Category Archives: Garden Advice

Garden Advice

10 Tips to Prepare the Garden for Winter

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The summer garden season is coming to a close. While we’re still working on certain projects like sowing bulb onions in cold frames and tending high tunnels of salad greens, we’re also resetting the garden for next spring. Even if you live in a warm, southern climate, there are still a few ways you can prepare your garden for winter. Here are ten tips to prepare your garden for winter and a great season next year.

1. Harvest or prepare to harvest warm-season crops before frost. 

If you still have eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, or squash in your garden, watch the weather carefully. If a light frost is in the forecast, cover them with old sheets of row cover. When a hard frost is in the forecast, it’s time to pull in the harvest. 

Our peppers are still thriving in the fall. We typically get an extra 1 to 2 weeks by covering them at night. Before the first killing frost, we uproot plants and place the roots in a bucket of water, storing them in a cool location, which can extend the harvest by 1 month.

Some tomatoes will ripen off the vine, and there are also many ways to use green tomatoes. Enjoy your eggplant and summer squash, or blanch and freeze them. Don’t forget to cure winter squash and pumpkins before putting them in storage.

Minnie Mizelle Collards in a greenhouse
Minnie Mizelle Collards

2. Prepare biennials for winter to save seed next season.

Biennial plants don’t produce seeds until their second year. If you want to save seed from your favorite biennial crops like cabbages, collards, beets, carrots, and hollyhocks, you’ll need to overwinter them. 

Many biennial crops can survive temperatures into the 20°Fs. If you live in a mild climate, you may be able to overwinter them right in the field or in a tunnel. They benefit from some cover, even just frost cloth and low tunnels. Place a thick layer of mulch over their roots.

In colder climates, you’ll have to store the crops indoors in damp peat moss or similar material over the winter before transplanting them out in spring. 

Learn more about saving seed from biennial crops. 

3. Put away garden supplies.

All of your garden gear will last longer if you keep it out of the winter weather. Do a garden tidy day and take down any trellises, move tools under cover, and put away irrigation tape, hoses, and landscape fabric.

Victoria Rhubarb Plants in a bed
Victoria Rhubarb

4. Mark perennials.

It’s easy to forget where you planted perennials. Go around your garden and place stakes to mark perennials like echinacea, asparagus, and rhubarb so you don’t accidentally disturb them next spring. 

5. Cover any bare soil.

Ground cover helps protect soil and beneficial microbes from erosion and freeze thaw cycles. It can also reduce weed pressure in early spring. Depending on your climate, you may be able to sow a winter cover crop. You can also mulch your soil with straw, leaf litter, grass clippings, brother natural materials. A dead flowerhead covered in frost

6. Leave standing flowers for pollinators and birds.

Many pollinators and beneficial insects overwinter in dead plant material. Songbirds will also gather seeds from dead flower heads during the winter. Leaving the flower stalks of plants like rudbeckia, dara, echinacea, and sunflowers standing in the garden can help provide a home for insects like solitary bees and food for birds like chickadees. 

7. Remove and burn or dispose of diseased or pest-ridden plant material.

While we love leaving some patches of dead flowers standing, you should always remove any plants that had issues with pests or diseases. This applies to crops that are disease-prone in your area, even if they were fine this season. Common examples include tomatoes with late blight, asparagus stalks with asparagus beetles, cucumbers with downy mildew, or hollyhock stalks with rust. 

8. Build up your compost pile.

Compost piles can keep working through the winter even in surprisingly cold climates. The key to making compost in winter is having a large enough pile to generate and retain heat. Build up your compost pile this fall and early winter by sourcing various brown or carbon-rich and green or nitrogen-rich material. Great examples include grass clippings, fallen leaves, plain brown cardboard, coffee grounds, jack-o’-lanterns, sawdust, seaweed, and wood chips.

9. Get a soil test.

A soil test will pinpoint exactly what nutrients your garden needs. Many people opt for a soil test in the spring, but it’s fine to collect soil samples in the fall. It also means you’ll get your results back much quicker. Laboratories often take weeks to process samples in the spring when they’re overrun with orders. A fall soil sample will get you quick results so you can start building healthy soil during the winter and early spring, depending on your climate.

10. Create a garden map. 

While you’re enjoying the fall weather, take a walk through your garden and sketch out this season’s layout. Keeping a record of what you planted where this season and some quick notes about how each crop performed can help you plan your layout for next season.

Gardening slows down in the fall, but it never comes to a complete halt. Preparing your garden for winter with these ten tips can help you get great production next season.

Garden Advice

Best for Beginners: Top Ten Crops

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Planning your first garden is a thrill. There are so many beautiful varieties to choose from, but it can also be overwhelming. If you’re just getting started, there are a few crops we always recommend to beginners, especially in the Southeast.

It can be tempting to till up an enormous garden, but my best advice for beginners is to keep it small. As gardeners, we all start the season with the best intentions, but with vacations, work, and family commitments, it’s easy for the garden to get away from us. A well cared for small garden will be much more productive than a neglected large garden.

Virginia Select Paste Tomato
Virginia Select Roma VF Paste Tomato

Tomatoes

When you’re getting started with tomatoes, stick to a rugged, disease-resistant variety. Many cherry tomatoes, like Matt’s Wild, Yellow Centiflor, and Black Cherry tomatoes, are vigorous and will bear until frost. They’re also suitable for growing in large containers, though you’ll still need a sturdy trellis or hoop.

If you love to cook or can, paste tomatoes are another great option. Varieties like Amish Paste, Yellow Bell Paste, and Super Italian Paste tomatoes are productive and disease resistant. For small gardens, try a determinate paste tomato. Determinate varieties (as opposed to indeterminate) grow to a certain height, produce a bunch of tomatoes, and then stop. They don’t require pruning or heavy-duty trellises; a single large stake or tomato cage will suffice. Some disease-resistant determinate varieties include Virginia Select Roma VF, Principe Borghese Drying, and Heinz 1350 VF Processing.

Easter Egg Spring Radishes
Easter Egg Spring Radishes

Radishes

Radishes are a thrill to grow, especially for kids, because they grow so quickly. You can enjoy spring radishes like Sparkler White Tip or Easter Egg in as little as 24 days! The entire plant is edible, including the roots, leaves, flowers, and seed pods. 

Radishes can also help you detect soil deficiencies early. If your spring radishes fail to grow or form spindly roots, you likely have nutrient-poor soil. Add finished compost to your beds before planting again.

Genuine Cornfield Pole Snap Bean
Genuine Cornfield Pole Snap Bean

Pole Snap Beans

Pole beans are among our favorite crops for beginners, and they’re disappearing! Pole beans are difficult to harvest with equipment, so many seed companies are switching to bush beans, leaving these heirlooms in the past. 

However, pole beans are a great option for home gardens. Pole beans have large seeds, great for getting young kids involved in the planting. You can use pole beans to create bean teepees or tunnels, which makes harvesting extra fun and doubles as great summer forts for kids.

Some great varieties for beginners are Kentucky Wonder (Old Homestead) Pole Snap Bean, Rattlesnake Pole Snap Bean, and Genuine Cornfield Pole Snap Bean.

Drunken Woman Looseleaf Lettuce
Drunken Woman Looseleaf Lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce is a cool-season crop that’s great for beginners in the early spring. It grows quickly and is low maintenance. You can often cut baby greens for your first salad in just 30 days. 

For beginners, we usually recommend loose-leaf lettuce for a cut and come again option. Try our Wild Garden Lettuce Mix or a loose-leaf variety like Green Salad Bowl or Drunken Woman. If you want a lettuce that keeps well in the fridge, romaine is your best bet. Try a colorful romaine like Rouge d’Hiver (Red Winter) Romaine Lettuce or a heat-resistant variety like Jericho.

Utopian Ultracross Collard leaves
Utopian Ultracross Collard

Collards

Collards are members of the cabbage family and are one of the easiest greens to grow in the Southeast. They are much more heat and drought tolerant than kale and cabbage. Most varieties are also winter hardy from Virginia southward. Try some old favorites like Whaley’s Favorite Cabbage Collards, Georgia Cabbage Collards, or Nancy Malone Wheat Purple Collards.

If you’re looking for cold-hardy greens, try the Utopian Ultracross Collard. The Heirloom Collard Project grew this new variety from 21 collards that saved 8°F lows through the winter. By purchasing a pack, you have the option to join a Community Seed Selection (CSS) project. The aim is to save seeds from the most cold-tolerant and tasty collards while preserving a wide diversity of types and colors.

Feherozon Sweet Bell Pepper plant
Feherozon Sweet Bell Pepper

Peppers

Peppers thrive in the Southeast’s hot summers, and there are few pests that bother them. Many varieties are suitable for small gardens and container gardens. Generally, smaller peppers are easier to grow for beginners than large bell peppers. Smaller peppers usually ripen more quickly and are less likely to lodge or need additional support.

You’ll need to start peppers indoors. They will germinate and grow well only in warm soil. Smaller varieties like Balik Hot peppers, Doe Hill Golden Sweet Bell peppers, Jalapeños, Feherozon Sweet Bell, and Sweet Banana peppers are great options for beginners.

Sweet Genovese Basil (Ocimum basilicum)
Sweet Genovese Basil

Basil

Herbs can be tricky, but basil is typically very easy to grow. You can start plants indoors, or direct sow once the soil is 60°F or warmer. Basil is also incredibly productive. You only need a couple of plants for a huge harvest. Harvesting or pinching basil encourages the plant to grow bushier.

There are many great basil varieties to try from classics like Sweet Genovese to colorful varieties like Red Rubin or unique flavors like Cinnamon.

Marketmore 76 Cucumber
Marketmore 76 Cucumber

Cucumber

Cumbers are fun to grow and fun to eat. Some varieties are ready to harvest in as little as 55 days. You can trellis cucumbers to save space, but it’s also okay to let them sprawl over the ground. They’re great for blocking weeds. 

However, fungal diseases like Downey mildew can be an issue in hot humid climates, so if you’re growing in the southeast, we recommend you start with a disease-resistant variety like Homemade Pickles Pickling cucumbers, Marketmore 76 cucumbers, or Poinsett 76 cucumbers.

Magic Cushaw Winter Squash
Magic Cushaw Winter Squash

Squash

If you have gardener friends, there’s a good chance they’ve given you extra summer squash or zucchini. These crops are so prolific that it’s tough to keep up with just a few plants! Summer squash varieties like Dark Star zucchini, Golden Bush Scallop Summer squash, and Early Prolific Straightneck Summer squash can provide an abundance in a relatively small space. They also mature quickly, making multiple successions throughout the summer possible.

However, in parts of the Southeast, vine borers can wreak havoc on summer squash plantings. If other gardeners in your area deal with them or you don’t want to risk it, opt for a moschata type like Tromboncino Summer squash. This pest-resistant variety is a tasty summer squash when picked green and matures to tan like butternut squash. When fully mature, it has a sweet, nutty flavor, and you can use it like winter squash.

Winter squash is another easy-to-grow option. Just opt for disease and pest tolerant varieties like Magic Cushaw, Seminole pumpkin, and Mrs. Amerson’s Winter Squash. Remember to give these big squashes plenty of space.

Pink Zinnias
Pink Zinnias

Zinnias

Every garden needs a few flowers! Zinnias are among the easiest and most rewarding flowers to grow. Varieties like state fair mix offer a wide range of color in a single pack. Zinnias are annuals, but if you keep them dead-headed, they will continue blooming until frost. Harvesting a few flowers for cut flowers also encourages them to branch and produce more blooms. There are many great zinnias varieties and they are all easy to grow.

Planning your first garden doesn’t have to be difficult. Start a small garden this season with a few of our tried-and-true varieties. 

Garden Advice

Beneficial Beetles: 5 Types to Attract

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We tend to think of beetles in the garden as pests. After all, so many of them are. Japanese beetles will munch our raspberries and roses, cucumber beetles wreak havoc on plants in the Cucurbit family, and flea beetles knock back eggplant seedlings. But not all beetles are bad; some are beneficial. Here are five beneficial beetles you might spot in your garden, how they help, and how to attract more of them.

Soldier Beetles (Chauliognathus spp.)

We have two soldier beetle species we commonly in Virginia, the margined leathering (Chauliognathus marginatus) and the Pennsylvania leathering (Chauliognathus pensylvanicus). As adults, these beetles look a lot like orangish-colored fireflies, though they lack their nighttime flash. In Virginia, margined leatherwing adults are present in the spring, and Pennsylvania leatherwing adults are present in the fall. Both species feed on nectar and pollen as adults, helping to pollinate the garden. 

Soldier beetles may be even more helpful in their larval stage. At this stage, they look more like caterpillars or worms than beetles. They have a black velvety coating and many segments. These little guys are voracious predators that live in the topsoil and leaf litter for one to three years before reaching their adult phase. They feed on caterpillar larvae and the egg masses of aphids, Colorado potato beetles, and grasshoppers.

To attract soldier beetles to your garden, maintain a suitable habitat for them at each life stage. The larvae need leaf litter and soft soil to overwinter. Adults thrive when there are brightly colored flowers for nectar, like goldenrod, zinnias, cosmos, butterfly weed, and milkweed. They also benefit from water sources, just make sure they can get out of it so they don’t drown.

black Pterostichus melanarius (beneficial beetle) on stone
AfroBrazilian, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Predacious Ground Beetles (Pterostichus spp.)

If you spend a lot of time in the garden, you’ve probably seen some of these beetles scurrying around. They are medium to large beetles that may be black or have a metallic green or orangish sheen. One of the most common species P. melanarius is native to Eurasia but now inhabits most of North America. 

They are effective predators that spend their time searching though your garden for slugs and other insects to feed on. Some species will even climb into the lower branches and stems of garden plants to feed on aphids. 

There are many ways to support these beetles in your garden. Good undisturbed habitat is key for them. Going low-till or no-till increases ground beetle populations. Rows of cover crops like clover between garden beds also encourage them. Some farms are also experimenting with “beetle banks.” Beetle banks are refuges of native grass and plants near garden beds that grow tall. They serve as a stable, insulated habitat for overwintering beetles.

Orange-Banded Checkered Beetle (Enoclerus ichneumoneus)
Marvin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Checkered Beetles (Cleridae spp.)

We have at least 18 species of checkered beetles in Virginia, and their appearance, habitats, and feeding habits vary. They tend to have an elongated body shape, antennae that are usually clubbed at the tips, and ornate patterns in red, yellow, orange, or blue. All checkered beetles are predatory insects in at least one life stage. Depending on the species, they may feed on ants, weevils, grasshoppers, wasps, other insects and their larvae and eggs.

Many checkered beetles are also pollinators in their adult stage. They feed on flower pollen and their entire bodies are covered coarse hairs which are perfect for catching grains of pollen and carrying them onto the next flower.

Like other beetles, avoiding excessive tilling can help these beetles survive the winter in their larval stage. Providing other shelter with cover crops, mulch, and log or rock piles is also a great way to encourage these species. Adult beetles of many checkered beetle species are also attracted to flowers like Queen Anne’s lace, sunflowers, Dara, and dill.

two-spotted lady beetle (Adalia bipunctata) on a leaf
This image is created by user Wim Rubers at Waarneming.nl, a source of nature observations in the Netherlands., CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Lady Beetles (Coccinellidae)

Lady beetles are among the best-known beneficial insects. Thanks to a few cartoons and memes, these pretty beetles have earned a reputation as aphid destroyers. Most beetles of this genus do even more! Adult and larval lady beetles feed on thrips, aphids, mites, scales, and other soft-bodied insects. They’ll also eat the larvae of other insects, like that of the asparagus beetle. The obvious exceptions are squash beetles and Mexican bean beetles, which are also from this genus. 

Lady beetles tend to be small beetles with hard, domed backs. While many have the classic red and black colors, their coloration can vary widely with species. There are lady beetles in shades of yellow, red, brown, and orange with white or black spots or strips. There are several species of lady beetles in our area, including a few native species like the convergent lady beetle (Hippodamia convergens), two-spotted lady beetle (Adalia bipunctata), and spotted lady beetle (Coleomegilla fuscilabris).

Places to overwinter in leafy debris or dead plant material is key for attracting lady beetles. Adult lady beetles also need nectar and pollen before breeding, so flowers can also help attract populations to your garden. Lady beetles enjoy flowers like yarrow, dill, fennel, Dara, and sweet alyssum.

flower longhorn beetles
Flower Longhorn Beetles (family Cerambycidae, subfamily Lepturinae) from the OSU Extension

Flower Longhorn Beetles (Cerambycidae)

As their name suggest, these long slender beetles have long antennae that sometimes exceed the length of their body. The adults feed on nectar and flowers and are lesser-known pollinators. In their larval stage, some species are decomposers, helping to break down dead and decaying wood making nutrients available for your plants.

Pollinator gardens can help attract flower longhorn beetles. They favor delicate umbel flowers like Queen Anne’s lace, carrot, dill, fennel, and Dara. They also appreciate sunflowers, asters, and goldenrod. 

You can also help protect their habitat and larvae by leaving dead and decaying wood on your property, reducing tilling, and using mulch.

Beetles don’t deserve their poor reputation. Attracting these beetles and other beneficial insects to your garden can help reduce pest pressure, improve pollination, and build healthy soil.