[MargeSimpson]

My raised veggie bed is coming to the end of the season now, so what next?
I was reading up on green manure, but its seems unsuitable for me. I've thought about winter veg.
I've thought about just letting it go and then adding manure in late winter just before Spring.
Or covering it with plastic to stop weeds/grass growing over winter.

What do most people do with their vegetable areas over winter?

[The Garden Shop]

Marge,
You can still plant winter veg., cabbage, turnip lots of others. but if you really want to give your beds a rest instead of using plastic to cover them, try old cardboard boxes weighed down, great way of using unwanted items from around the house, will keep down weeds and allow the soil to breathe.

[Lius]

You have left it a bit late for winter vegetables unless you know someone with some surplus plants. I saw some lovely plants in Woodies Stillorgan last week (cabbage, broccoli, etc.) which could come on nicely for Oct/Nov, I can't remember the price.

I planned 2nd and 3rd crops in one of my raised beds from the start this year. I got 1st early spuds, then onions, and now I have transplanted brassicas in the same raised bed this year. Another raised bed gave me brassicas earlier and now I have a crop of parsnips in the same bed.

It's still a bit trial and error this year in my beds but I am going to plan it out more carefully next year to get the maximum yield. The Square Foot Method really does help with the planning.

[Gautama]

The first year I had an allotment I grew a variety of winter veg but was not successful.
My plot gets no sunlight from September to March.
Also, the evenings are dark therefore any plot work is restricted to Saturday and Sunday. If one or both of those days are unsuitable for gardening, or if I'm unavailable, then time on the plot is further reduced.

I tried green manure one year. My advice here is don't plant any perennial green manures, or any that are likely to flower before you get to cut them down.

I usually cover my plot with plastic. Keeps the weeds down, protects the soil from the rain, and when removed the soil is in perfect condition for working.
I lay it loosely over the ground and pin it down in a few places with rocks. I've had no problem with the soil breathing.

I've grown a few leeks this year and am planting out the leeklets as I dig my potatoes. This is the one crop that I have grown successfully over winter.

Unfortunately, slugs have taken up home in the holes I've made for the leeks, and though they don't go near the leeks, the slugs get attacked by mapgies, who have uprooted some of the leeks in the process.

[Blowin]

In a sense, Marge, you've asked a question that's almost impossible to answer. It very much depends what you want your plot to do for you.

For me, when veg is cheap in the shops, I'm not so concerned about producing my own. I produce what summer veg I can but my real buzz comes when, as prices rise with the onset of winter, my plot is still relatively full of food. One of the other responders has suggested you might be a bit late for this year and I'd agree with that. The question is really what to do for next year.

I've got spring greens seedlings almost ready to plant out and they'll join already mature Brussells Sprouts that'll last until at least Christmas, parsnips the same, leeks too and a couple of rows of mixed swedes and turnips. I've just finished next year's runner bean trench, full of material that'll rot down ready for planting next year.

Any vacant bits I cover with a good depth of lawn mowings to stifle weed growth, conserve moisture and rot down to improve the soil quality. In fact, I sometimes find myself anxiously waiting for crops to finish at the end of one season so that I've got space to prepare and plant the next.

For me a general, all round garden is never idle but it'll depend on you and the crops you want to grow.

[Maeve Drogheda]

I am with Gautama on this one. I leave my beds to rest over the winter, put lots of seaweed over them and feed with with organic fertilizer. It probably sounds old fashioned, but my Dad who thaught me everything I know about gardening, always left the veggie patch to rest during the winter, and gave it a good feed of soil enricher.

Although I don't cover it with plastic, I cover it with old rugs. I have frozen a vast amount of veg to be eaten over the winter, and made mint sauce, sun dried tomatoes etc with the crops I have harvested this year, so in the middle of winter I will still have the taste of summer.