Welcome back to another episode of the Homegrown Liberty Podcast, this is episode 44. Today we’ve got some thoughts on preparing for winter and what I’m doing to get ready for the cold season. But first some news on what I’ve been up to and an update on the plant cuttings! 

Just got back from another week of teaching and consulting, and man, I’m so tired of traveling. I was gone for I think around 17 days out of 31 days in October. I most recently got back from a trip teaching about soil building methods at a workshop in the DFW area, and also made my way to 4 sites along the way to and from my teaching engagement. Helped several people get direction and overcome obstacles to the development of their properties. As well as helping one family feel comfortable in the plans they already had set in place. Overall, I had a great time, but I’m glad to be home and getting back to work on everything that needs to be done here. I need to get garlic in the ground asap, the weather has started to change, and we should start getting some rain in the next week or two now that the weather has shifted. I have a lot of plans going into winter! So let’s get right into it!
Garden Preparation
One of the big questions I’ve been getting recently is how can I gear up for winter gardening? Well, If you’re much farther north of me, then it’s probably too late to get much done other than quick growing greens and alliums that will be harvested next year. But I’ll get into some of the things I’m doing specifically.
Alliums -
It’s time for me to plant all my alliums here in Louisiana. I have a bunch of cool types of garlic I got from one of my contemporaries who has tons of market garden locations in and around St. Louis, and I have some perennial leeks and perennial onions to get in the ground. I’m really excited about all the cool new alliums this year. Next year will be chock full of onions and garlic if we have a good winter! I’ll be filming the planting of my alliums so you guys can get in on the action as well!
Mulching & Bed Prep -
I have some beds that need some renewing and mulching, so I’ll be cleaning them up and mulching heavily before planting this winter. I’ll be using some old moldy feed acquired locally to help build some soil, feed worms and increase biological diversity. It’s amazing what a little mulch and some worm food will do to build great soil!
Winter Greens -
I’ll be planting a lot of greens like spinach, lettuce, collards, arugula, and anything else that will grow through the colder weather and produce a leafy green crop for our salads. I’ll be covering with greenhouse plastic row covers to heat things up a bit and get some stellar growth out of them during the colder weather.
Root Crops -
It’s past time for me to get things like potatoes and carrots in the ground, but here in the south, the only time to really grow root crops like these is when it’s cooler. I’ll be getting them put in the ground soon so we can have some spring harvest. We have nice deep sandy soil so we should be able to get some long cultivars of carrots to grow nicely this year. In the past, my soils have been too compacted, it should be easy this year in the old garden spot.
New Garden Beds -
This is something we’re going to be working on all winter long, no huge rush since things are generally so warm here anyways. I might even be able to use some clear plastic to heat the soil and keep earthworms nice and active all winter long in the new beds and have a rocking start in the spring. I’ll keep you guys up to date on how that all goes. I am hopeful it works out like I think it might. All I have to do is keep the soil moist, warm, and keep food in there and they should go bonkers. Looking forward to trying that experiment out!
Cleanup -
It’s about time to make the last pile of compost for the year. I’ll have plenty of material between the chicken coop deep litter ...