6 Garden Jobs to Do in the Off-Season

Top Up Soil

Garden soils deplete and sink throughout the growing season, due to a combination of reasons. Some may be washed away &/or compacted by rain, some natural sinkage will occur (especially in high-raised hugulkultur beds), and some soil is removed as plants are moved in and out of the beds.

As a result, soil depletion is obvious at the end of the season, as shown above in one of my Birdies beds. While I’m resting my beds over summer, I’ll take the opportunity to top up the soil, add compost, fertiliser, perhaps bury some scraps, then re-mulch with a thick layer of sugar cane mulch.

Improve & Nourish Soil

As mentioned above, the off-season is the perfect time to improve and re-nourish your soil. Whether you have new or mature soils in your beds, they always need to have nutrition added, as vegetable crops deplete fertility quickly.

There are a variety of ways you can nutrify vegetable bed soil. We always recommend that you use what is organic, readily available in your area, easy to acquire, or one that you can make yourself. Compost and cow manure are both excellent soil improvers, but are not always available. Horse manure, worm castings, all-purpose pelleted fertiliser, weed tea, blood & bone are all good additions, and burying scraps works well when you have at least 8 weeks to wait.

Maintain Beds

In addition to topping up beds and improving soils, the off-season is the ideal time to carry out larger maintenance tasks. Repairs like fixing cladding, sagging, paintwork, edging, etc. can be performed now. Supports, framework, irrigation systems and more, are all easier to replace or repair when there are no plants in the beds.

Start a New Project

You’ll naturally have a little more time to spare in the off-season, so it’s the perfect opportunity to make some larger improvements. When you’re a gardener, there’s always something new-or more- you want to do…always an expansion or an improvement, yes?!

This summer, I’m adding 2 more IBC wicking beds, plus I’m turning an old grapevine area with broken trellises into a low-maintenance dragonfruit feature (see above). While the frames have been built for me, I still need to seal the timber, level & support the pots, pave the surrounding area, and of course plant the dragonfruit. Just like the regular gardening I do during the growing season, these tasks can be done at leisure, so I’ll do a little at a time at the cooler times of day.

Plan for the Next Growing Season

It’s never too early to start planning a vegetable garden- and dare I say, time slips by faster as you get older!

To plan a growing season, start by deciding what you want to grow, and make sure that you’ll be growing it in its preferred season. Next, check the timings for those plants, so that you know when to plant them. For example, broccoli is slow-growing, so needs to be sown under nets in February in my warm seQLD climate, or it won’t be able to reach maturity before the weather becomes too hot again).

See that you are realistic about amounts: amounts of each vegetable, total amount of plants versus bed space, and the amount of work you are creating for yourself. There’s no point growing 100 beetroot if you don’t have enough space for them and not enough time to look after them.

Lastly, buy your seed in advance. Seed companies often sell out of popular varieties at the start of the season, so get in early. this way, you’ll be ready to start sowing as soon as the weather changes.

Cut Back, Weed & Prepare Tools

While you have that bit of extra time, why not use it to get your general yard maintenance up to speed. I’m assuming here that your yard isn’t frozen over or buried under snow; unfortunately we don’t all have the same climate. When you’re busy in the growing season, it can be hard to keep on top of the weeding and general yard work. My ‘off-season’ climate is a humid subtropical wet season where weed growth is rampant, so I weed daily, cut back trees, remove insect pests from my fruit trees and similar. ‘Little & often’ is key when maintenance feels overwhelming or the weather is adverse. 15 minutes at a time, several times a day, adds up to many hours over the course of a week or a month.

You might also want to clean, prepare and/or repair your favourite garden tools. The off-season is the perfect time to do just that. Our DIY garden tool cleaning hack will help clean and sharpen your hand tools, and is literally as easy as filling up a bucket with oily sand. (Click her for the low-down).