Just because the weather is turning cooler is no reason to turn your back on the garden! In fact, giving your garden a little extra time now can help you have a great gardening season next year. It also happens to be an excellent time to get out and dig in the dirt, get a little exercise, and dream about the changes you are going to make in your garden design. Cooler weather and fewer outdoor activities create the perfect excuse to complete this fall garden checklist!

Amend Your Soil

This is a great time of year to work compost into your soil to improve the texture, drainage or available nutrients. Till in compost from your own yard and kitchen waste, or pick up a couple bags at the store. Do this every fall to have the best garden on the block. This is the number one thing you can do to improve your garden results for next year!

Clean Up!

Yea, you knew I was getting to this… Maybe not the most fun part of fall gardening, but important just the same. Pull out dead or diseased plants and dispose of them. Clean up plant matter at the base of plants and throughout beds. Doing this will make it harder for pests and disease to invade the garden come spring.

Mulch Your Tenders

If you have plants that are borderline in your cold zone, and you would like to try to get them through the winter, make sure you mulch them with a layer of at least 2-3 inches thick. If you mulch trees and evergreens, leave a gap around the base of the trunk to prevent pests from munching.

Order Your Bulbs

If you have always admired those tulips and daffodils in the neighbors yard, well now is the time to set up your own little spring show. Order your bulbs now for best selection online, and plant in late fall before the ground freezes.

Divide Perennials

Now is the time to dig up those overgrown perennials, divide them into smaller plants, and replant. Doing it now instead of spring gives the new plants a chance to put down roots and be ready to go when winter is over.

How to Divide Perennials

Feed the Birds

If you haven’t been feeding the birds all summer, now is a great time to start as their natural food becomes more scarce in autumn.

5 Upcycled Bird Houses, Feeders and Baths!

Feed the Lawn!

If you want that rich green lawn in spring, it needs some attention now. Talk to your local nursery about the right nutrients to apply to your lawn in fall, and get fertilizing one last time!

Sprinkler Care

In late fall, empty all hoses, place faucet protectors, and have your underground systems winterized.

Plant Fall Annuals

Mums, pansies and kale will fill those planters and pots well into fall, so get to planting!

 Enjoy!

This is the perfect time of year to enjoy a cup of tea or glass of wine in the garden, and watch the natural world slowly get sleepy. It’s a calming feeling to wait for the coming of winter, because it reminds us there is a season for every thing, and things do change, but that spring will return again!

 

Here is a wonderful infographic that we came upon and thought we would add to this post – on how to prepare your yard for winter. Check it out. Some good info here.

Source: eReplacementParts.com