Autumn in the country: top 5 things a gardener needs to do before winter

Summer is behind us, but with the onset of autumn, the summer season is not over yet. The last season period is a time that requires intensive work in the garden, because it is necessary not only to harvest the remaining crop, but also to prepare your plants for the upcoming winter.

Here is a list of actions that must be done before the onset of frost.

We saturate the soil with moisture

Perennial plants can freeze in winter not only because of the low temperature of the soil and air, but also because of dehydration. Fruit trees and shrubs should be watered abundantly in autumn.so that the soil is saturated with moisture 30 cm deep.

This is done in October to be in time before the frost.. If you water in September, this can provoke plant growth, which will negatively affect wintering.

There are two ways to water. The first way is cup. With it, a small “bowl” with an earthen rampart 15 cm high is dug around the trunk and filled with water. When the water is completely absorbed, the “bowl” is poured back. For the second method, a ditch 25 cm deep and 30-40 cm wide is dug around the perimeter of the crown and filled with water 2-3 times before being buried again. The water temperature should be several degrees higher than the air temperature.

We clean up on the site

The second stage of preparing the garden for winter are considered disposal of weeds, fallen leaves, annual plants and other gardening waste, which are a breeding ground for fungi and bacteria. The causative agents of many infections tolerate winter well, and with the onset of spring they quickly switch to healthy plants. All dead, dried, diseased and insect-affected parts of trees and bushes must also be removed with a pruner.

Dry leaves and branches can serve as material for sheltering plants for the winter or for mulch, the tops can be sent to the compost pit. Stems of tomatoes or potatoes, as well as rotting garbage, must be removed from the site or burned.

We warm plants

Many horticultural crops are sensitive to cold and gusty winds – especially for plants in the first year of life. Therefore, their above-ground part must be insulated with a covering material. Wherein it is very important to choose the right time: before the onset of stable frosts, it is impossible to cover the plants, as it is impossible, and it is too late to remove the winter protection. Otherwise, the plantations will rot.

The choice of covering material is also of great importance. For this, roofing material, oilcloth or polyethylene cannot be used – the material must necessarily pass air and moisture, otherwise the plants will die. For small crops, dry foliage is often used (the layer must be at least 10 cm) and spruce branches. To protect creeping plants from decay, spruce branches are also placed under their branches. For taller shrubs and trees, burlap and spunbond are popular. At the same time, it is imperative to leave an air gap between the material and the branches, since frosts, periodically replaced by thaws, can turn the non-woven “cover” into an ice crust.

Even before the onset of cold weather, the ground around trees and bushes within a radius of 60-70 cm must be dug up with a pitchfork to a depth of at least 15 cm. Later, when frost sets in, these trunk circles are mulched, sprinkled with peat, sawdust, rotted manure, compost, or dry leaves. The layer of mulch should be at least 10 cm.

We prepare the beds

After weed removal the soil in the beds is saturated with nutrients, first of all, these are fertilizers with phosphorus and potassium. If the soil is heavy and clayey, then it is additionally sprinkled with ash, sand, compost, leaf humus, which will help it become more waterproof. After saturation of the soil, it is dug up in two ways – non-moldboard and moldboard. In the first case, an earthen lump raised with a shovel is not turned over. Thus, the natural microflora of the soil is preserved. In the second method, the lump is turned over so that the weed seeds are at a depth and cannot germinate, and the pest larvae, on the contrary, are on the surface and die when frost occurs. With none of these methods, a lump of earth is broken so that the soil does not freeze.

Another way to prepare the beds is to sow green manure, that is, plants that enrich the soil with mineral and organic substances. These are sweet clover, white mustard, annual lupine, buckwheat, meadow clover, etc. A month after sowing, the plants are mowed and left to rot in the garden, it is not recommended to dig it up.

After you pull out all the stems of greenhouse plants, wash the greenhouse itself inside and out. Then you need to remove the roots of plants remaining in the soil and disinfect the ground with one of the listed substances: potassium permanganate solution, copper sulfate, formalin solution, or special biological products such as phytosporin, phytocide, etc. When the air temperature drops to -8 degrees, it is advisable to fumigate the greenhouse with a sulfur checker.