Moxie Gardener

Prepare soil in fall for spring Victory Gardens.

On this Veteran’s Day, think back to the Victory Gardens planted all over the United States during World War II. Gardeners and non-gardeners alike dug up their front yards and planted vegetables. By planting and growing their own vegetables, Americans were able to provide more fresh fruits and vegetables to the troops overseas.

The idea of saving money by growing some of your own produce has again become popular, thanks to the economy. And while most people aren’t digging up their front yards like their World War II era grandparents did, many are digging up a plot in their backyards and planting vegetables.

Fall is the time to dig up and prepare the ground for planting garden vegetables next spring. It’s also the best time to add soil amendments to your garden plot. Many additives, such as potassium and potash in the form of lime or sulfur are not immediately available for the plants to use. Adding them to the soil in autumn gives the soil time to incorporate them and change the composition of the soil. Seeds and transplants sown the following spring can immediately benefit from the soil improvements made the previous fall.

Contact your local County Agricultural Extension Office and request a kit to take soil samples. Follow the instructions and send in soil samples from different areas of your yard or garden. The Extension Office will test your soil and send you a report with the results. They will also offer recommendations for amendments that your soil needs to produce optimum growth of garden fruits and vegetables.

When adding the recommended amounts of potassium or sulfur to correct the pH of your soil, incorporate organic matter to improve the texture of your soil.

Add as much compost as you can get your hands on. Buy large bales of peat moss at the garden center. Incorporate one cubic yard of peat moss for every 50 to 100 square feet of garden bed.

Finally, plant a cover crop of clover or winter rye. Leave it until very early spring and then incorporate it into the soil with a rototiller or by turning the soil over with a garden spade. The remains of the cover crop will add more organic matter to your soil as it breaks down. By the time you’re ready to plant in mid to late spring, the cover crop will have turned into organic compost in your vegetable garden.

Nature provides abundant materials in fall to enrich your garden soil.

Fall is the best time to improve your soil.  Improve and prepare your soil in fall for planting the following spring. This allows you to plant earlier in spring because the planting bed is already prepared.

Organic matter added to your soil and turned under in fall decomposes faster because the soil is warmer than it is in spring.  By the time spring arrives the organic additions to your soil will already by decomposing.  Nutrients will be available immediately for seedlings and transplants.

Manure should also be applied in fall as the heat generated as it decomposes can burn tender seedlings and transplants.  By spring your garden bed will be enriched by the decomposed manure and the plants will benefit.  Add other organic soil amendments for fall soil improvement, such as peat moss, half-decomposed compost, hay, straw, grass clippings, and fallen leaves.  These will enrich your soil and decompose over the winter, hastened by the heat of the manure.

The addition of lime or sulfur to adjust the pH of your soil is best done in fall.  The particulars are beyond the scope of this article, but add lime or sulfur in proportions recommended by the entity who pH tested the soil sample you provided to them.

To improve your soil without scrounging up the large amount of organic matter necessary to make a difference, try planting a cover crop.  After the crop matures, turn it under with a spade or rototiller and it will decompose and add humus and nutrients to your soil.  Some recommended cover crops are:  annual rye, oats, soybeans, vetch, alfalfa, field peas, buckwheat, and clover. 

Rye is recommended for late fall planting of a cover crop.  It is a fast growing crop and will die off over winter and enrich the soil when you turn it under in spring.  As a general guide, you should plant your fall cover crop a month before your first expected hard, killing frost (not to be confused with a light freeze).  Even if you plant your fall cover crop later than that, any growth, however immature, will enrich your soil when turned under.

Use buckwheat for a summer-planted cover crop.  Plant where you have harvested the spring lettuce plantings.  Cover crops can even be planted between the rows of your vegetables beginning in August, even if you have not yet harvested your vegetables.  Summer-planted cover crops should be turned under in fall.

If your garden is on a hill, an overwintering cover crop will stop soil erosion when spring rains arrive.

Feed your garden soil every fall with some organic matter.  It is perhaps the single most effective way to improve your garden’s productivity, as well as the health and quality of your plants next year.