Preparing The Garden Ready for Winter


Every fall for many years, I laboured in my garden for hours digging, weeding, pulling out flowers, and leaving behind a barren soil devoid of any plants at all. I spent many hours of grunt work turning over the soil thinking it needed to be aerated and loosened up. I had no idea that my back-breaking digging turned out to be completely counterproductive.

If I had, had a giant magnifying glass, I would have seen with my own eyes how I was harming the billions of microorganisms and creatures living in the soil. I might have seen earthworms that I exposed to the cold air slowly dying of dehydration or quickly being devoured by predators. As well, I might have crushed beneficial predatory beetles like ground beetles and ground-nesting bees which overwinter in my garden soil.

Sometimes, I saw centipedes and millipedes quickly scurrying to safety. They were able to escape through protective tunnels. But, it turned out with my sharp spade, I was responsible for demolishing these escape tunnels. But, why should I care whether I had creepy looking centipedes and millipedes in crawling around in my garden. Well, it turns out that centipedes keep garden pests that will eat your veggies from exploding! They have claws that are venomous and easily kill garden pests! And, I had no idea that millipedes actually help to fertilize my garden! You may wonder how that is possible. Millipedes chew up fallen leaves, rotting wood, and dead plant litter. Then after digesting the plant matter they will poop out essential minerals for your garden-nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and organic carbon. It turns out that millipede frass (poop) is so highly concentrated with the above minerals, the frass actually breaks down and enriches soil much faster than decaying leaves. (Research Community by Springer Nature, Unravelling the Mystery of Millipede Nutrition: Understanding the Role of their Gut Microbiota)

If I wanted to keep weeds in check, by digging I was doing the exact opposite! By turning over the soil I brought dormant weed seeds to the surface where they started to grow profusely in the sunlight. (Life in the Soil, Natural History Museum)

I always wondered how short roots managed to reach the minerals in the soil that were located far away. Well it turns out that a massive, microscopic network called mycorrhizal fungi connect and intertwine with the roots. The very tiny threads which may grow inside the roots or outside can fit into tiny soil pores that plants cannot reach. They will absorb nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and micro nutrients and deliver them to the plants.

Since the fungi cannot photosynthesize to make its own glucose the plants will provide the mycorrhizal fungi  with 20-30 % of its manufactured carbohydrates and lipids.

As well, this fungal network acting as an extended root system helps plants survive severe droughts. So when I turned over the soil, I tore apart this important fungal network that had taken years to be built up in my soil. (Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Mycorrhizal Fungi, Their Benefits to Plant Health and Roles in Resiliency)I learned if you keep digging quite regularly then the fungi ends up wasting  energy regrowing the damaged network rather than supporting plant growth. Fortunately, plants will still get nutrients from bacteria and beneficial microbes continuing to break down the organic matter and releasing basic nutrients needed by the plants-  but it will not be as efficient as the mycorrhizal fungi. If you stop digging and add organic matter like compost, the mycorrhizal fungal networks will start to repair itself and regrow.(Gardenmyths.com Mycorrhizal Fungi, The Latest Scientific News-Garden Myths) Aug. 10, 20Another advantage of leaving all your plants in the ground is they will help hold the soil in place by holding the soil together with their roots blocking wind and water.So now when I ready my garden bed for winter, all I do is remove all diseased plants and pull out weeds. Then, I place a layer of compost on top of my soil instead of digging, so the worms will have opportunities to pull nutrients down into the soil and feed soil microbes during the winter. I never, ever pull any of the big plant stems as they provide habitats for beneficial insects like native bees and helpful gardens bugs – many insects will lay eggs inside the hardy stalks keeping them safe until spring. In winter hungry winter birds like chickadees, goldfinches, and song sparrows will land on the sturdy  stalks and pick out seeds to eat. All the plants I left in the garden will also help cut down cold winds that will dry out the soil.And, as an added bonus the plants left in the soil will provide you with free fertilizers as the plants break down it will add nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium back into the soil.I now have lots of time to relax and peruse garden magazines highlighting my favourite native plants, cup plants and Gaillardia.













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