5 Expert Fall Gardening Tips to Prepare for Now

Spending time outside’s good for your mind and body, and gardening’s one of the most constructive things you can do outdoors almost every day.

So, don’t let the approaching winter send you scurrying to the couch. Get outside and make a difference in your garden.

As the colder months approach, you’ve still got time to reap all these benefits of time spent outside by preparing your garden for the quiet season.

Try these fall gardening tips to ensure your garden not only looks it’s best at this time of year but emerges on the other side better than ever before.

1. Feed Your Soil

One of the most important fall gardening tasks is ensuring all the hard work you put in over the summer doesn’t go to waste. If you still have plants in the ground, you can rest assured they need extra nutrition during the slow season.

During the fall, you should test your soil regularly and add a soil charge formula to make up any shortfall in its composition.

2. Clean-Up Chores

Rake and remove any spent plants, and stay on top of your leaf raking chores. This debris is a haven for insect pests and weeds that overwinter in its warm leafy depths.

Dispose of this plant matter to avoid these unwanted plants and creatures resurfacing in the summer.

Now’s also a good time to use up whatever compost’s left on your heap and start afresh. A thick layer of compost on your garden beds helps keep the soil warm and provides extra nutrition.

3. Fall Vegetable Gardening Tips

While many flowering plants die down in the winter or shed their leaves, fall vegetables thrive during the colder months. Plant your winter vegetables, like carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, and spinach now.

These vegetables thrive in cooler conditions but it’s a good idea to cover them when extreme cold and frost threatens.

4. Fall Gardening Tips for Bulbs and Tubers

Plants like daffodils and tulips disappear under the ground during cold weather. Dig these bulbs up and store them in brown paper bags in a warm dry spot.

This protects them from the worst of the cold weather and will ensure strong growth when you replant them in the spring.

5. Refurbish Your Garden Beds

Now that the summer growth is dying down, it’s a good time to spruce up your garden’s layout. Divide perennials well before the first frost and move them to new locations.

This gives them time to establish strong new roots before going dormant for the winter. Remember to leave space for your overwintering bulbs while working on plans for your new garden layout.