Fall Lawn Maintenance and Garden Cleanup Tips

As summer is but a memory and fall floats through to bring the garden trials of the cold winter, the most skilled of gardeners will take this moment of pause to prepare their garden or lawns to best weather the cold season so they can come out with a lush and fruitful bang when growing season creeps back in.

Pick Up and Chuck Out Rotten Fruits and Veggies

Cleaning up a garden after its harvest season is an important part of maintaining a healthy growing area for next year's crop. One step in cleaning up a harvest garden is to remove any leftover fruit or vegetables which might have fallen and begun to rot. This can help keep bacteria and toxins from rot from getting hold in the cold-weather garden soil, and it can also help prevent the attraction of any hungry garden pests who might decide to make a home near a hearty source of rotting garden produce.

Keep Leaves, But Mulch Them

Leaves are by nature beneficial to a growing plot because they provide necessary organic material that helps nourish the soil and help retain moisture within the ground. However, leaves should be shredded into mulch for best results, otherwise they may turn into a coagulated soggy leaf blanket that smothers the lawn and garden area. The easiest way to do this is to rake the leaves and use a mulching machine to chop them into a useful consistency, but the laziest of gardeners can let their kids at the leaf pile wearing sets of golf shoes and hope for the best. However, the mulching machine may prove more effective.

Fall Lawn Fertilizer Gives Grass a Layer of Winter "Fat"

Treating a lawn with a slow-release lawn fertilizer mixture around Thanksgiving can help give a lawn bulked-up and nourished roots that can help make the lawn healthier and more primed to spring into action when the green season re-emerges.

Constructing a Thriving Cold Weather Growing Space

For perpetual gardeners, Fall means a time to clean up the outdoor gardens and prepare them for winter while setting up an indoor garden sufficient to maintain a green thumb over the winter months. An avid gardener can keep an indoor garden during the months that are green and ready for plant growth outside, but winter months make indoor gardening an essential for all but the most temperate of tropical climates. Indoor gardening options for fall include cheap options like a kitchen herb garden in a sunny windowsill or more elaborate growing setups like hydroponics, aeroponics, or indoor mini-greenhouses. A proper indoor garden for the winter can help supplement thin reserves of fresh fruits, veggies and herbs at the local grocery store once the weather turns its coldest.

Resources.

Virginia Cooperative Extension Guide: Fall Lawn Care
Fall Lawn Care
Set Up a Healthy Indoor Garden For Fall and Winter Gardening