Use Your Fall Clean Up Materials to Help Decorate for Halloween

Cleaning up your yard, gardens, and flowerbeds in the fall is a good way to prepare them for spring and to ward off insect pests. Debris and dead foliage can help insects and other pests survive the winter by keeping them warm. The best way to prevent the spread and infestation of these pests and to help your yard look its best next spring is to do fall yard-cleanup every year.

The best time to do your fall cleanup is generally in early October. At this time, most insects will have buried themselves for the winter so the removal of debris will expose them to harsh weather. Cleaning your yard and flowerbeds will be much faster because much of your seasonal plants will have died off by this time, making them easier to remove. Tilling your beds and gardens after debris removal will help further expose pests to winter temperatures, killing them off before they can manage to do any damage to your spring crops or flowers.

For your flowerbeds, shrubbery, and trees, trimming in fall is essential to help your plants remain healthy over the winter and into the new season. A light trim will suffice for most of your typical yard shrubbery and trees. For some plants, it is recommended that you trim more aggressively to encourage more growth in the upcoming spring. Be sure to do some research to determine if any of your yard's plants need special fall care!

As leaves begin to fall, be sure not to forget to clean out your gutters. Leaving your gutters full of debris can be detrimental during the winter when snow falls and melts and rainstorms are more violent. Cleaning out gutters will ensure that water is not dripping directly against your home's foundation and can help rejuvenate nearby flowerbeds when rain falls in spring.

Most of your fall tasks won't require much work with tools, but there are a few tools that can make your cleanup significantly easier and won't cost you much to pick them up. For instance, a small chainsaw can reduce the time needed to trim shrubbery and trees by nearly half. To use the wood you trimmed from trees for firewood in the upcoming winter, purchase a log splitter to chop with ease! For cultivating your gardens and flowerbeds, the use of a tiller is essential. Tilling will help eliminate the return of insects and help bring new soil to the surface.

As Halloween is just around the corner, using your fall cleanup debris to help decorate can be a way to encourage the whole family to get out and help! Use your leaves and other soft debris to fill sacks that look like jack-o-lanterns and to make scarecrows or scary ghosts! Hang scary decorations from your recently trimmed shrubbery and trees to give trick-or-treaters the ultimate experience.