Caring for Your Garden in the Fall

This time of year, those of us in the northern hemisphere are welcoming fall and preparing for winter. Here are a few tips to get your garden or yard ready for its winter slumber.

When you rake up leaves from deciduous trees, don't haul them to the curb! Add them to the compost pile, or use this as a chance to start a compost pile. You can also just have a pile of leaves without other added yard and kitchen waste. For compost, mix grass clippings, vegetable parings, and other seed-free yard waste together, water, and cover with a tarp. For a leaf pile, just pile it all in an out-of-the-way corner and cover with a tarp. In damp climates, the tarp may not be necessary. Leave to sit over the winter, turning if you like to aerate the compost pile, and then turning again in the spring. When it breaks down into dark fluffy humus, spread the compost on your garden beds for prime soil food. To speed up the production of compost, mix in some blood meal or organic cottonseed meal for additional nitrogen.

Leaves can also be raked right onto prepared garden beds as mulch. Pull any spent annuals, chop them in smaller pieces (one to two inches long is nice), and toss them on your compost. Rake the bed smooth, and pile on the leaves. These will decay over winter, providing important nutrients for the soil microbes. A healthy garden begins in the soil, so leaf litter, compost, and other natural amendments yield a healthy, lush garden. You will get a jump on spring by mulching and feeding the soil in the fall.

Fill empty spots in your yard or garden with fall color mums and hardy pansies. Mulch with grass clippings, leaves, or straw to protect from frost.

Cover your vegetable beds with straw and plant cover crops like vetch, clover, and winter rye. These plants add nitrogen to the soil and reduce soil loss during the bare winter months. In the spring, cut them back and till them under, or cut them short and plant around them.

Biodynamic gardening suggests that trimming and weeding at the dark moon - the period after waning and before waxing, the day before and of the new moon - will keep weeds thinner and reduce re-growth on trimmed plants. This is not the time to do major pruning, but you can cut back overgrown bushes and perennials, trim dead and damaged branches, and otherwise clean up your garden.

Wait until ornamental grasses have turned brown to trim them neatly for texture in the fall and winter garden. Then when new shoots come up in the spring, trim grasses to one inch above the ground.

If your ground is not yet frozen, September and early October can be a good time to plant shrubs, trees, and perennials. They need a root ball, not bareroot. Dig a hole a little deeper than the root ball and twice as wide. Spread compost at the bottom of the hole, and fill the hole with water. After the water has receded, put your root ball in, gently loosening the roots. Add enough compost or planting mix to get the crown of the roots at the right level - check your planting instructions for your particular plant. Then fill around the roots with more compost or organic planting mix, and water. Planting in the fall gives perennials and trees a chance to establish good roots in cooler weather before the freeze.

Before your ground freezes, put in spring bulbs like tulips, crocuses, and daffodils. Follow planting instructions for depth of the bulb. Cover with organic planting mix and compost, and spread deer netting over the top to protect from squirrels. Top netting with mulch. You'll be rewarded with your hard work in the spring with a bright burst of color.

If you're feeling adventurous, you may want to set up a coldframe in early fall. This mini-greenhouse extends your food-growing season to virtually year-round. You can purchase simple to ornate coldframes in plastic and glass, or make your own out of a wooden box covered with an old storm window, or even a wooden frame covered with plastic sheeting. Prepare the soil by mixing in compost and blood meal, kelp meal, or organic cottonseed meal. Plant radishes, spinach, kale, and lettuce greens or other cold season plants. You can have fresh salads in the snow! For more on coldframes, see Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest.

Fall is also the time to take notes about your garden regarding blank spots that will need rethinking in spring, or what worked really well last summer that you want to remember to repeat next year.

Fall is a lovely time of year in the garden, time to celebrate the harvest and plan for the winter ahead. This might be the year you switch to organic gardening, or take on a new project like a coldframe or apple tree. Then it's time to relax and watch fall slip into the quiet cold of winter.