As the harvest season winds down and your garden turns from green to gold, there are still a few chores to be done.  Putting the garden properly to bed can yield a substantial payoff in the form of earlier, healthier spring produce.  A clean winter garden will be less likely to harbor pests and weeds, and soil that is cultivated, fertilized, and mulched will save you valuable time and labor when planting season comes.  Garden debris is favorite winter home for many harmful insects, which attach eggs, cocoons, or larvae to the stems and leaves of dried and faded plants.
     By cleaning out your garden beds in Fall you will help eliminate pest and disease problems next season.   Before the ground freezes in the fall, clear your garden of all vegetation except overwintering or perennial vegetables such as your onions, garlic, artichokes, greens and rhubarb.   Do not leave any vegetables to rot or you will encourage insect infestation.  Weeding is especially critical at this time as well, since fall is when many perennial weeds establish deep root systems and prodigiously set seed.  Weeds left in the fall garden will return with renewed vigor in the spring.
    If you cultivate your beds in the fall, you can plant as soon as the soil warms up in the spring.  Fall is a good time to apply fertilizers that require longer periods to break down.  Rock Phosphate and  Greensand will slowly release potassium, phosphorus and other nutrients if lightly spaded into the soil and left over the winter.   Fresh compost and autumn leaves tilled into your garden will decompose over the winter and supply many micronutrients. 
    Mulching applied to the fall garden is another way of adding organicmatter to the soil;  it also prevents soil erosion and protects your cold-hardy vegetables.  You can use shredded leaves, peat, straw, or coconut coir.
    Finally, update your garden journal.  Make notes, record observations, and reflect on how well your garden served your needs or didn't.  Were the beds spaced close enough for easy cultivation and harvesting?  Did you have too many vegetables of one kind or not enough of another?  Note cultivars which thrived in your garden, which didn't, and why.  Record any disease problems you may have had, how you solved them, and what steps need to be taken in the spring to avoild those problems.  Floating row covers, beneficial insects, lures, traps, botanical insecticides and cultivars can be used as part of an organic approach to disease and pest management.
    Reviewing the past growing season will give you a clearer sense of your own preferences as well as the particular needs of your garden.  When you make next year's choices, you will have guidelines based on conditons prevailing in your plot-with its unique combinaton of soil, climate, cultivars, growing methods, and gardening style.