8 Tasks You Shouldn't Skip When Winterizing Your Vegetable Garden

Your garden has spent spring, summer, and fall providing you with a bounty of fresh, homegrown vegetables—don't neglect it once winter arrives. Not winterizing your vegetable garden has a handful of negative consequences that can impact future seasons of growth: frost and cold-sensitive plants can be damaged, insect populations can increase, and soil erosion and compaction can damage your landscape. To prevent this from happening, there are a few tasks you should complete prior to winter.

Harvest Your Vegetables

Frost-sensitive vegetables should be harvested prior to winter (or when frost is in the forecast), says Melinda Myers, gardening expert and host of the Great Courses How to Grow Anything DVD series. Not doing so may result in damaged or dead vegetables. Some plants, like broccoli and cabbage, are tolerant of a hard freeze and can stay in the landscape during cold weather. Some common frost-sensitive vegetables include:

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Eggplants
• Beans
• Potatoes
• Cucumbers
• Melons
• Pumpkins
• Sweet potatoes

Cover Your Crops

Cover your cool-weather crops with tunnels or sheets in the evening, and remove the covers in the morning to protect your plants from near-freezing temperatures. "I cover my cool weather vegetables with low tunnels in the fall to keep harvesting fresh food longer," says Michelle Bruhn, founder of Forks in the Dirt and co-author of Small-Scale Homesteading. "Within three days of harvest, depending on how they’re stored, fruits and vegetables can lose around 30 percent of their vitamins and minerals. Covering my garden beds can add weeks of harvesting more nutritional and better-tasting food for my family."

Clean Up Your Vegetable Garden

Cleanup is an essential part of preparing the garden for winter. "Remove weeds (preferably before they drop seeds that will sprout next year) and inspect pest- and disease-infected plant material and dispose of it as advised by your municipality," says Myers. "Leaving this in the garden increases the source and risk of future problems." This is also a good time to remove any fallen leaves and twigs that accumulate during fall.

Mulch Your Vegetable Garden

Protect the soil by covering it with mulch before temperatures drop too low. "Covered soil retains more water, is less compacted, and has less weed pressure," says Bruhn. Rather than buying mulch, you can also cover the soil with shredded leaves and straw. Keep in mind, though, that mulch does keep soil cooler in spring, so it may delay planting in areas with cooler springs and those with heavy clay soils, Meyers says.

Protect Your Herbs

If you have herbs growing in containers, bringing them indoors will keep them protected during colder months. "Herbs like rosemary, lavender, sage, and bay laurel do well for years when moved indoors and back out into the garden," says Bruhn.

Add Compost to Your Vegetable Garden

There are a lot of benefits to adding compost to your garden before winter. It improves drainage in heavy soils, increases water-holding ability in fast-draining soils, adds an array of nutrients over a long period of time, and improves plant health, says Meyers. Add about 1 inch of compost to your garden during fall, as it can break down and improve the soil over winter.

Sow a Cover Crop

Cover crops are a great way to protect the soil over winter, as well as add nutrients and organic matter, says Meyers. But you'll need to ensure your cover crop has time to get established before the first frost. One example of a cover crop is crimson clover—a fast grower that quickly covers the soil, helping to prevent stormwater runoff. "This legume, like others, works with soil bacteria to add nitrogen to the soil. It grows well in sun and shade," says Meyers.

Move Container Plants Indoors

There are a few different options when it comes to winterizing container vegetable plants. Perennials that are hardy to the area can be stored by burying the pot in a vacant part of the garden and providing insulation (bags of leaves, soil, mulch, or bales of hay) around the roots, says Myers. Alternatively, you can store them in an unheated garage with a bit of insulation around the pot and water when the soil is thawed and dry.

Annual container plants can be moved indoors when temperatures drop to the point where the plants will be damaged and moved back out during warm weather. "You can also try growing them indoors like a houseplant in a sunny window or under artificial lights," says Myers. "Greens are the easiest, but many gardeners move peppers and tomatoes indoors for an extended harvest indoors."