especially onesthat are going to pop back up
again in the spring, to start growing again and give you an
early spring harvest. Parsley is considered a
biennial, so it's going to do the same thing.
You can use that, leave it in place.
It's going to pop back up for you in the spring and give you
(10:47):
another burst of growth before it decides to go to seed.
And if you have perennial flowers and things or herbs that
are in the garden, we're going to want to leave those.
But you might also want to leavethe seed heads on those.
Oftentimes, even if those seed heads aren't necessarily
spreading those crops for us, they are helping to feed the
(11:10):
birds over the winter time. And so you're helping the
wildlife at the same time that you're, you know, kind of
helping hold the soil in place and you're helping that plant
along. And you might be spreading it,
too. OK.
But if any of those perennials were sort of diseased at all
during the season, this is your opportunity to sort of cut
things back, clear them out and give them a fresh start for the
(11:33):
spring. So things that go are anything
that was diseased, anything thatmight be insect infested,
anything that has seeds on it that we don't want spreading, IE
weed seeds, but things that stay, any healthy plant
material, the root systems of our non diseased annuals and any
of your perennials and biennialsto include the seed heads that
(11:56):
are on those. OK, so let's talk about our soil
health and what we can be doing right now to be sort of prepping
ourselves for next season. And this is a really good time
to mention my container gardeners.
If you are growing in mainly small containers, and I'm
talking like pots or tubs that you know, can be maneuvered or
(12:21):
moved around during the garden season.
Maybe it's not, you know, a raised planter that's out in
your bed that contains large amounts of soil, but it's it's
something on your deck or on your patio.
This might be a good time to empty out those containers,
depending on the age of the soil.
So if this is soil that you havehad in that container for
(12:42):
multiple seasons and you have just sort of refreshed it every
year by maybe adding some worm castings or you have just fed
the plants really, really well. This might be a good time to
sort of knockout the old soil, remove the roots, scrub the
containers really well, and thenmaybe put them up for storage.
There are a few reasons why thismight be a good idea #1 if you
(13:04):
are having any sort of disease pressure in these containers,
making sure that they've been cleaned out really, really well
and then just putting them away to store them for the rest of
the winter can actually help to prevent fungal buildup.
So if you are continuing to see the same sort of fungal diseases
hitting your plants every singleyear in these containers, there
(13:25):
might be a good reason for that.This would be a good time to
kind of dump it out and really do a good sanitation.
This also helps keep some of your pots from cracking in the
freezing temperatures if that's been an issue for you before
too. But also when we have the same
soil that is being used over andover again and we're feeding
that soil because obviously you need to do that in the much
(13:49):
smaller containers more frequently than you would in in
ground bed or even a raised planter.
Often times, depending on the fertilizer that you are using or
the plant food that you're using, you can get a salt
buildup. And this is actually very
detrimental to the plants that are starting to grow in there.
And you can see this by looking at sort of the edges of the pot,
(14:10):
right at the soil line. You'll see a sort of white
buildup that is quite literally salt.
It's a saline buildup. So it's a good idea to rotate
that soil out as well. Now, if it's fairly new soil,
you don't necessarily have to dothis if you just refilled these
pots this year. I'm not one for replacing your
soil every single season becausenumber one, that's expensive and
(14:33):
it's kind of a waste, right? But if you've seen any problems
or you want to make it easy on yourself to sort of refresh that
soil, then what you can do is gather all your containers up
and dump all of the soil into one bin.
It could be a wheelbarrow or some other larger type of a tub.
(14:54):
Dump all of your soil in there. Mix it up really really well.
Add whatever nutrients or compost or worm castings you
need back into that before sorting it back out to your
plats again. Now, do you have to do that now?
No. You could dump all that soil
into a container that you tuck away for the rest of the winter
(15:15):
in the corner somewhere. And you can scrub all your
containers and put them up to store.
Or if you're not worried about, you know, containers cracking or
freezing or anything in the winter, you can just kind of
stuck stack them up somewhere out of the way and bring them
back out and do that in the spring.
So just know that what you do with your containers really has
to do with how long that soil has been in that container, how
(15:37):
many times you sort of refreshedit over the last couple of
years, and what your disease pressure has been as to whether
or not you want to dump them outand clean them and start fresh
again in the spring. OK.
For the rest of us, once your beds are mostly cleared out,
this is where that soil of magickind of starts to happen because
(15:58):
obviously healthy soil means healthy plants next year and
fall is one of the best times tobuild that soil health.
We want to give whatever we are adding to our soil plenty of
time to break down, to feed the soil microbes, but also for
those microbes to be able to break down those amendments that
(16:19):
we're adding into a form that iswater soluble and easy for our
plants in the spring to take up.That is why I always emphasize
if you are building new beds that you really are better off
doing it in the fall so that youcan Add all those soil
components and let them break down and be ready to plant into
(16:40):
in the spring. It is much, much better for your
plants. So for your existing beds, fall
is a really great time to do a soil test.
OK, this is a great time to not just if you know, if you want to
do an off the counter, off the counter, off the shelf, it's an
over the counter test, an off the shelf test to test your
(17:03):
soil. That's fine.
That's going to give you mainly those big three macro nutrients,
your nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
It's also likely going to tell you what your pH is and that's
going to give you an idea of what adjustments you need to
make for your plants that are going to be coming in the
spring. Now keep in mind nitrogen can
(17:23):
fluctuate widely based on the soil temperature and how moist
the soil is and you know, all kinds of different things.
So the nitrogen, oftentimes if you are a pretty intensive
gardener, you are going to likely always be low on nitrogen
because that really is the nutrient that the majority of
(17:45):
our plants kind of tend to take up the most and what we have a
hard time supplementing. So don't be surprised if it
seems like every single time youtest that you're low on
nitrogen, kind of let your plants be the guide on that.
Don't overdo it with the nitrogen amendments, but you
know, don't let your plants be lacking either.
And again, this is a great time to make adjustments before
(18:06):
planting in the spring. If you can take a soil sample
and send it to your local Extension Service, well, that's
any of a better idea because youcan get a lot of information out
of those tests. And in most instances, you can
choose the level of information that you want to get back right
down to telling them, hey, I am growing vegetables.
(18:27):
Give me all the recommendations for how to fix whatever problems
it is that you find. And they'll tell you the number
of pounds per acre or in, you know, in the instance of a home
garden, they might say per 100 square feet that you would need
to add in order to make these adjustments.
And they'll even give you recommendations of what types of
amendments you should use so youknow you can pay more to get
(18:51):
more information. You can pay more to have them.
Also look at the micronutrients.If you're testing your soil
using an off the shelf test and it always seems to come back
where all of your major, you know, nutrients seem to be doing
well. They're in normal ranges, but
your plants still seem to struggle, especially in an in
(19:13):
ground bed. Then there might be something
else going on. Your area might be deficient in
something specific, a specific micronutrient that is affecting
how your plants take up those other macro nutrients.
So while that's not as common, it is very possible in certain
areas you're short on boron or you're short on, you know,
(19:36):
magnesium or whatever. So number one, you can usually
look that up on your Extension Service website and find out if
there is a deficiency in your area.
But this is also the opportunitythat you can take to send a soil
sample into your local ExtensionService and have them check it
out for you. OK.
No matter how you do it, who youget it from, what do you do?
(19:56):
This is the time when you want to sort of amend and feed.
There are certain amendments that I use in the garden every
single year without fail, regardless of what my soil tests
tell me. And the first one is compost,
just because. It does more than add nutrients.
(20:18):
And as a matter of fact, in a lot of cases, your compost
doesn't necessarily have a ton of nutrients in it.
You're not going to see huge spikes of nitrogen in most cases
from your compost unless you're using like an aged manure, a
composted manure and there's nothing else mixed into it,
right then you're really going to see nitrogen.
(20:39):
But compost in general from foodscraps and yard waste and what
we normally would get from our municipal compost is really a
more so about the organic matterand the texture of that soil.
And then it's about feeding the soil.
So I always add compost no matter what my soil tests are
(21:00):
saying. Worm castings are another really
good one for this. It's, it is adding nutrients,
but it's also adding that sort of material that the microbiome
likes to feed off of. And also the bonus with worm
castings is it also tracks more worms.
And we always want that. So if you can get your hands on
(21:20):
compost or worm castings or justsome composted, you know, horse
manure or animal manure of some sort that has been mixed with
other things, then that is something that I always add just
in general. Now, if your soil test is coming
back and it's showing low in very specific nutrients, then
there are slow release amendments that you can add to
(21:44):
your soil to take care of certain problems.
So bone meal, rock phosphate, green sand, all of these things
are going to help with nitrogen,phosphorus, potassium.
The I will link to the episodes that I have done that are
talking about which amendments you should use for which thing
and which ones are slow release.Because we want the slow release
ones in the fall, we want them to get the chance to break down.
(22:06):
But if you need to do another amendment again in the spring,
there are other ones that are fast release that breakdown more
quickly that you can use at thatpoint.
So in case you either under amend in the fall, you don't
quite get it to where it needs to be, you can take a test in
the spring again to kind of see where things are AT and and make
(22:26):
some adjustments then as well. But I always recommend starting
this process in the fall, especially if you have not
amended for quite some time. If you are a newer gardener and
soil health or nutrients are sort of a new concept for you or
a new subject for you, then you might not have been doing
(22:48):
anything in terms of feeding your soil and thereby feeding
your plants. And you may be in your third
season of gardening and now all of a sudden you're starting to
see not all the plants are doingas well as they used to, or
you're starting to get more insect predation.
The plants seem a little bit weaker than they used to be.
And oftentimes this is because we have been taking things out
(23:11):
of that soil. The plants have been pulling
nutrients from the soil and we haven't been adding anything
back in. So now is a really good time to
kind of figure out what's going on with your soil and go ahead
and amend it and feed it. And then the third thing that we
want to do at that point is cover that soil.
Bare soil is not healthy. It is.
It's just, it's not good. There is nowhere in nature that
(23:35):
you're going to look out and seebare soil unless there is
something unhealthy going on. There has been a fire, there has
been a flood, there has been something catastrophic that has
come through and wiped that out.Generally speaking, there is
going to be something covering that soil.
It's either going to be leaves that have fallen from the trees
or it's going to be these advantageous plants that come in
(23:57):
and sprout. Usually, you know, they're,
they're what we consider fast growing weeds, but they're going
to come in and they're going to sprout in that bare soil.
Or it is an area that is not advantageous for plant growth.
So maybe directly underneath a tree that also has allelopathic
properties like walnut that gives off an exudate that keeps
(24:18):
plants from growing, right. Those are all special
circumstances in nature where wesee open soil, which means we
shouldn't be doing it in our garden.
So we want to cover that soil with mulch, shredded leaves,
throw a winter cover crop out there like a Crimson Clover or a
rye or something, anything that you can do to protect the soil
(24:39):
from erosion. It's also going to help keep
those beneficial organisms active through the winter.
So if we are adding amendments and we want those organisms to
help breakdown those amendments and get those nutrients
available to the soil and to ourplants through the winter, then
we need to protect them, right? So covering the soil is going to
(25:01):
help do this. This is also very helpful too,
if you are gardening in raised planters, so you have a lower
volume of soil that's, you know,obviously not in the ground and
you want to get an early start in the spring.
Protecting that soil is also going to help with the
(25:21):
temperature regulation as well. You're going to slow down that
freeze thaw cycle a little bit, OK.
And this is, of course is especially important if you have
any overwinter crops out there too.
You definitely want to be mulching.
All right. So, you know, I don't care how
you do it if it's if it's a straw mulch, if it's shredded
leaves, if you're putting a winter cover crop out there
there if you are just chopping and dropping what you grew
(25:45):
because it was healthy. So we're going to circle back to
that first tip, right? That is a way that you can
protect the soil. Chop it off at the soil line,
let it fall down, let it lay there and start to break down
over the winter time. You're protecting the soil and
you're also feeding it at the same time.
(26:06):
OK, so those are all the things that we should all be doing out
in our garden to clean up for fall, myself included.
But what if you are running out of time before the ground really
starts to freeze out there or you've just run out of energy?
And honestly, who hasn't by thistime in November?
Then you can absolutely take, I don't want to call it the lazy
(26:27):
gardener approach. We're going to call it the
efficient gardener approach. OK, easy peasy.
Get out there. As long as the plant debris is
not diseased, cut those plants off at soil level.
Just let them drop on top of thesoil, throw some compost over
top of that, throw some mulch onover top of that and walk away.
Seriously. All right, if you just do that,
(26:51):
you're going to protect the soillife.
You're going to feed the microbes, and honestly, it's
going to make your spring clean up a little bit easier.
You might have some more things to do in the spring at that
point to get ready for the season.
That might be when you end up having to do your soil test and
check and make sure that your fertility is doing OK.
But if you just do the bare minimum of cutting down those
(27:11):
plants and then adding some compost and then mulching over
the top of that, I promise you, it's really, really going to
make things easier for you in the spring.
So don't think of garden cleanupas like the end of the season.
Think of it as just tucking yourgarden away for a well deserved
nap. Your future self is going to
thank you when you open up thosebeds next spring and you find
(27:34):
rich, workable soil that is justready to go.
Until next time, my gardening friends, keep on cultivating
that dream garden, and we'll talk again soon.
All right, my gardening friends,today we are talking about one
of my least favorite, but probably most important fall
garden rituals, and that is the great garden cleanup.
And I mean, I really should appreciate this a bit more
because this is the part of the year where we get to close 1
chapter of the garden season andstart very quietly writing the
(00:21):
next chapter. Now that most of the chaos of
the garden is done, it is the time to be putting things in
order, protecting the soil and setting ourselves up for success
for next spring. So today I'm just grow
something. We're talking about what to
remove and what to leave in yourgarden beds.
How to handle diseased or pest infested plant material, Your
(00:46):
best practices for soil testing,amending, protecting your beds
over the winter time. And also a few tips for the
gardeners who really have just had it for now.
And maybe you don't want to completely clear everything out
and do the soil testing and amending and all the things in
this moment because I feel you. Let's dig in.
(01:07):
Hey, I'm. Karen and what started as a
small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong
passion for growing food. Now as a market farmer and
horticulturist, I want to help you do the same.
On this podcast, I am your friend in the garden teaching
evidence based techniques to help you grow your favorites and
build confidence in your own garden space.
So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
(01:29):
just grow something. Let's start with why this garden
cleanup step is so important. When we harvest the last of our
tomatoes or our beans or whatever the final things are
that come out of the garden in the late fall and really signal
(01:51):
the end of the season, what's left behind is more than just
debris. It's kind of the organic matter
telling the story of what happened in our garden the
entire season. But if we don't manage that
material correctly, especially if we have had heavy pest
(02:14):
infestations or diseases that wehave, you know, had, it can
really harbor fungal spores, insect eggs or overwintering
adults of those pests and bacterial diseases that are
going to overwinter in the soil or in that debris.
So garden cleanup isn't just about tidiness, although that is
(02:39):
part of it. Because I'm telling you, the
kitchen gardens have looked an absolute disaster for multiple
months now and I'm honestly getting tired of looking at it.
So yes, it is partly about tidiness, but it really is more
about breaking up that pest and disease cycle.
So by removing that debris or bycomposting it safely, then we
(03:02):
can sort of help to prevent chews like early blight or
powdery mildew or the squash vine borers or the cucumber
beetles or whatever from showingup as fiercely next season.
OK. And so this really is super,
super important if we have seen any types of diseases or pests,
(03:24):
and there are very few of us gardeners who don't see
something like that in some partof our garden.
The other reason that this can be very important is we don't
want, even if it's healthy tissue to kind of be going to
waste. And we don't want to leave our
soil sort of just bare and exposed for the entire winter.
(03:47):
So even if we're not concerned about harboring diseases or
pests in that plant debris, we do want to take some steps to
recover the nutrients that are still in that dead and dying
plant material and utilize it insome way, shape or form, but
also to maybe add some nutrientsback into the soil and protect
(04:10):
that soil throughout the winter time.
OK, so we'll start with like what we should be removing or
maybe what to leave in our garden beds.
And absolutely the first thing to go is going to be that
diseased plant material. Anything showing signs of
disease should be pulled and discarded started.
(04:31):
And we really don't want to be composting this unless we are
hot composting and that means that your compost is getting to
140°F or higher. The reason that we don't want to
compost this if we are doing a cold compost is because it's
very unlikely that those plant diseases are going to die off in
(04:56):
a cool compost situation. And so all we're doing is
basically giving it a little home for the winter to hang out.
And if it's even warmer in that pile than it is out in the
garden, that you might actually be growing some of those
diseases in your compost pile. So just understand how your
compost pile works and know thatif you have very diseased, a
(05:19):
little bit of disease here and there is not going to be that
big of a deal, right? If you can chop it up and mix it
in there, then, you know, don't panic about that.
But if you have severely diseased plants, absolutely,
please do not compost that. You want to discard it and you
want to discard it in a manner where hopefully it's not ending
up in a landfill. So if you have a municipal
pickup of some sort that picks up material and takes it to a
(05:43):
commercial compost posting thingwhere it does get usually 160°
or higher, then you should be fine.
OK, so any of our spent annuals,the tomato plants, Peppers,
cucumber, squash, whatever, all of those plants that are done
with their production should be checked for diseases and if they
are diseased they should be pulled.
The other thing that you should pull and not compost would be
(06:05):
any weeds that have gone to seed.
So we don't want that seed bank waiting around for us in the
spring to just go ahead and sprout Willy nilly.
This includes again in your compost pile because if it's not
getting to that higher temperature, it's not going to
kill off those seeds. So you're just going to be
(06:25):
spreading that compost back out into your garden and spreading
those seeds to go along with it.I have no problem with you
composting weeds. I think it's fantastic so long
as they're not diseased, right? And it's all green material.
It's all got nutrients in it that can break down and be added
back into our soil. We just don't want the seeds
from those weeds. So those should be something
(06:46):
that you do pull and remove. Now what can stay is any healthy
plant material and yes, that includes the weeds.
So if you have spent annuals that look perfectly fine at the
end of the season, just drop them, chop them off at the base
at the soil level and you can just drop them in place.
(07:06):
So this is going to do a couple of things.
Number one, this is going to addorganic matter back into the
soil from the top down South. Everything that's healthy is
going to get returned into the soil.
Chop it down, let it lay down. If you do it that way, it's also
acting like a mulch. So this is going to protect that
(07:27):
soil from erosion, whether it's from wind or rain or whatever.
If you are chopping these at thesoil line, that means you are
also leaving the root systems inplace.
So if you cut up the soil surface and you leave those
roots in place, they're going todecompose naturally, which means
they are feeding those soil microbes and they are improving
(07:52):
the structure. The bonus to this is if those
roots are the root systems of a legume, so you grew beans or
peas or something in that family, then there are nodules
in place on those roots, and those nodules are what are
holding nitrogen. So you are actually returning
(08:14):
nitrogen or adding nitrogen to the soil because that nitrogen
didn't necessarily come from thesoil to begin with.
Those nitrogen fixing plants that are in the legume family
are pulling atmospheric nitrogeninto their systems and those
nodules are converting that intoa form that the plant can use.
It also means that it's stored in those nodules.
(08:36):
So when the plant is no longer using it, IE you've cut it down,
those nodules get to breakdown and decompose naturally and
they're going to release that nitrogen into the soil for next
season's plants to be able to use.
So you're feeding the soil microbes, you're improving the
soil structure, and you're adding nitrogen in this instance
if it's a legume, back into the soil.
(08:57):
So that is all really, really important.
The only ones that you may not want to leave in terms of the
root system might be something from things like corn, where it
gets a really hard base to it and the roots don't seem to be
the real fibrous roots. They seem to be the real, real
(09:20):
hard roots that kind of come outof the soil.
In that instance, you might wantto go ahead and pull that,
especially since when we're cutting it, you know, sometimes
you're leaving the base of that stalk right there in the soil,
and that can be very, very hard.It actually isn't bad to leave
it there over the winter time tohold the soil in place, but you
(09:40):
might find in the spring when you go to plant that you still
have the remains of that rootstock sort of sitting there.
So you may find that you have toremove it at that point.
That's entirely up to you. I have left it in place over the
season and just dumped straw over top just to kind of keep
things in place, but found that I've had to come back and
(10:01):
actually remove the large bits of that rootstock in the spring.
So you have to decide whether that's worth it to you.
But everything else, absolutely any of your annuals, you want to
go ahead and do that if you haveperennials or you have biennials
that are are capable of overwintering, right.
So you know, things like your your kale or your collards or
(10:26):
your spinach that obviously can overwinter in the more milder
climates without a problem. Obviously you want to go ahead
and leave those, especially onesthat are going to pop back up
again in the spring, to start growing again and give you an
early spring harvest. Parsley is considered a
biennial, so it's going to do the same thing.
You can use that, leave it in place.
It's going to pop back up for you in the spring and give you
(10:47):
another burst of growth before it decides to go to seed.
And if you have perennial flowers and things or herbs that
are in the garden, we're going to want to leave those.
But you might also want to leavethe seed heads on those.
Oftentimes, even if those seed heads aren't necessarily
spreading those crops for us, they are helping to feed the
(11:10):
birds over the winter time. And so you're helping the
wildlife at the same time that you're, you know, kind of
helping hold the soil in place and you're helping that plant
along. And you might be spreading it,
too. OK.
But if any of those perennials were sort of diseased at all
during the season, this is your opportunity to sort of cut
things back, clear them out and give them a fresh start for the
(11:33):
spring. So things that go are anything
that was diseased, anything thatmight be insect infested,
anything that has seeds on it that we don't want spreading, IE
weed seeds, but things that stay, any healthy plant
material, the root systems of our non diseased annuals and any
of your perennials and biennialsto include the seed heads that
(11:56):
are on those. OK, so let's talk about our soil
health and what we can be doing right now to be sort of prepping
ourselves for next season. And this is a really good time
to mention my container gardeners.
If you are growing in mainly small containers, and I'm
talking like pots or tubs that you know, can be maneuvered or
(12:21):
moved around during the garden season.
Maybe it's not, you know, a raised planter that's out in
your bed that contains large amounts of soil, but it's it's
something on your deck or on your patio.
This might be a good time to empty out those containers,
depending on the age of the soil.
So if this is soil that you havehad in that container for
(12:42):
multiple seasons and you have just sort of refreshed it every
year by maybe adding some worm castings or you have just fed
the plants really, really well. This might be a good time to
sort of knockout the old soil, remove the roots, scrub the
containers really well, and thenmaybe put them up for storage.
There are a few reasons why thismight be a good idea #1 if you
(13:04):
are having any sort of disease pressure in these containers,
making sure that they've been cleaned out really, really well
and then just putting them away to store them for the rest of
the winter can actually help to prevent fungal buildup.
So if you are continuing to see the same sort of fungal diseases
hitting your plants every singleyear in these containers, there
(13:25):
might be a good reason for that.This would be a good time to
kind of dump it out and really do a good sanitation.
This also helps keep some of your pots from cracking in the
freezing temperatures if that's been an issue for you before
too. But also when we have the same
soil that is being used over andover again and we're feeding
that soil because obviously you need to do that in the much
(13:49):
smaller containers more frequently than you would in in
ground bed or even a raised planter.
Often times, depending on the fertilizer that you are using or
the plant food that you're using, you can get a salt
buildup. And this is actually very
detrimental to the plants that are starting to grow in there.
And you can see this by looking at sort of the edges of the pot,
(14:10):
right at the soil line. You'll see a sort of white
buildup that is quite literally salt.
It's a saline buildup. So it's a good idea to rotate
that soil out as well. Now, if it's fairly new soil,
you don't necessarily have to dothis if you just refilled these
pots this year. I'm not one for replacing your
soil every single season becausenumber one, that's expensive and
(14:33):
it's kind of a waste, right? But if you've seen any problems
or you want to make it easy on yourself to sort of refresh that
soil, then what you can do is gather all your containers up
and dump all of the soil into one bin.
It could be a wheelbarrow or some other larger type of a tub.
(14:54):
Dump all of your soil in there. Mix it up really really well.
Add whatever nutrients or compost or worm castings you
need back into that before sorting it back out to your
plats again. Now, do you have to do that now?
No. You could dump all that soil
into a container that you tuck away for the rest of the winter
(15:15):
in the corner somewhere. And you can scrub all your
containers and put them up to store.
Or if you're not worried about, you know, containers cracking or
freezing or anything in the winter, you can just kind of
stuck stack them up somewhere out of the way and bring them
back out and do that in the spring.
So just know that what you do with your containers really has
to do with how long that soil has been in that container, how
(15:37):
many times you sort of refreshedit over the last couple of
years, and what your disease pressure has been as to whether
or not you want to dump them outand clean them and start fresh
again in the spring. OK.
For the rest of us, once your beds are mostly cleared out,
this is where that soil of magickind of starts to happen because
(15:58):
obviously healthy soil means healthy plants next year and
fall is one of the best times tobuild that soil health.
We want to give whatever we are adding to our soil plenty of
time to break down, to feed the soil microbes, but also for
those microbes to be able to break down those amendments that
(16:19):
we're adding into a form that iswater soluble and easy for our
plants in the spring to take up.That is why I always emphasize
if you are building new beds that you really are better off
doing it in the fall so that youcan Add all those soil
components and let them break down and be ready to plant into
(16:40):
in the spring. It is much, much better for your
plants. So for your existing beds, fall
is a really great time to do a soil test.
OK, this is a great time to not just if you know, if you want to
do an off the counter, off the counter, off the shelf, it's an
over the counter test, an off the shelf test to test your
(17:03):
soil. That's fine.
That's going to give you mainly those big three macro nutrients,
your nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
It's also likely going to tell you what your pH is and that's
going to give you an idea of what adjustments you need to
make for your plants that are going to be coming in the
spring. Now keep in mind nitrogen can
(17:23):
fluctuate widely based on the soil temperature and how moist
the soil is and you know, all kinds of different things.
So the nitrogen, oftentimes if you are a pretty intensive
gardener, you are going to likely always be low on nitrogen
because that really is the nutrient that the majority of
(17:45):
our plants kind of tend to take up the most and what we have a
hard time supplementing. So don't be surprised if it
seems like every single time youtest that you're low on
nitrogen, kind of let your plants be the guide on that.
Don't overdo it with the nitrogen amendments, but you
know, don't let your plants be lacking either.
And again, this is a great time to make adjustments before
(18:06):
planting in the spring. If you can take a soil sample
and send it to your local Extension Service, well, that's
any of a better idea because youcan get a lot of information out
of those tests. And in most instances, you can
choose the level of information that you want to get back right
down to telling them, hey, I am growing vegetables.
(18:27):
Give me all the recommendations for how to fix whatever problems
it is that you find. And they'll tell you the number
of pounds per acre or in, you know, in the instance of a home
garden, they might say per 100 square feet that you would need
to add in order to make these adjustments.
And they'll even give you recommendations of what types of
amendments you should use so youknow you can pay more to get
(18:51):
more information. You can pay more to have them.
Also look at the micronutrients.If you're testing your soil
using an off the shelf test and it always seems to come back
where all of your major, you know, nutrients seem to be doing
well. They're in normal ranges, but
your plants still seem to struggle, especially in an in
(19:13):
ground bed. Then there might be something
else going on. Your area might be deficient in
something specific, a specific micronutrient that is affecting
how your plants take up those other macro nutrients.
So while that's not as common, it is very possible in certain
areas you're short on boron or you're short on, you know,
(19:36):
magnesium or whatever. So number one, you can usually
look that up on your Extension Service website and find out if
there is a deficiency in your area.
But this is also the opportunitythat you can take to send a soil
sample into your local ExtensionService and have them check it
out for you. OK.
No matter how you do it, who youget it from, what do you do?
(19:56):
This is the time when you want to sort of amend and feed.
There are certain amendments that I use in the garden every
single year without fail, regardless of what my soil tests
tell me. And the first one is compost,
just because. It does more than add nutrients.
(20:18):
And as a matter of fact, in a lot of cases, your compost
doesn't necessarily have a ton of nutrients in it.
You're not going to see huge spikes of nitrogen in most cases
from your compost unless you're using like an aged manure, a
composted manure and there's nothing else mixed into it,
right then you're really going to see nitrogen.
(20:39):
But compost in general from foodscraps and yard waste and what
we normally would get from our municipal compost is really a
more so about the organic matterand the texture of that soil.
And then it's about feeding the soil.
So I always add compost no matter what my soil tests are
(21:00):
saying. Worm castings are another really
good one for this. It's, it is adding nutrients,
but it's also adding that sort of material that the microbiome
likes to feed off of. And also the bonus with worm
castings is it also tracks more worms.
And we always want that. So if you can get your hands on
(21:20):
compost or worm castings or justsome composted, you know, horse
manure or animal manure of some sort that has been mixed with
other things, then that is something that I always add just
in general. Now, if your soil test is coming
back and it's showing low in very specific nutrients, then
there are slow release amendments that you can add to
(21:44):
your soil to take care of certain problems.
So bone meal, rock phosphate, green sand, all of these things
are going to help with nitrogen,phosphorus, potassium.
The I will link to the episodes that I have done that are
talking about which amendments you should use for which thing
and which ones are slow release.Because we want the slow release
ones in the fall, we want them to get the chance to break down.
(22:06):
But if you need to do another amendment again in the spring,
there are other ones that are fast release that breakdown more
quickly that you can use at thatpoint.
So in case you either under amend in the fall, you don't
quite get it to where it needs to be, you can take a test in
the spring again to kind of see where things are AT and and make
(22:26):
some adjustments then as well. But I always recommend starting
this process in the fall, especially if you have not
amended for quite some time. If you are a newer gardener and
soil health or nutrients are sort of a new concept for you or
a new subject for you, then you might not have been doing
(22:48):
anything in terms of feeding your soil and thereby feeding
your plants. And you may be in your third
season of gardening and now all of a sudden you're starting to
see not all the plants are doingas well as they used to, or
you're starting to get more insect predation.
The plants seem a little bit weaker than they used to be.
And oftentimes this is because we have been taking things out
(23:11):
of that soil. The plants have been pulling
nutrients from the soil and we haven't been adding anything
back in. So now is a really good time to
kind of figure out what's going on with your soil and go ahead
and amend it and feed it. And then the third thing that we
want to do at that point is cover that soil.
Bare soil is not healthy. It is.
It's just, it's not good. There is nowhere in nature that
(23:35):
you're going to look out and seebare soil unless there is
something unhealthy going on. There has been a fire, there has
been a flood, there has been something catastrophic that has
come through and wiped that out.Generally speaking, there is
going to be something covering that soil.
It's either going to be leaves that have fallen from the trees
or it's going to be these advantageous plants that come in
(23:57):
and sprout. Usually, you know, they're,
they're what we consider fast growing weeds, but they're going
to come in and they're going to sprout in that bare soil.
Or it is an area that is not advantageous for plant growth.
So maybe directly underneath a tree that also has allelopathic
properties like walnut that gives off an exudate that keeps
(24:18):
plants from growing, right. Those are all special
circumstances in nature where wesee open soil, which means we
shouldn't be doing it in our garden.
So we want to cover that soil with mulch, shredded leaves,
throw a winter cover crop out there like a Crimson Clover or a
rye or something, anything that you can do to protect the soil
(24:39):
from erosion. It's also going to help keep
those beneficial organisms active through the winter.
So if we are adding amendments and we want those organisms to
help breakdown those amendments and get those nutrients
available to the soil and to ourplants through the winter, then
we need to protect them, right? So covering the soil is going to
(25:01):
help do this. This is also very helpful too,
if you are gardening in raised planters, so you have a lower
volume of soil that's, you know,obviously not in the ground and
you want to get an early start in the spring.
Protecting that soil is also going to help with the
(25:21):
temperature regulation as well. You're going to slow down that
freeze thaw cycle a little bit, OK.
And this is, of course is especially important if you have
any overwinter crops out there too.
You definitely want to be mulching.
All right. So, you know, I don't care how
you do it if it's if it's a straw mulch, if it's shredded
leaves, if you're putting a winter cover crop out there
there if you are just chopping and dropping what you grew
(25:45):
because it was healthy. So we're going to circle back to
that first tip, right? That is a way that you can
protect the soil. Chop it off at the soil line,
let it fall down, let it lay there and start to break down
over the winter time. You're protecting the soil and
you're also feeding it at the same time.
(26:06):
OK, so those are all the things that we should all be doing out
in our garden to clean up for fall, myself included.
But what if you are running out of time before the ground really
starts to freeze out there or you've just run out of energy?
And honestly, who hasn't by thistime in November?
Then you can absolutely take, I don't want to call it the lazy
(26:27):
gardener approach. We're going to call it the
efficient gardener approach. OK, easy peasy.
Get out there. As long as the plant debris is
not diseased, cut those plants off at soil level.
Just let them drop on top of thesoil, throw some compost over
top of that, throw some mulch onover top of that and walk away.
Seriously. All right, if you just do that,
(26:51):
you're going to protect the soillife.
You're going to feed the microbes, and honestly, it's
going to make your spring clean up a little bit easier.
You might have some more things to do in the spring at that
point to get ready for the season.
That might be when you end up having to do your soil test and
check and make sure that your fertility is doing OK.
But if you just do the bare minimum of cutting down those
(27:11):
plants and then adding some compost and then mulching over
the top of that, I promise you, it's really, really going to
make things easier for you in the spring.
So don't think of garden cleanupas like the end of the season.
Think of it as just tucking yourgarden away for a well deserved
nap. Your future self is going to
thank you when you open up thosebeds next spring and you find
(27:34):
rich, workable soil that is justready to go.
Until next time, my gardening friends, keep on cultivating
that dream garden, and we'll talk again soon.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com