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QUESTION: How should I prepare my vegetable garden for next year?
GARDEN CONNECTION: If there are areas of the garden that are done producing, chop and shred residue in preparation for tilling. With the recent extreme heat and drought, it may make tilling difficult. Wait until a soaking rain softens the soil; then wait a few days so the soil is no longer muddy. Tilling in residue allows plant material to decompose and helps reduce insect and disease problems for the next year.
Also consider using a cover crop to hold the soil and increase the organic matter content of the soil. Small grains such as wheat should be seeded at 3/4 to 1 pound of seed per 1,000 square feet from mid-September to late October. Legume cover crops such as hairy vetch, alfalfa and sweetclover provide an additional benefit by ‘fixing’ nitrogen, thereby increasing fertility of the soil. Each of these should be seeded at about 1/4 to 1 pound of seed per 1,000 square feet of garden. Sweetclover should be seeded from August to early September and hairy vetch and alfalfa from mid-August to late September.
SEND QUESTIONS TO
E-mail gardening questions to gardenconnection@purdue.edu. Sunnyside Master Gardeners trained by Purdue University are available to research and answer questions 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
