Weed your garden now to prepare for planting next spring
November 30, 2011
Lee Reich
ASSOCIATED PRESS
So long as the ground isn’t already frozen, it’s still possible to do some preparation for next spring’s planting.
WEED NOW, PLAY LATER
Start by weeding. No need to recoil at the mere thought of weeding, as you might have done in summer. Weeding this time of year can be quite enjoyable because the weather is too cool and the sun too low for new weeds to quickly replace pulled ones. Fall weeding is a relatively leisurely activity, a good excuse for fresh air and exercise.
If you’re going to till to rid the garden of weeds, you could even do that now. Don’t till as you would in spring, though, reducing the soil to pebble-size bits in which to snuggle seeds. That would result in a sea of spring mud.
Instead, till just enough to uproot weeds and leave the soil rough. The ideal tool for this job is not a rototiller, but a spade or digging fork. Freezing and thawing in the next few months will weaken the large clumps left after rough digging. Come spring, merely tickling the clumps with a garden rake will break them apart to create a nice seedbed.
TOO ACIDIC OR ALKALINE?
Because you took nutrients from the soil when you harvested vegetables, you also must feed it.
Before you do that, though, limestone might be needed to lower soil acidity.
Sulphur, a naturally mined mineral, can be used where soils are too alkaline. Maintaining correct acidity (or its converse, alkalinity) is important because if it’s out of kilter, plants cannot use certain nutrients even if they are there in the soil.
Check if your soil acidity needs correction by buying an inexpensive home testing kit.
FOOD FOR SOIL
Now go ahead and feed the soil. As with the test for acidity, a soil nutrient test can tell you how much and what kinds of fertilizers are needed. Or you could play the averages and apply what’s probably, rather than exactly, needed.
If you have a very green thumb and have shown it over the years by giving your garden plenty of compost — a couple centimetres or more each year over all planted areas — you can forget about having to fertilize. That amount of compost will supply everything your plants need to grow next year, not only the essential “big three” — nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium — emblazoned on fertilizer bags, but also a smorgasbord of other foods that plants need in lesser amounts.
If you don’t feed your soil with compost but do at least add plenty of organic materials each year, such as autumn leaves or strawy manure, you’ve still given your garden a good feeding. The only food for which your soil might be hungry then would probably be nitrogen. This can be supplied by any nitrogen fertilizer.
My favourite nitrogen fertilizer is soybean meal. Advantages of soybean meal over “chemical fertilizers” are: It does not wash out of the soil through winter; it is released slowly into the soil through summer, so does not need to be reapplied until next year at this time; and it’s cheap.
There, now you’ve shown thanks to your garden. You’ll also be thanking yourself, come spring, when the ground lies ready, the soil mellow and rich, just waiting for your seeds and transplants.