Putting the Garden to Bed?

Went to a workshop at Swanson's last Saturday about preparing garden beds for winter. Besides the garlic and other herbs we will not be growing food here. Most of the beds will have cover crop (Faba Beans and Austrian Pea). Other than that I'm collecting the falling leaves to place down as mulch. The mulch will help protect the soil from erosion. So far the rains have been exposing rocks, which has been good to remove from the beds. Better not to encourage too much erosion though. I wonder how long the leaves will last before they decay though.

 

 

 

I wonder if we should transplant the catnip and other herbs in pots. They say it's better to have plants in the ground rather than in pots, which may not survive deep freezes. What will we get this winter?

 

 

Here is a nice little chore list for preparing winter: http://gardening.about.com/od/fallinthegarden/a/NovGarden.htm?nl=1

 

This is the worksheet Swanson's provided last Saturday: http://www.swansonsnursery.com/PDF/1_GENERAL/Putting%20the%20Garden%20to%20Bed.pdf