Fall is here and we love the beautiful weather, beautiful foliage displays and fun festive seasonal events. As fall comes, it can only mean one thing, winter is here. After enjoying our garden’s blooms and harvest all summer long, now is the perfect time to start preparing our garden for fall and winter. Every winter, the ground freezes, creating a kind of hibernation for all the life that thrives there every spring, summer and fall. Therefore, we cannot expect our soils to thrive during this time and must be prepared for the upcoming season. Taking the time and effort to clean and prepare your garden can get you started in spring. Here are some practical tips and things to do to prepare your garden for fall and winter.
How to Prepare Your Garden for Fall and Winter
clear debris
After a long gardening season, we may be tempted to leave our gardens, knowing that they will soon be covered in snow. But take the time to clean up your gardens so they’re now ready for hibernation. Remove diseased plants that can draw nutrients from the soil and damage other healthy plants in the garden. Remove invasive weeds, shoots, dead plants and any other unwanted visitors from garden beds. Trust me, spring is here and you’ll thank yourself when your garden is refreshed and ready for another growing season.
clean your tools
Fall is a great time to refresh your tools. Clean dirt and grime off your tools to make sure they don’t rust in the winter. Sharpen them and hide them in a safe place for the winter, so when it digs into your garden again, they’re like new!
cover
Many people only add mulch at the beginning of the growing season in the spring, but fall is a great time to cover your garden and help regenerate the garden soil and prepare it for another growing season. Mulch helps protect your plants and soil from winter elements like frost, erosion, and uprooting, and helps plants absorb water. You don’t have to go out and buy fancy mulch, you can actually mulch with leaves. Chopped leaves make a great protector for your plants and soil, plus it’s free and completely natural and organic!
Protect annuals from frost
You’re probably still enjoying a bumper crop of summer labor, and these vegetables can survive light frosts. Cover crops in your fall garden to help protect them from low temperatures. Here’s a great guide to determining what temperatures your vegetables will thrive and survive.
pruning perennials
Don’t forget to prune your perennials to ensure they’re healthy and happy next spring, summer and fall. Plants are sometimes recommended to be pruned after flowering, for example lilacs should be pruned after flowering in spring. But if you haven’t pruned, now is a good time to prune before winter. This will help remove unhealthy parts of the plant and ensure that nutrients from the soil get to the healthy parts of the plant.
Dig the bulb
Some bulbs won’t survive the harsh winters we’ve had in the Northeast. If you haven’t already, take a look at the plants in your garden to make sure the bulbs will last through the winter. If they can’t, it’s important to dig it properly and store it safely for the winter. Another reason to dig and replant bulbs is to help them thrive and bloom. Some plants will lack flowers if they stay in one place. Transplanting them is a great way to keep these blooms year after year. Once you’ve dug up the bulbs, you can replant them and enjoy beautiful spring blooms! Check out this guide on when and how to transplant bulbs.
plant bulb
If you want to add fresh bulbs to your garden, fall is a great time to plant fresh bulbs. There are certain bulbs that are best planted in the fall for spring and summer blooms. The best bulbs to plant in the fall are those that bloom in early spring and summer, including daffodils, crocuses, tulips, hyacinths, irises, and alliums. Take the time now to prepare your garden for spring and summer, and spring will bring you some interesting blooms. You will be pleasantly surprised to see those flowers sprouting.
Divide the light bulb
If you have the opposite problem and need to clear your garden a little due to overgrowth, you may want to separate the bulbs. Wait until the leaves on the plant die before digging up the bulbs to divide.Check out this guide How to Divide Blooming Spring Bulbs Learn more tips and tricks.
Conduct a soil test
If your garden isn’t doing as well as you’d like it to, fall is a great time to do a soil test. Soil tests can tell you the type of soil, giving you information going forward. You may need to test several garden beds as the soil may vary throughout the property. If your soil is on the sandier side, you can use specific fertilizers to help your plants thrive. Getting this information in the fall will help you prepare your plants for everything they need to be successful in the spring!
improve soil
Amend the soil in your garden by adding soil conditioners like compost, fertilizer, and mulch. By giving your garden an extra layer of protection, you’ll protect your garden from harsh winters. Adding mulch or seeding cover crops to your garden will help prevent damage from rain and other elements. You can sow cover crops by growing things like rye, vetch, or clover, which create a sort of protective blanket over crops and plants.
Add organic compost
Organic compost is a great way to nourish your garden soil without worrying about adding any unsafe pesticides or harming our planet with chemicals and unnatural additives. Try bone meal, kelp, or rock phosphate compost, or better yet, put your own home compost to good use. Your summer compost should be ready after all the heat and time it takes to decompose throughout the season and can be used to amend the soil. This organic material is very healthy for the soil and the planet. Keep using your compost bin through the winter so you can use that compost again in the spring!
pull weeds
I don’t know about you, but our vegetable garden has been a little crazy this summer. It is crucial that we take the time to clean our gardens in the winter to ensure we don’t run into trouble in the spring. Unfortunately, those weeds that creep into our gardens in the summer are back next year. Be sure to pull all the way down from the roots so they don’t come back in next year’s garden.
What are you doing to prepare your garden for fall and winter? Let us know in the comments below.
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