Fall Gardening - Jump Start Your Garden for Spring!

Winter is just around the corner which means the garden season is coming to an end. While the garden has been so full of growth and activity throughout the summer, now as autumn starts and winter comes up the garden needs to be prepared for the long winter. By doing some fall garden work, you can get a head start in the spring with less work to do before planting. Follow this guide for tips to prepare your garden for winter during the fall months.

As each vegetable stops producing, you can pull up that particular plant. This means, after the peas are done, pull up the plant and throw them into a pile. You can place them into your compost pile as you wish. Then, continue with the beans, and the assortment of vegetables you have planted. By doing this, you will clean your garden as the summer goes on and not have to do it all in the fall.

After all the plants have stopped bearing vegetables, you will want to remove them all from the garden. This ensures that any diseases or pests will be removed from the garden. You can use them for your compost pile though if you wish. If you know of any disease or pest, do not use them in your compost pile though. Try to pull up as much of the root as you can as well.

After you have cleaned all the growth from your garden, you will want to apply a low level fertilizer. The best choice is to lay a smooth layer of compost or horse manure. Both of these products will work their way into the soil over the winter and provide you with rich soil in the spring.

After fertilizing, you can till the garden gently. This tilling will help to loosen the soil and allow for adequate winter drainage. The ground will freeze better and in spring, will thaw and drain the spring rains without allowing for soil erosion. Try to till the top 8 inches of soil to incorporate the compost of manure you have placed on the top of the garden soil. This will also make spring tilling easier and allow you to till deeper into the soil.

It is also a good idea to level your garden soil in the fall. This will help the snow to cover the garden evenly. It will also help the rain water to stay in your garden. An uneven garden will take much more water to provide adequate moisture for all your garden plantings. Having a level garden will also help the rich top soil to stay where you want it and prevent it from running out of the garden with each rain and watering!

By doing some simple fall garden work, you can greatly decrease your spring work load. Spring is such a busy time in many gardeners' lives, that any thing you can do to work ahead is a great idea! Preparing your garden for winter and spring in the fall will help you get planting those seeds and seedlings even earlier in the spring!