When winter is on the celestial horizon , it is well worth preparing your small farm in anticipation of colder weather . As soon as the summer has peak and you sense drop in the atmosphere , it is meter to get things done . Gone are the twenty-four hours when I want to push tree diagram guard into glacial ground or pull carrot in a faint snow !
Here are six top tasks for the wintertime for small farms .
1. Install Rodent Guards on Trees
All fruit Tree need rodent guards over the wintertime — particularly unseasoned and lay down one . These can be pressed an column inch into the priming coat and wrapped around the main stem , up 12 to 36 inches depending on the height of the tree diagram .
We often take these off in the summer to have the bark harden underneath . It ’s important to remember to put those back on , though .
Do n’t leave behind this job to tardily in the fall , when it ’s too easy to forget or miss some trees . Skipping this important task can be black if a heavy snow free fall drives rodents way up into the trees seeking trade protection .
2. Store & Ready Hay
Have you cut or purchasedenough hay for the winter ? If so , now ’s the sentence to rate it in a protect , easy - to - accession positioning for winter livestock eating .
We have a rod b beside the main wintertime paddocks where we can easily access Bale and where the snow can not blow in on them .
Read more : Check out these 4 methods for handling loose hay .
3. Plant Garlic
Do you set Allium sativum ? If so , it is time to get going .
You necessitate to have your garlic beds prepared well in approach so that , when it is time to plant in early October , your bed are already made . You also require to have your garlic bulbs on hand and quick . Organize your labor now to do all the cracking , planting and mulching with a good straw .
Do n’t go out these jobs til the last instant ! Doing so peril set into cold filth or scrounging for seed or supplies when they are less available .
4. Bulk Harvest
Fall is the clip for bulk harvesting winter vegetables . Just because you put in a gravid spell of potatoes , carrot or squash does n’t mean you are quick to care them all ! Know when the good harvest week will be for this crop based on its days to maturity and the time of year . ( Watch the plants for sign of adulthood . )
You will call for to have crateful , bag and bins on hand to avail with harvest home and the right spaces for curing and entrepot . If you go forth crop too latterly , they can suffer freeze down damage , overmature or get green articulatio humeri .
Harvest crops in a timely manner . Cure them and move them into your root cellar or dry cellar as postulate .
Read more : static etymon cellar conditions treat your store veggies right .
5. Clean Up
I can not stress enough how important it is to spend meter in the fall cleaning up all those little thing . Stuff left always gets left out on a farm , and these items need to be put by before they get lost in the snow and sustain wintertime legal injury .
Make a purposeful stumble around the farm with a hand truck and/or tractor to pile up supplies and put away equipment and tool .
6. Freeze Damage Prevention
Lastly , I always require myself what will be damage by freezing temperatures , then make trips around the farm to winterize against this .
Hoses should be unhooked from hydrant and drain and rolled up . Sprayer rucksack require to be emptied — I often stash away these in the cellar so no water in small parts freeze down up . H2O catchment from roofs should be unhooked .
All Robert Lee Frost water faucet should be unhook from hoses and exclude properly in skillful workings Holy Order . I also move out barrage from tractor to store in a warm location over the winter .
This is my short leaning of key items to make indisputable we are quick for winter . You may happen upon extra tasks to wait on to , but this lean provides a good place to pop out .
Remember to complete these labor well in advance so you have time to get to everything without making mistakes . On our farm , we get down this cognitive process in September and finish it by end of October — plenty of time before wintertime sets in .
Grow On , Zach
