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Winter is widely regarded as being time-off for many gardeners. While this is true for many, others see the opportunities of the season, continue working on our vegetable plots year round. Lately, I have been laying and renewing the paths between my vegetable beds. I do this by first spreading cardboard over the path area, making sure to overlap all of the edges. This layer serves to prevent weeds from poking-through my path material next season. Onto the cardboard I spread about six inches of chipped tree and shrub branches, delivered by a friend's large landscaping company. Once the chips are spread, I stomp them with my feet and with the back of a flat shovel, compressing them to around four inches. While this may initially seem like an awful lot of chips, It will be less than one inch deep by next winter, at which point I will repeat the process, cardboard and all.

The benefits of chip paths are numerous. One of the key advantages to maintaining this type of pathway between beds is that I don't have to worry about many weed seeds spreading from the paths into the beds during the next growing season. Chip paths also require no mowing, and many people, myself included, find them to be more visually-pleasing than the random mishmash of coarse weeds and eroded bare earth that often seems to result when paths are continually trod-upon and left to their own devices. Another advantage of chip paths is an increase in organic matter in the soil immediately below the paths. While this may not appear to be an obvious advantage, considering that no plants are grown in this soil, I strongly suspect that a certain amount of organic matter is transported by life in the soil into the adjacent beds. The roots of many crops also wander away from the beds, some of them finding their way under the paths. Another benefit of wood-based paths is the interesting fungal life that develops in and around them: All sorts of interesting fungi fruit through my paths, often when I least expect them to. Last January, during a brief warm spell, a bunch of adorable little ascomycetes grew from a section of path, and remained visible for nearly three months.

Another task I occupy myself with in the winter is the amendment of no-till beds in preparation for the coming growing season. Though my technique varies, It generally consists of cutting any weeds down to the ground, and leaving the cut parts on top of the soil. I do not pull up roots. I then spread a light application of granular organic fertilizer onto the soil, and sometimes some dolomite lime. These powders are not mixed in. Next, I spread either compost or manure onto the land. I generally use fresh horse manure in the fall and winter, and compost during the spring and summer. Both amendments I spread to a depth of at least one inch, though three or four is much more desirable. The final step is to spread mulch onto the manure/compost layer. I use a number of different things for this, depending on what has been growing in the land, what is currently growing in it, and what I plan on growing in it the next season. My three main mulches are chopped straw, fall leaves, and composted fall leaves. I try to rotate mulches from year to year, though this is not always possible. Once a bed is prepared this way, little if any digging is required to cultivate crops in it the following season. Many types of transplants can be planted right through the mulch, as can larger seeds and tubers. Fine seeds and small transplants often require the top layer of mulch, and some of the decomposing manure, to be temporarily scraped-away until the plants are large enough to be mulched.

One potential disadvantage with using thick mulches year-round in our moist climate is the increase in slug and snail populations that is often the result. I have no trouble with this trade-off, as I actively trap slugs and snails using one litre yogurt containers. I simply make two holes two thirds of the way up the containers, one on either side, approximately the size of loonies. I fill the containers halfway with a mixture of water, yeast, sugar and citrus rinds, put the tops back on, and bury them halfway into the mulch around my gardens. Every week or so, I check up on them, dumping the contents out into my beds, and refilling them. I've caught upwards of 50 slugs and snails in each trap over a one week period mid-spring.

Processing raw organic materials is never far from my thoughts, and as a result, composting is a year-round job for me. Here is Southwestern British Columbia, we are fortunate enough to have relatively mild winters which allow us to continue hot composting right through the coldest months of the year. Three weeks ago, on the second of January, I layered together a batch of compost ingredients, and within two days, steam was rolling off the top into the cool surrounding atmosphere. The pile is just starting to cool down now. The key to effective hot composting is to make the piles large enough to generate heat, and to be sure to have roughly the appropriate carbon-to-nitrogen ratio necessary for the heat to be generated and maintained. Once the pile has sat for about a month and a half, I will turn it, allowing it to heat up once again, and resulting in finished compost much faster than a pile left unturned.

Inevitably, while working in my sleeping winter gardens, my thoughts turn to next year's plans, and more often than not, to all the interesting new plant varieties I'll be growing in the coming season. Check back for a spring update, and for additions to my list of free seeds. Happy gardening!