Preparing for Winter

Preparing for winter to protect all your hard work means less work when you open the garden back up in spring!

As the temperature drops and the leaves start to fall, October is the ideal time to pack in your school garden for winter!

Mulching and protecting a garden bed has a multitude of benefits.

Apply a layer of cardboard free of stables or tape onto the weeded bed. (FYI bicycle shops have great sizes of cardboard)
Spreading a thick layer of soil onto top of the cardboard so its covered and weighted down (you could take a layer of soil off your bed before laying the cardboard if you dont have anything additional to use)
If you can't lay cardboard, then use deciduous leaves or straw on the surface of the garden keeps soil from freezing and protects the roots of any plants that are overwintering in the garden.
In areas with heavy rain, a layer of mulch prevents nutrients in the soil from washing away and depleting soil of organic material.
Mulching or the cardboard layer will also prevent many weeds from taking over your garden, as the thick layer of cardboard, leaves or straw blocks sun from reaching the surface of the soil.
Once the soil warms up in spring, the top layer of mulch can be easily removed, and the lower layer that has started to decompose can be worked into the soil along with some compost, well-rotted manure, and organic fertilizer. The cardboard wont need to be removed, you can plant on top if it hasn't disappeared by spring.
Rain usually keep leaves in place, but if they are in danger of blowing away, lay bamboo stakes in an “X” across the bed to secure them.

The task of mulching can be done with any year group, but it’s especially easy and fun for the youngest students! Have the class collect as many leaves as they can and “tuck the garden into bed” for the winter. Leaf collecting makes for great art projects as well.

Intermediate students can research creatures that are decomposers and scavengers, such as worms, centipedes, and spiders, to learn what will be living under the mulch layer during the winter. Have students peek under the mulch on sunny winter days (when soil is warmest) to see these creatures at work!

Also remember to:

Protect any plants with a layer of fleece or straw for strawberries
Prune any fruit trees (apples/ pears in late winter)
Think about what you can do to feed the birds across the colder periods with the class
Collect any seeds/ seed pods that can be used to plant next year!