Some Ways for Soil to Weather Winter

How we garden is a reflection of our personalities.

For example, take those tidy souls whose vegetable gardens--now with few or no vegetables--must still be neat. Such gardeners put their gardens to bed with a few passes of the rototiller. Weeds are killed, winter quarters for insects and diseases are destroyed, and, perhaps most important to these gardeners, the garden presents itself as a uniform, smooth surface.

But thoroughly pulverized is not a good way for the soil to go into winter. Raindrops pounding on the bare surface will pound it into concrete and, on sloping gardens, erode topsoil.

What about gardeners at the other end of the spectrum, those lax souls who do nothing at all at the end of the season? Here, Brussels sprouts’ stalks and tomato plants draped with blackened leaves remain as relics of the past season, buried among weeds. At least the soil surface here is protected from pelting raindrops. And weeds do enrich the soil with humus.

The do-nothing approach has its drawbacks, though. Come spring, something has to be done, usually rototilling or hand-digging. This is going to delay planting, frustrating gardeners itching to plant early.

Another problem is pests. Perennial weeds that get a foothold in the fall are just that much harder to remove in spring. And annual weeds spread seeds, over 50,000 from a single purslane plant, for example. The standing remains of last year’s vegetable plants also can harbor insects and diseases.

There are other possibilities between the do-nothing and do-too-much approaches.

In fall, hand-digging is better for the soil than rototilling because you can--and should--leave large clumps of soil. These clumps will break apart by spring. If hand-digging sounds like too much work, go ahead and rototill, but do it minimally.

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Some gardeners choose not to till their soil at all, thwarting weeds instead with a year-round blanket of organic mulch such as compost, straw or leaves. This blanket protects the surface and, through the action of worms, eventually mixes with and enriches the soil. No tilling or digging is necessary. Just pull out or knock over standing plants, then lay down the mulch. Put down a thick enough layer to smother weeds.

One disadvantage of mulch is that it is an insulator, so it delays soil warming in spring. Also, you cannot plant small seeds directly in mulch. Gardeners can get around these pitfalls by pulling back a thin strip of mulch right where they are going to sow seeds. Or remove the mulch early in spring, temporarily, until the soil warms up.

If you use compost as mulch, you can sow seeds directly in it in spring. No need to pull this mulch aside to let the soil warm, because the compost itself becomes the soil for planting.