As the nights get chilly and the days grow shorter, it’s time to start thinking about putting your garden to bed for the winter.
Edible Feast asked LaManda Joy, Founder and Executive Director of the Peterson Garden Project in Chicago, for some advice on how to get the most out of your garden through the last weeks of Autumn.
The first thing to do, she suggests, “Pick up all that fallen fruit and dispose of it (if you’re not eating it, of course). All those fallen, rotting tomatillos, for example, will sprout next year creating lots of extra work removing them next spring.”
Then, start harvesting. “Harvest and use or preserve as many of those perennial herbs as you can! Before you mulch your perennials to keep them warm over the winter, you can cut the plant down to the crown, and it will grow again in the spring. Might as well use all those tasty herbs in the meantime!”
We loved this short video, packed with step-by-step tips for clearing a garden bed. Joy tells us what foods to harvest, what plants you can leave in the soil, what parts of the plant to remove, what to do with all the debris you cut away. She really demystifies what feels like a big, important job!
See more videos from The Peterson Garden Project.
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