Getting Our Gardens Ready For Winter

The weather is changing and the nights are getting colder so it’s time to put the gardens to bed for the winter. Pun intended because all my gardens are raised beds.

Since I don’t have the funds to spend on gardening this time of year I have to get creative on ways to get what I’ need to get the job done.

First I added 2 to 3 inches of soil dug from around the beds in the chickens run or from the center raised bed that is used for composting. Next layer is dried grass followed by coffee grounds then leaves I raked up from a yard that the owner never uses any chemicals on plants or trees. All items were free- coffee grounds came from a friend and rest took a little labor and time.

Over the winter I’ll be add compost items to the beds as well. Doing this now will give the items some time to break down and some of nutrients will be available next spring when I plant the garden again.

Hopefully soon I’ll get another truck load of horse manure like last year it really helped my gardens this year because most of it was fairly broke down when we got it.

You can get creative too about items to use in your garden. Ask family, friends and neighbors for leaves, grass clippings, manure, etc. Sometimes you find compost items on Craigslist. Most people who raise animals are happy to get rid of manure too.

​Blessings