HOW To Care For Your Garden In Fall

AUTUMN

Changing leaves signal that the growing season is winding down. Here’s what you should do to prep every area of your landscape for the colder months. Keep reading for great tips!

VEGETABLE GARDEN

Clean Up the Vegetable Garden Beds:

The vegetable garden is such a mess by the end of the season that it seems overwhelming at first. Break up tasks over time and work through the garden one bed or area at a time until they are all cleaned up and tucked in for winter.

LAWN & LEAVES

Deal with fallen leaves

Turf grass won’t tolerate thick layers of leaves well. If you don’t have a lot of leaves, skip raking and mow over them to chop them into smaller pieces that will add nutrients to the soil.

PLANT GARLIC

Select a garden bed that did not grow alliums this year and plant next year’s garlic crop. Work in a generous amount of compost into the soil and some organic fertilizer.

TREES AND SHRUBS

Plant new trees and shrubs

Add deciduous trees and shrubs anytime before the ground freezes, but avoid planting evergreen species in fall; they do better when planted in spring.

ORGANIZE YOUR TOOLS

As the growing season winds down, don’t forget to prep your garden tools for winter. Cleaned and refreshed, your favorite garden helpers will be ready when you are come spring.

CLEAN UP

Colorful annuals are often the first plants to succumb to frosty fall weather. Once a hard frost does them in, you’ll want to tidy up planting beds and pots to be ready to fill again next spring.

PREPARING PERENNIALS

Water your perennials and flowering shrubs in the fall; they will thank you for it this winter. Once the ground has frozen hard, cut perennials back to 3 inches and mulch them with a thick layer of leaves or straw.

ADD COMPOST

Sheet mulch the compost on top of our woodchip mulch. The rain quickly washes the compost down through the woodchip mulch making it available to your plants but not disturbing the mulch that you’ve laid down.

PLANT EVERGREENS

Evergreens provide structure and interest during the drab months of winter. Warm soil and cooler air temperatures make autumn the perfect time to fill gaps in your borders with evergreens like sarcococca and daphne which provide glossy, green leaves and beautifully fragrant flowers even in the depths of winter.

ENJOY FALL

Take time to enjoy the crisp, cool days of fall as you work in the garden. Observe the beauty around you and the warmth of the sunlight. Take a deep breath and enjoy the fresh aroma of the soil. Soon all will be covered with snow and frozen until spring.