Have summer residents taken in the fall after harvesting to dig up the beds. This work is laborious, and the quality of the soil does not improve, but decreases.
Gardeners using methods of organic farming, otherwise treated with beds. Let's look at how to properly prepare for the winter garden.
Why do you need a "blanket" for the garden
Uncovered soil is destroyed, not resting. In organic farming, the soil is treated as a living being. It is made alive by a large mass of soil organisms - small soil animals and bacteria that form the basis of soil fertility.
When drying and freezing of the upper layer of the soil, those inhabitants of the soil that are able to move, go into the depths. The rest go to rest or die. During sowing in spring, lifeless soil with great difficulty provides nutrition to the long roots of seedlings.
From here it is clear that for the winter it is best to shelter the land - to mulch. When using organic farming, mulching is considered quite an important technique. It ensures the preservation of fertility of the highest and most important for the process of feeding the roots of the soil layer.
Mulching
Winter
Coarse mulch is used for winter mulching. It includes post-harvest residues, peat (not sour), fallen leaves, sawdust, hay, straw. The layer of mulch has a thickness of 6 to 8 cm. After harvesting with the crop, perennial weeds are removed, soil is loosened, compost is introduced, and the mulch is covered on top.
Many tannins are found in fresh sawdust. They inhibit plant growth. For winter mulching apply only rotten sawdust.. The most suitable material is hay and straw. They provide the creation of a loose heat-shielding layer, and in the beds they can be left for the whole summer.
Other materials for air are poorly permeable, and in the spring immediately after frost they must be removed so that there are no obstacles to warming up the soil. In the form of mulch can be used semi-coarse compost. They directly cover the soil before the first frost, and in the spring after thawing the soil is buried to a depth of 10 to 15 cm.
All of these materials are so-called mulch organic species. There is an inorganic mulch - a film, expanded clay, gravel. There is an opinion that inorganic mulch is not suitable for winter mulching. Is gravel or film capable of protecting against freezing as effectively as a "coat" of sawdust or straw?
Summer
In addition to protecting the soil surface, summer mulch performs very important functions: moisture conservation, weed suppression, fertilizer, etc. Black film, weeded weeds, and mowed grass are excellent for these requirements. This is not required from winter mulch, so other materials are used for it.
If, after the early crops have been removed, 1.5 - 2 months remain before the start of frost, then it is possible to mulch a bed with green fertilizer.
Here, some types of fast-growing plants will be useful, for example, wheat, oats, mustard, horse beans. In the autumn, they do not need to be cleaned; you can leave them in the garden so that they can cover the soil surface. Spring close up on her sternum from 10 to 15 cm.
Planting of perennial onions requires mulching. Roots of berry bushes and fruit trees can suffer from frost, especially during snowless, cold winters. Pristvolnye circles can be covered with mulch for the winter, 0.5 m to the perimeter of the crown recedes from the trunk.
Under the berry shrubs and fruit trees, mulch can be covered for the winter with old foil. Some pests hibernate in the soil (currant fowl, flower beetle), and they awaken in early spring, come out of the soil and start moving to plants. The film can impede their movement, which reduces damage.
