Fall and Winter Topsoil Strategies: Nurturing Your Garden Through the Chill
As the weather starts to cool down, it is generally time for most avid gardeners to start preparing their soil for the next planting season. But just because it is starting to get colder does not mean you should completely ignore your garden until spring.
While cold Midwest winters may not be the best time to try planting things in your garden, it is one of the best times to give your soil the care and attention it needs to facilitate another thriving season for your outdoor space.
You can use many strategies to give your garden space the boost it needs over the winter. One of the best strategies we’ll look at here today is applying a generous covering of fall topsoil before the harsh winter truly hits.
Why Apply Fall and Winter Topsoil to Your Garden?
If you are new to gardening, you may not know why you’d want to apply topsoil before the winter frost. Luckily, the answer to this query is quite simple.
Applying fall or early-winter topsoil helps enrich your garden by adding nutrients that your garden soil can absorb over the winter. This means that by the time spring comes along, you’ll have amazing, nutrient-rich soil that is ready for planting!
Fall and Winter Topsoil Strategies for a Properly Nourished Garden
Whether you are a long-term gardening enthusiast or you’re new to the party, knowing how and when to apply topsoil can be crucial in ensuring that you are setting your garden up for success — rather than smothering it.
So, without further ado, here are the best strategies to use when applying topsoil to your garden.
Remove Old Plants
You don’t want your old plants to sit there and rot in your garden all winter — especially if they are diseased. Be sure to remove all diseased or fungus-infested plants from your garden to ensure the disease does not spread throughout your soil over the winter.
Examine Your Soil
Now that you’ve removed your old plants and are ready to begin nourishing your garden over the winter, it is time to evaluate your current soil. To do this, you will likely want to conduct a soil test to accurately measure the levels of crucial nutrients — such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. You can also measure your soil’s pH (alkalinity and acidity) to ensure that it is not too high or too low.
Performing a soil test can be an excellent way for you to learn exactly what to add to your soil for the best harvest in the spring season. For example, if you find that your soil is too alkaline, you could add organic matter like pine needles to increase the acidity of your soil and find that sweet spot that your plants will love.
Select the Right Topsoil
One great way to improve the quality of your soil over the winter is to add missing nutrients to it with a healthy layer of high-quality topsoil. But, just like many other soil blends, topsoil can be made from various materials. Knowing which type of topsoil will best benefit your garden can mark the difference between a thriving spring planting season and a scarce one.
Using the information you gathered from your soil test, you can select a topsoil blend that best fits your soil’s needs. This will ensure that your soil is getting the right amount of nutrients over the winter.
Aerate the Soil
If your soil is very hard-packed, it will not be able to absorb the nutrients from your topsoil effectively, and it will not provide a nourishing environment for your plants in the spring. So, ensure that you loosen up any areas of hard-packed soil so that you can work nutrients back into your garden over the cold months.
Help Your Garden Thrive Through the Chill of Winter with Topsoil Application
As winter approaches, it is time to start thinking about how you are going to prepare your garden for the harsh Midwest chill. To ensure that your garden gets the nutrients it needs throughout the winter and set yourself up for a breezy spring planting season, take the time to enrich it with a generous layer of high-quality topsoil.
Make your fall or early winter garden preparation easy with McCarty Mulch & Stone topsoil delivery so you can focus more on nourishing your garden space rather than driving back and forth with bags of topsoil in your trunk.
