Ploughing, mulching, fertilizing. Prepare your garden for the next season

Well, the winter is coming but, you need to do a little extra work before it does. Preparing soil for the next year is very important, that is if you want to enjoy big harvest. The soil is usually pretty exhausted after the season and deserves proper rest and proper care. Ploughing, fertilizing and mulching are activities that you cannot do without and will keep you warm during cold autumn days!

Ploughing – positive effects

The vast majority of gardeners plough because the positives outweigh the negatives by far. Positive effects include aerating soil, enriching the soil with nutrients (when you work in manure, compost or even grass clippings) and reducing the appearance of pests (some eggs live in the ground). That is why you should do all these activities in the fall.

Photo: Pixabay

Ploughing – negative effects

There are also negative effects such as disturbing the soil balance and the number of organisms living in soil. If you do not want to plough with a spade, you should still do little bit of “digging”. Use a pitchfork and remove weeds and cover the surface with a five-centimetre layer of mulch (compost or grass clippings will do). This will attract earthworms which will aerate the soil for you a bit.

Fertilization

When ploughing you can add fertilizer such as manure or grass clippings and work it into the soil. Do not use more than two kilograms of manure per square meter. Fertilizing enriches the soil with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium but do not add too much. You can add grass clippings or healthy green plant residues and enrich it with other nutrients. Some people also use tree leaves as fertilizer.

Mulching

Let the soil rest for about a week and add a layer of well-matured compost. Do not work it in but simply make a top layer to get benefits of mulching.

Source:

https://www.prozeny.cz/clanek/podzimni-zahrada-jak-pripravit-pudu-na-dalsi-sezonu-vime-to-9084

https://www.ireceptar.cz/zahrada/jak-pripravit-zahon-podzim-30000915.html

Preview photo: Pixabay