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In this video, I show you a simple, effective step-by-step way to protect your soil through the wettest, coldest months without using compost as a winter mulch. By working with the natural processes of the season, you can improve soil structure, protect soil life, reduce nutrient loss, and save your compost for when it is most effective in spring.
You’ll learn why winter is about protection first and foremost, how to clear spent crops while keeping roots in the soil, what to remove to prevent disease carryover, and how to use natural organic materials like leaves, straw, grass clippings and chopped plant stems as a winter mulch. I also explain why exposed compost can lose nutrients over winter, when compost works best, and what to do if you choose to apply compost at this time of year.
This method helps build healthier soil, increases worm activity, reduces compaction, and leaves you with rich, living beds ready for spring planting. Perfect for gardeners in temperate climates looking for a more efficient, low-input way to care for their soil over winter.
How to prepare garden beds for winter, winter garden bed preparation, natural garden mulch, soil care in winter, compost alternatives, temperate natural gardening, no dig gardening, soil health, winter gardening tips.
39 Comments
HI, I ALREADY LEFT MY LIKE FROM MEXICO 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🥀🌺💐🌷🌹
I've already prepared my vegetable patches for winter. We've had snow and a light frost in Poland for a few days now, but I managed to get everything done. Everyone has their own ways to improve soil quality: I sowed a catch crop, then added fresh manure and other organic materials. I covered everything with a layer of compost. The last of the tree leaves fell on top, and I left them as additional ground cover, and they'll decompose a bit by spring. 🙂
Huw you are a natural born teacher. Thank you for all the excellent information and your obvious passion for gardening!❤
It's a fantastic cake! Lol. At least, the worms think it is.
I'm so jealous of how green your garden still is at this time of year. USDA Zone 7 here in Virginia, USA, and we've had two hard freeze nights already in the past weeks of November. Everything is brown and sad in the garden. We will definitely be chipping branches for ramial mulch; the greens are long gone and even cold hardy cover crops like daikon radish have turned to mush.
Good point about leaves with potential inhibitors or toxins. We have a lot of black walnut here. Elderberry, too, although none of our plants under the black elderberry drip line have shown any struggles, so I'm not sure there's really a growth inhibitor or herbicide in those leaves. Maybe the concentration varies by cultivar.
Have you got any thoughts on covering a chop and drop or leaves covered bed with cardboard or permeable plastic etc?
I have the problem that my allotment is so exposed leaves will mostly blow away within a day. I tried covering them over winter and some beds worked really well and others not so much 🤷♀️
Same problem with straw and sawdust and even grass clippings sometimes.
Ramial wood chip is fantastic, mixed with some hot manure and it’ll be mostly broken down in 60 months! It’s mostly responsible for turning my clay to lovely worm filled breadcrumbs 💚
Great to see you sharing this information Huw. I've been doing this for years. I buy heat treated straw from a local equestrian supplier. It's really economical
There are rakes that close like this?! That's epic.
can i cover with woodchips?
Try living in a desert where almost all of this doesn't work. Talk about having challenges. I'm on solid bedrock, sand, gravel, and stones. I don't have to worry about clay. I don't have to worry about weeds. I don't have to worry about rain. We don't have grass clippings. Deciduous trees uproot themselves and move to places where it rains. Leaf mulch doesn't really exist. It's raining 4 inches all year. So if you were a tomato, how would you survive 125*F+ temps. We start in October and end in June of the following year to escape the heat. It's all backwards here and sadly not to many people are putting out information on growing VEGETABLES in the desert garden. Geoff Lawton is greening the desert he lives in and that's about all I can find. Yet just don't the road from me in death valley near the Salton Sea they grow vegetables and fruits and nuts but at a great detrimental cost to the environment. Help please
I already follow you..🇹🇭
I just got 2 wheelbarrows full onto my beds, pure gold from my rabbits! and I have more than half the pen to go still. I aim to live off my garden. fruits, vegetables and meat from the rabbits. one doe can produce the same amount of meat in a year as a sheep. And I know my animals live a good life and have a quick painless death. and I work all year to make sure they are not afraid of people. bad for me but good for them when it is time to go.
Great approach. I’m trying cover crops from readily available seeds like lentils and flax and old/unwanted lettuce, etc. Nothing that attracts or harbors pests. Just trying to keep active roots in the soil, along with plant matter that will be winter killed. I love using leaves, but I find they tend to give homes to slugs etc. We let them lie in most places and collect those off the lawn to compost in a huge pile and use them in spring. We’re surrounded by deciduous woodland so the amount of fallen leaves is daunting. We can also get aged manure from a friend who has horses. I’m making more compost than ever but it is a very intensive process. I use it at planting in a targeted way and spread unfinished compost mixed with chicken manure over large areas that I’m trying to convert to new gardens. It does wonders, but it’s very precious.
Theoretically, could you put organic matter from your compost on top of the beds if its only half finished decomposing? I got my plot in Jan of this year and struggled for brown materials to balance my compost. Could I just take the amount you have suggested and use it as a (slightly soggy admitedly) layer on my beds?
Does your rocket grow back from the root? I have a few going into their 3rd winter.. monsters!
Very interesting. Would this method also be suitable for flower/perennial/shrub borders?
Thanks for the video! In Louisiana we chop the tops off the plants and let the rootballs decompose, sometimes they even regrow. Just saves time and effort for old folks that work lol.
My family composts kitchen scraps but tosses yard waste into bins for the city to collect. They get cranky if I ask then to leave it in the garden because they like continuing as they have. It's an antsy thing. And I can't collect materials on my own time because with my health I do everything gradually, and they need everything done on their time. Another failed attempt this year.
Brilliant 🫶🏻👏🏻 still don’t have any beds on the allotment 😅 but 100% using this next year thanks huw 😘😘
BUT WHY aren't your cavolo nero and kale getting slaughtered by slugs?!?!?!
Amazing technique, but tell us about the slugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Changing to this I think with my empty beds. I do have plants in, brassicas . That I haven’t done this in.
This was my first year at allotment, the soil compacted lot, so my raised bed needed more organic material. I added chop and drop green material and added few cardboards on top of it and added 2-3 inch of the compost, because I needed lot of material to fill my raised beds.
Another great video thanks! We can use our compost where and we need to using this method. Follow nature and Huw!
Great video, as ever, Huw 😊 Adjacent to my allotment are some horse stables so I have easy access to plenty of manure. Amongst the manure heap is all the stable bedding which is predominantly wood shavings. It's slightly mixed up with the fresh manure but mostly shavings. Would this be usable on my beds for the winter or would you recommend keeping it separate to mature? I'm aware of the wood chip/nitrogen issue but wondered if shavings are more acceptable to be added to beds in a less mature state?
asking for slug problems doing this
I am yet to get my allotment ready for winter, so this makes me feel better! I have a large bed of asparagus, is there anything you recommend to do specifically for this?
10:30 thank you fyi. I concern about the leaves blown by wind, too. Feel much better to trust the grass clippings would hold
Thank you Huw,
I have learned so much about composting and gardening from you, many thanks
G
Thanks
I have a massive pile of grass clippings at the allotment so I shall give it a try as the top layer. Thanks for the advice!
Nice video Hew, I have been thinking about this method myself lately but without any research to back it up. In my head and from visual evidence it makes sense. glad you're making more of these types of videos again, keep up the good work!
Excellent video – thanks Huw
Do we need to do something with this mulch in spring?
Here in the southern states in the US, you have to make sure you clean up before spring really hits. I had leaves over my beds during the winter months, but didn't clean it up before spring and I had a huge slug problem. I'm gonna try this again for winter time but this time I will clean up weeks before I need the beds.
I wish I'd seen this a month ago! I have already cleared most of the beds and moved the cuttings to the compost bin and now am looking for leaves to recover.. I think it'll be OK though. This is magic for saving compost
my soil prep for winter is doing absolutely nothing, then come spring panic and rush things last minute, anyone else?
Huw is a mindreader – this is what I'm doing on my allotment at the moment. As for slugs, maybe they get collected when the beds are cleared for planting. Healthy soil will give stronger plants which can resist slug damage.
Thanks Hew, Yes, I tend to do this here in the Blue Mountains NSW, Australia – cool climate. I've also been thinking of planting some green manure crops next autumn/winter too. What do you think? Cheers!
What leaves are to be avoided? Anyone know? 🤔
I've been grabbing leaves the last couple of years, I did as I am can't afford compost or make as much as I'd like, so glad that without really knowing it, I have someone more professional doing the same!