Maximizing Your Horticultural Effectiveness In The Off-Season
There are many things you can do when winter comes for your garden. Just because it’s the off-season doesn’t mean you can’t maximize your harvest next year. Following we’ll briefly explore five tips to help you get your garden at its most fruitful even before the snow melts.
1. Clean And Cover In The Off-Season
Once you’ve harvested your garden, and the seasons have changed, it’s time to clean the premises of any debris. You want soil, seeds, plants, and water. You don’t want a lot of unnecessary brush.
However, if you leave the garden “naked” to the elements, this will impact how well you can make it grow the following year. The solution? Cover with mulch. When the snow melts, just rake the mulch away and begin things anew.
2. Start Seedlings Indoors With Egg Cartons And Mint Tins
Some seedlings are sensitive, and some environments are downright hostile. Egg cartons, mint tins, cookie tins, and other common household items can be used as improvised planters in which you can carefully nurture seedlings while it’s cold outside.
Then, when the season changes, you can drop them in the ground past the germination phase and see them grow stronger and more fruitful much more quickly than had you started the process outdoors.
3. Plan And Install Wildlife Barriers During The Cold Season
Deer, rabbits, and other wildlife local to your area will likely be interested in your garden once it begins to bloom. If you don’t factor them in, they could ruin your garden while you sleep. Generally, they come around at night—though sometimes you’ll catch them pestering your plants in the day. During winter, install varying barriers to impede their entry.
As there are scarecrows which frighten ravens away from cornfields, you can use motion-activated sprinklers to frighten deer. There are varying methods here, at this site you can finda few suggestions to frighten away deer naturally without having a negative impact on them, your neighbors, or your garden.
4. Plant As Long As The Ground Is Soft Enough To Manipulate
Some things can be planted as the season ends, such as garlic or onions. Similarly, you can plant bulbs like these as soon as the ground is soft enough, even if the seasons haven’t quite made the transition yet. There are My Seed Needs seed collections of all kinds which can be more or less appropriate to a region in this regard.
When you’ve got a larger “surface area” of available seedlings, you can maximize your potential through planting prior or post-season, depending on the plants and your region. In some places this won’t be much of an option owing to things like permafrost. Consult with local gardeners more experienced than you for regionalized tips and tricks you can rely on.
5. Add Appropriate Compost, Try To Keep It Under Three Inches
Compost acts as a fertilizing agent, giving plants what they need for greatest success. However, you’ve got to do things in a balanced way. Did you know you can drown certain plants in too much water?There certainly are certain plants which can’t be overwatered; but many can be damaged if you’re not careful.
Well, it’s just the same with fertilization methods like composting. You don’t have to add as much as three inches of compost to the soil; but try not to add more than three inches. This seems to be a balanced amount for best growth when the season is in full swing.
Expanding Your Garden’s Potential
Horticulture is a year-round undertaking, if you’re doing it right. Certainly what you do will shift as the seasons do, but that doesn’t mean all gardening work disappears. For best results on your winter garden, you’ll want to use a few well-known best practices.
Add the right amount of compost—no more than three inches. When the ground is soft enough to manipulate, plant the proper flora—get advice locally to know which plants work best. Be sure to install wildlife barriers in the off-season, including technological options if feasible.
Sensitive seedlings should be started indoors. Lastly, clean and cover in the off-season. Tips like these can help you see your garden reach its fullest potential more quickly than you may have thought possible.
