If you’ve ever felt annoyed, angry, sad, or even hysterical about the havoc wreaked on your garden by vegetable pests and diseases, know you’re not alone.
It’s the number one frustration I hear from organic gardeners all over the world during summer. The struggle is a real one!
And if we’ve had a particularly challenging season in our gardens, by the time fall arrives we breathe a sigh of relief and run to the garage to hang up our gardening gloves until next year.
But, wait, not so fast! If you’ve struggled with vegetable pests in your garden this past season (and really, who hasn’t?!), there’s something critical you must do before winter to put yourself way ahead of those little buggers for next year.
Lacinato kale in my garden ravaged by cabbage worms.
The Secret to Avoiding Next Season’s Vegetable Pests
Before winter hits, you should remove and dispose of all spent vegetable plants in your garden. If squash bugs and borers, cabbage worms, cucumber beetles, or any other vegetable pests plagued your plants this season, a thorough fall clean up is the first step in reducing their numbers next year.
Plant debris that’s left in the garden often provides habitat for larvae, pupae, or unmated adults, giving them a head start on next year.
If you’ve had particularly bad issues with certain diseases and pests, don’t put the plant debris in your home compost pile, especially if you use it on your vegetable garden. (Unless you’re hardcore and really monitor temperatures in the pile.)
If your town has brush collection, consider putting the plants on the curb for municipal composting. Large municipal piles should get hot enough to kill most pests and diseases.
If that’s not an option, create a dump pile for plants somewhere on your property that’s away from your vegetable garden. We created a composting area in the back corner of our yard, on what we like to call our “back 40” (ha-ha, our lot is only a 1/4 acre), where we compost fall leaves, weeds, and other garden debris.
When this pile breaks down we spread it over other areas of our yard, but not on our vegetable garden since we don’t tightly monitor what goes into it. (Invasive and noxious weeds always get thrown in the trash.)
This pile is separate from my kitchen waste compost pile. Closer to my house I have a smaller compost bin that only contains vegetable and kitchen scraps. I feel fine about using this compost in my vegetable garden because I know exactly what went into it.
As the fall progresses I’ll eventually clear out most of my garden, except for my fall plantings (beets, carrots, salad mix) and vegetables I’m hoping to overwinter with the help of row cover and low tunnels (spinach, scallions, cilantro).
By the time winter arrives, your garden should look like the photo below. The winter winds are harsh, so don’t leave your garden soil exposed to the elements. Cover each bed with a thick layer of mulch (hay, straw, leaves, grass clippings) to protect it from the long, cold winter.
If you’re also a perennial flower gardener like me, there are different recommendations for fall clean up in those gardens. Because beneficial insects also like to overwinter in plant debris, leave perennial plants up through the winter to house these good guys.
You could also leave some vegetable and annual flowers standing, as long as they didn’t suffer from disease or pest issues. These remaining plants will offer winter interest in your landscape, seed for the birds, and neat photo opportunities when the snow flies!
Pick a nice fall day when the sun is shining and the air is crisp, dig those garden gloves back out of storage, and have fun putting your garden to sleep for the winter. A good fall clean up can help fight the ravages of vegetable pests and diseases next season.
More reading on fall gardening:
The surprising fall cure for a boring spring vegetable garden
Tips for tidying up your vegetable garden for winter
Fresh Recipes from the Garden for Fall
Comments
I have to disagree with this strategy. While it may dissuade pests, it will also put a serious crimp on your BENEFICIAL insect population. Ladybugs, bumblebees, etc ALSO need “messy” gardens to overwinter.
Thanks for stopping by, Jen. I agree that it’s important to leave some plants up for the insects, but not if you’ve had disease and pest problems this year. This is one of the most common complaints from organic gardeners so it’s very important to get rid of diseased plants in fall. I leave the plants in my perennial garden, which is right next to my vegetable garden, and some of my flowers in the veggie garden.
Great post a Megan! I agree that pests are the hardest part of organic gardening. I feel that spring is so busy that I have to clean up a lot of the debris anyway in the fall.
Thanks, Hilary! I agree with spring being very busy. We try to get our garden and yard as buttoned up as possible so we don’t have extra work in April/May.
What about earwigs? They destroyed my garden last spring. Any ideas how to keep them out of my garden next year?
So sorry to hear this, Linda! Since they’re nocturnal you’ll want to go out next year at night with a light and make sure it’s earwigs that are damaging your garden. It could be pillbugs or slugs as well. I got a big surprise when I did this in spring this year. I saw two different things damaging my plants – pillbugs and an insect I still can’t identify. Don’t water in the evening since they like moisture. I’m a big mulcher but I actually removed some mulch temporarily to dry things out. I also resorted to use Diatomaceous Earth, but it doesn’t harm other insects so you should read about it more before using it. Here’s an article that talks more about earwigs: http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/how-control-earwigs Good luck and keep me posted!
Thanks that was great I formation in that article. It was definitely earnings eating good my veggies, they came in some not quite finished compost. Ugh! I used the tuna cans filled with oil and it did help, I caught hundreds, but I had thousands! It was awful.
[…] a good idea to clear out and dispose of at least some of your plant debris, especially if you had disease and pests this past season. Once I get a garden bed cleaned up, I put on a thick layer of mulch for the winter. How thick? I […]
[…] a good idea to clear out and dispose of at least some of your plant debris, especially if you had disease and pests this past season. Once I get a garden bed cleaned up, I put on a thick layer of mulch for the […]
[…] out plant debris. Because some pests and diseases overwinter on plant debris, it’s important to clear out spent vegetable plants. You should dispose of diseased plants in the […]
is it a good idea to leave the fabric on the garden for the winter?
If i remove the fabric should i rotortill ?
Hi John- I take the row cover off when the plants are no longer producing and put it away in my garage for the winter. I don’t recommend tilling your garden, it’s not good for the soil. You can read my post about it here: https://www.creativevegetablegardener.com/stop-tilling-vegetable-garden-2/
[…] stalks or feed to livestock – in fact, start pulling all plants that are dead or dying to help control bad garden bugs for next […]
[…] sure to clean up debris and weeds to prevent bad bugs making their winter homes in your […]