Get Your Raised Garden Beds Ready for Winter

With your plants all harvested and freezing temperatures knocking on the door, it’s time to get your raised garden beds ready for winter. We recommend 4 simple steps before you but your beds to sleep that will make spring gardening so much easier.

Remove Plant Material

Dead plant material can contain bugs or diseases and should be removed.  Pull out any roots from your box and remove all stems, branches, leaves and weeds. Finally smooth out the soil in the beds.   

Add Compost

Soil is a living ecosystem-the healthier it is, the more your plants will grow and produce.  To keep that ecosystem thriving, it’s important to periodically amend your soil with nutrient rich material (e.g. compost).  Ideally you want your finished soil level to be an inch or two below the rim of the raised bed.

Cover the Bed

Add a cover of organic material to the top of the bed.  This can be leaves raked up from the yard, mulch or a combination. You can try chopping the leaves up a bit or even better, run them over with your lawn mower first. Over the winter, this material will break down and add more nutrients to your garden for spring. If you want to take your gardening to the next level, check out our article on Cover Crops!

Repair and Protect your Garden Box

Fall is also a great time for a little TLC on your Backyard Boxes Garden Boxes.  Though cedar is naturally rot resistant and will hold up without treatment, regular application (every 1-2 years) of a non-toxic waterproofer or stain will keep your garden box looking its best.  Apply coats as recommended by the manufacturer in the fall to prepare your boxes for the wet winter and spring ahead.

To get some non-toxic waterproofer for your garden box click here.

If you want to see why we love and sell Vermont Natural Coatings PolyWhey Exterior Wood Stain click here.

See why cedar is the best material for raised beds click here.

For our full article on how to protect your cedar garden box click here.