Tips For Protecting Your Quincy Garden in Cold Winters

A cover crop, also known as green manure or living mulch, does double – make that triple – duty in the winter garden. First, it protects your soil from harsh winter weather, preventing erosion, compaction and nutrient leaching. Second, it fixes nitrogen in the soil.

There’s a whole scientific explanation behind the “fixing” of nitrogen, but all you really need to know is that cover crops, many of which are legumes, add nitrogen back into your soil, prepping it for spring planting. It’s a great service to soil that has been depleted by hungry feeders like tomatoes. Finally, cover crops improve soil structure by adding organic matter when the crop is dug under in the spring. Yay!

So what do you do in the spring? Watch for flowers: they’re the indicator that it’s time to either dig under your crop or cut it down, leaving the roots in the ground and using the greens for your compost. If you dig under your crop, let the soil rest for three weeks before planting. Enjoy improved soil fertility and structure.

Popular winter cover crops include red clover, hairy vetch, fall rye, fava bean, alfalfa and Austrian winter pea.

According to Science Niche, “The placement of a veil of winter can protect plants little rustic and exotic (bougainvillea, banana, geranium, camellia …) against the cold winds and frosts at night. Directed polypropylene flexible, it is light and transparent and let the plant breathe without damage. It can be used in individual bell completely enveloping a plant or shrub (do not tighten the knot at the base), or flat, placed directly on the crop of an orchard. In this case, the veil can be hung on pegs around or maintained by stones on the edge so they can remove it easily for watering, when time permits. ”

Flower gardening made easy suggests, “Using your yard’s leaves: Consider shredding fall leaves and using them as winter mulch on flower beds. You can also add shredded leaves to the compost pile. In a season or so, they’ll make the best treat your garden soil can have. You can use a chipper shredder, if you have one, or just run your lawn mower over the leaves.”

Contributed in Part by Andrea Bellamy with Heavy Petal

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