Garden Debris as Autumn Mulch

Sunday, January 2, 2022

Taking a break from all the kitchen renovation talk to recap some gardening nonsense.

With winter comes the need to "put the garden to bed" so it can start in the spring on its best foot. This includes the typical clearing out dead annuals, cutting back all the perennials (except the Meadow Sage & Lavender), putting up hoop tunnels, as well as putting down compost and adding mulch. This year, I decided to use chopped up peony stems & leaves as well as year-old shredded leaf mulch to mulch the raised beds. In the open garden, I used the chopped up catmint, butterfly bush, chives, asters, geranium, and bearded iris leaves as well as grass clippings from earlier in the season to feed the soil and block sunlight from weeds.

First steps always include putting aside the drip irrigation lines, clearing out the plant debris, and then putting down topsoil (as needed, to make up for the compression/decomposition of organic matter in the lower layers of the bed), a layer of homemade compost, earthworm castings (if I got 'em), azomite mineral dust, ground oyster shells, and 1-2 bags of different kinds of compost, etc. etc. Mixed up as best I can with a rake, or left as layers. Doesn't matter a whole lot!

Then I put the mulch down. Above you see the dried peony stems and leaves that I just chopped up a bit by hand. These will break down slowly, but will prevent weeds from getting sunlight in the meantime.

I only had enough peony debris for two of the ~5 raised beds. 2 more (as shown above) got some heavily decomposed leaf mulch from last year, and the asparagus bed and little bed both got teensy honeylocust leaves gathered from the yard.

After chopping down the asparagus ferns (and hauling them to the side yard, as asparagus beetles have a tendency to over-winter in the dried ferns), I piled some more garden debris on top. It's not pretty, but as winter wears on the chopped catmint, irises, chives, etc. will dry out and break down into the soil.

I threw some hoops and garden cover over the remaining brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, and rainbow swiss chard so that I can continue to harvest them into winter. And with that, the garden is pretty much as ready as it ever gets for winter!