If you garden in raised beds, you probably already know that you should winterize them once you’re done growing harvesting until next year. The question is when: some gardeners start winterizing their beds as early as September, while others leave until much later in the season. How do you time this important fall gardening task correctly?

We’ve consulted expert gardeners to put this matter to rest (pun intended).

When to Winterize Your Raised Garden Beds in Fall

Most gardening experts suggest winterizing raised garden beds as soon as the first light frosts hit and gardens go dormant. While the exact timing of this depends on your local climate, senior horticulturist Amy Enfield of Miracle-Gro says that the first light frosts often occur between late autumn and early winter. You can always check the Old Farmer’s Almanac for the exact timing of the first frost in your area.

If you’ve already had the first frost in your area, but hard freezes are still a little while away, now is your perfect time to winterize your beds. Enfield emphasizes that it’s important to act fast. “Waiting too long until the ground is frozen makes tasks like bulb planting or amending the soil near impossible,” she cautions.

And if you think it’s too late and you might as well just leave your beds alone, think again. Winterizing your beds “is important because it allows the soil to hold on to microbial life and also tells perennials it’s time to shut it down,” says Tammy Sons, founder and CEO of TN Nursery. So, even if you’ve left it a little late, you should still go ahead.

Mulch Your Raised Bed Soil to Protect It Through Winter

Winterizing your beds will involve pulling out spent plants, cutting back the ones that need it, amending and soil and, crucially, mulching, regardless of whether you’re growing anything in your beds during the winter months.

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Once the soil has cooled or even become lightly frozen, add a generous blanket of mulch three-to-four inches deep made out of shredded leaves, pine needles or other organic material.

“Mulch is a fantastic insulator that keeps roots safe from freeze-thaw cycles that can literally lift plants out of the ground,” Sons says. “It also helps soil resist drying out during winter winds.”

Sources:

• Amy Enfield, Senior horticulturist of Miracle-Gro 
• Tammy Sons, Founder and CEO of TN Nursery.

This article has been adapted from How to Winterize Your Raised Garden Beds Before the First Snow by Ashley Zlatopolsky.