Herb Gardeners Preparing for Winter!

Perennial herbs will do real good if they do not have but a little new growth when the cold weather hits. You will need to stop fertilizing about one month before the first killing frost.

Toward the last of the summer, your annual herbs will start to die. Earlier in the year, you probably had planted some new herbs, but now they will be finishing up and you will now need to turn your attention to protection the soil over the winter.

By using cover crops and mulches will prevent your soil form washing away when it rains a lot and when the snow melts. a lot of people, think of cover crops as only going in large garden, but you can go ahead and put some cover crops in smaller spots.

If you have some patches of annuals that are grown in between perennials in your herb garden, you might want to plant a handful or two of oat seeds in with your herbs. After you pull up your annuals and compost them, scatter all of the oat seed on the soil, cover and tramp it down. After a week, you will start to see green shoots coming up. After the first frost comes, your oats will die. The dead leaves will form a thick mulch that will hold your soil in place over the winter and it will retard weeds growing in the springs.

If you do not live in a very warm climate, your perennials need to be mulched during the winter time. Mulching will keep in both the warmth and cold. The winter mulch will protect the plants roots  from real cold temperatures and will keep the roots from heaving out of the ground during the freezing and thawing cycles. Wait until the ground is frozen about an inch before you mulch. If you are not sure, wait until the nighttime temperatures where you live have been in the 20s for three days and the daytime temperatures will be 32 degrees or below. Shredded leaves, straw, and rotted hay are very good for winter mulches. Put about eight inches of the mulch over the whole root area of each plant. Put boards on your mulch if your garden is in a windy place.

When it gets spring, you will need to put the mulches back from he plants when you see new growth peeping through the mulch.

If your garden area gets a lot of wind you will need to protect your plants from the winds by putting up wind barriers which is made from burlap or wood stakes. If you get the wind both ways, you will need to set the stakes around each plant in a square or rectangular pattern, put burlap on the stakes. If the wind is only coming one way, you can use a two-sided burlap shield with a stake which will form a corner around the plant. Burlap will keep the winds drying effect on each of your plants.