The last potatoes have been collected and stored; only lamb's lettuce and picking lettuce as well as winter spinach grow in the autumn sun. It's time to winterize the bed and get it ready for the next harvest season.

Heavy soil should be dug up in the fall

The Last Harvest

Cucumbers, herbs and aubergines are harvested in good time before impending night frosts. You should also bring celeriac and beets into the house and store them.

Tomatoes and peppers continue to develop flowers and fruit in frost-free weather. These are only picked when the first night frost is reported. Place the fruit in a sunny window, where they will ripen a little longer. Alternatively, you can cook a delicious jam from unripe tomatoes, which enriches the winter menu with its exquisite aroma.

Digging or better not?

Whether you dig up the bed completely or just loosen it up a little depends on the structure of the soil:

  • Heavy soils are dug up because otherwise there is a risk of silting up. Loosen the bed with a spade about 20 centimeters deep. This allows frost to spread through the ground. Due to the expansion of the water, the clods of earth break up (frost-proof) and in the next spring the earth is finely crumbly.
  • Normal soils, on the other hand, are loosened a little with the digging fork. Take this opportunity to work in some manure or mature compost.

Green manure for strong vegetable plants

With green manure you can give the harvested vegetable patch new strength for the next gardening year. Sow:

  • Yellow Lupine
  • Persian clover
  • yellow mustard
  • or Phacelia.

These plants grow quickly, loosen the soil with their roots and can be incorporated after a few weeks when digging. The soil organisms convert the green manure into humus and release valuable nutrients in the process.

The right winter protection

A protective mulch layer made of straw, leaves or crop residues protects the soil in the cold season and provides it with additional nutrients.

tips

Apart from green manure or some incorporated compost, no additional fertilization is necessary in autumn. Fertilize only in spring, when you are preparing the bed for the next harvest season.

Category:

Vegetable garden