Urban Gardening: Drying herbs and winterizing your garden

Sadly it's time to pack up our garden.  Our most successful herbs have been washed and are now air drying in the kitchen. Ready to add flavour to dishes and healing properties to herbal remedies. Since we are keen to get our beloved herbs back to the former glorying next year, we are winterising the garden.
   According to the experts, when winter approaches the soil should be on the dry side. Many herbs like dry soil anyway as they are from the Mediterranean and herbs like lavender, rosemary, and thyme are used to growing in the dry rocky soil. But there is another reason why you want to watch out for water as winter approaches because wet soil wicks the heat away from your plant. Not only that, but water freezes when it turns very cold and this can crack the roots of your plant. Make sure they are in frost proof containers that won't crack and expose the roots.
  To stop water getting into the soil we are using a mixture of pine bark and saw dust. This stops water seeping into the soil.