Soil Building & Cover Crops for Autumn & Winter

Two sessions available: 11:00 am - 12:30 pm OR 2:00 pm - 3:30pm

Turn Your Garden’s Off-Season into a Season of Renewal! In this class, you’ll learn how to leverage autumn and winter cover crops and organic soil-building techniques to protect your ground, fix essential nitrogen, suppress early spring weeds, and build rich, spongy soil structure for the coming year.

Take-Homes: Fifth Season's House Blend of cover crop seeds, a $15 Gift Card to purchase amendments and tools that suit your goals. 10% off storewide on class day! Plus, a step-by-step soil prep checklist.

We’ll look at matching specific cover crops and amendments to your goals. Whether that’s adding nitrogen, weed prevention, erosion control, or adding life and beauty in to a "dormant garden" during cold months, cover crops can be the easy answer!

When the main harvest wraps up, your soil’s work is just beginning. Leaving garden beds bare over fall and winter exposes vital topsoil to erosion, nutrient leaching, and compaction. Join us for a hands-on guide to closing down your garden beds while actively feeding the living ecosystem beneath your feet.

Seed Mix Design & Sowing: How to calculate seed rates, mix nitrogen fixers with biomass producers, and master timing for late-season planting in our region.

Layered Soil Building: Integrating sheet mulching (lasagna gardening), fall leaves, compost, and low-till practices to feed soil microbes through the cold months.

Spring Termination Strategies: Practical methods to turn cover crops back into organic matter without heavy machinery, including crimping, tarping, and chop-and-drop.

Who Should Attend: Backyard gardeners, homesteaders, and grower-curious plant lovers looking to build long-term soil fertility naturally.

Date: Saturday November 1, 2026

Structure: Two sessions available 11:00 am or 2:00 pm.

Workshop duration: 1.5 hours (i.e., 11a-12:30p; 2p-3:30p)

Breaks: 10 minute break midway

Address: 4 South Tunnel Road, Asheville, NC, USA