Using the winter to plan your next year's garden can be as easy as participating in a few family dinner conversations regarding flower, vegetable and fruit preferences. It can also be as complex a project as any one family might choose. For example, browsing through seed catalogues to discover new and old varieties of family favorites might serve as an alternative to reading the cereal box in the morning. Along those same lines of thinking, any family member in need of an exciting and potentially winning science fair project might want to consider building a more efficient garden water conservation sprinkling system.

Healthy gardens depend as much on the work of the living organisms and creatures that occupy their approximate space as they do on the work of family members and the weather. Keeping in mind that no planning strategy completely guarantees a perfect garden, it's equally as important to note that garden harmony, a concept tuned to the idea of maximizing plant production while minimizing insect and disease issues, basically depends on family members investing a few hours of proactive planning in the winter. In short, winter planning helps families avoid unnecessary chemical use during the growing season.

Winter garden planning provides family members an opportunity to think with their eyes pointed to both the sky and the ground. Taking a bird's eye view of your garden during the winter provides a family members an opportunity to mull over some of their minimally evasive disease and insect management options. For example, families can picture their yard as a landscape and actively plan a landscape hospitable to birds who may enjoy an insect snack every now and then.

Garden planning with eyes towards the ground means family members think soil, the most fundamental element of gardening (hydroponics aside). Soil, much like humans, can not survive on work alone. Winter traditionally provides down time for soil in need of nutrient and organic matter regeneration. Soil also serves as host to many of the insects and diseases that harm plants. One way to minimize the probability that any any one disease or insect infestation will unduly harm the garden is for family members to create a plant placement and rotation schedule in harmony with the characteristics of the garden soil. A soil test, available at most local Extension Service offices and garden stores, provides more specific information to guide the planning process.

Families at the year two or more mark of their organic gardening activities might also want to consider spending a few hours during the off season updating their previous year's records, noting any disease or insect incidents linked to particular patches of soil. Adding this planning step helps because knowing which areas of soil caused harm to plants in one year provides a sort of guide for next year's planting options. For example, many types of plants share specific characteristics that may or may not make them susceptible to the same types of insects and viruses. If you've planted vegetables in the cole family such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower or turnips, and encountered disease or insect problems, altering the planting plan for that area to include a member of the legume family such as beans or peas might prevent the reoccurrence of cole family related problems.

In all areas not yet frost effected, winter also provides a last chance opportunity for manual disease and insect management. Physical removal of all old garden plants, especially the diseased ones, represents another minimally evasive strategy choice. Many of the microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, insects and eggs) attached to the plants, live dormant through winter waiting to return in spring. Failure to remove these plants increases the probability your next garden will have many of the same problems as your previous one. Composting plant stalks and stems, almost always a good idea, needs refinement with respect to diseased plants. Since heat generated during the composting process often does not reach a high enough level to neutralize insect and virus problems, it's a good rule of thumb to keep them away from the compost bin.

Planting cover crops and applying manure represent two proactive pre-frost activities organic gardeners traditionally use to help prevent soil erosion and improve on the soil's nutrient content. Each option carries its own cautions. Cover crops are soil and climate sensitive. By establishing a root system on the land over the winter, they provide protection against wind and rain generated soil erosion. If plowed under during an appropriate pre-planting time, they also add nutrients to the soil.

Applying a manure cover for your garden over the winter improves both soil nutrition and texture. While all manures provide some degree of the three basic plant nutrients, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, the exact amount they provide depends on both the animal source and the animal's diet. If given the choice, you'll want to coordinate manure type with your planting plans because nutrient planning is always a plant specific process. Specificity aside, a general rule of thumb when dealing with manure follows a not too much or too often sort of logic.

With respect to the use of both cover crops and manure, it's important to know which options are best suited to your garden. Generally your local Extension Service or garden store represents the best starting point for information gathering on the topic.

Additional Information

Estimating Manure Application Rates
Winter Soil Management

© 2000. Patricia A. Michaels

Patricia A. Michaels is an environmental enthusiast and award winning amateur nature photographer living in the Pacific Northwest. Pat's worked in various fields, including teaching classes in international politics. You can read her environmentally-friendly articles at Green Nature.com.