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Fall Garden Care Tips to Keep Your Property in Beautiful Condition

The fall season is officially underway, and for many people, that means things are starting to change. Of course, this includes factors like the colors of the leaves changing and Halloween rapidly approaching. But for homeowners, it also means something a bit more important: switching up your checklist of lawn, garden, and property maintenance tasks. 

While you may have spent the entire summer working on your garden, adding beautiful plants, caring for trees and shrubs, and cutting the grass, it is not yet time to put your equipment away. As the weather cools, your garden’s requirements change. Fall gardening is a bit more involved and requires two schools of thought: protective and additive. 

Protective fall gardening focuses on prepping the garden for winter and ensuring the plants and grass have everything needed to survive the cold until spring. Additive fall gardening focuses on incorporating new plants and vegetables that will thrive in the fall and survive during the winter.  

Despite the fact that most plants, grass, trees and shrubs go dormant during the winter months (since their growing season is usually in the spring or summer), fall is one of the most crucial seasons of the year for lawn care. If you want a lush, green garden in the spring, as well as plants that will flourish, make an autumn landscaping investment to help your grass emerge bright and strong after the winter months.

But what, exactly, do you need to do? The following guide serves as a checklist for homeowners to follow as the season gets underway, before winter hits. By sticking to this garden checklist and keeping up with the necessary fall garden care, you can ensure your property survives the winter and turns into a healthy, beautiful garden come spring. Here’s what you need to do. 

Prepping the Property: Basics for a Healthy Fall Garden

Step 1: Rake All the Fallen Leaves

You might like the vibrant display of leaves in your fall garden, and your kids might enjoy playing in them. It’s critical, though, to keep these fallen leaves off your grass and away from your garden throughout the fall and winter.

A layer of leaves on top of the garden can prevent sunshine and oxygen from reaching the grass below. Mold and pest infestations might be encouraged by decaying leaves throughout winter.

Throughout the fall and winter season, it’s ideal to keep up with raking or pay a lawn care professional to do it for you. While it might seem like a lot of work, it will pay off when it’s time to plant new flowers in the spring, and you have a healthy yard to work with. 

Step 2: Cut the Grass

When it comes to maintaining a fall garden, you might be tempted to put your lawnmower away. After all, cutting the grass is often viewed as a spring activity. Howwever, your grass will actually continue to grow until the first frost. Come winter, though, it will likely stop growing.

Long grass can mat down and produce fungus, so cutting your lawn to around a three-inch height is usually ideal. You can securely store your mower till spring after the first frost.

Step 3: Aerate the Soil

The soil in the ground might harden as a result of the hot summer temperatures, preventing water and nutrients from reaching the roots. This is why aerating the soil in the fall and before winter is so beneficial.

If you don’t have access to a soil aerator for your garden, a lawn care professional can help. Because the top layer of roots and dirt will be loose in the soil, you’ll be able to fertilize the grass more easily before winter. Doing this will ensure that when it’s time to plant new vegetables or flowers in the spring, the soil is healthy enough to support this growth. 

Step 4: Seed Any Bare Spots

Fall is the greatest time to spread extra grass seed to your lawn’s soil if it has any sparse spots. This permits the roots to establish within the soil and flourish over the winter, ensuring that your grass is ready to thrive and experience new growth in the spring.

Plant new seeds at least 45 days before the first frost of the winter season, giving the roots plenty of time to develop in the garden soil.

Step 5: Apply Fertilizer

You can help your lawn bounce back easily and experience new growth in the spring by guaranteeing its health in the fall. After aerating the soil, fertilize the lawn to keep it healthy until spring.

Grass may regrow after being sunburned in the summer while conserving nutrients for the winter. In most cases, two fertilization procedures separated by roughly six weeks will suffice.

Moving on to Plants: Making Your Garden Beautiful

Once you’ve handled the basics of ensuring a healthy property on which your fall garden can thrive, you can move on to the fun part of this checklist: planting new fall bulbs and vegetables, incorporating new fall flowers, and planning your garden for spring. 

How Vegetables Play a Role in Your Fall Gardening Routine

Ideal Bulbs or Seeds to Plant With Fall Gardening in Your Vegetable Garden

Every type of plant, as well as trees and shrubs, has its own growing season. A growing season refers to the time of year in which the plant experiences new growth and flourishes. 

Much like plants, there are certain vegetable bulbs that thrive during the fall season. Autumn is their growing season. The cooler temperature and increased rain create the perfect environment for numerous vegetables. Ideal vegetables for your fall garden or vegetable garden you can add to your checklist include:

  • Carrots
  • Beets
  • Spinach
  • Brussel sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Cauliflower

Plant these in your garden as early in the fall as possible to ensure the bulbs have adequate time to take root and grow. 

Vegetables Bulbs & Seeds That Should Be Protected When Fall Gardening

Part of your fall gardening routine should also include protecting those spring bulbs, plants, and seeds in your vegetable garden that won’t thrive in the fall or winter. The best way to do this? Cover crops and soil.

If you have a summer harvest that you’ve planted in your garden, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, squash, or beans, you need to protect them from the harsh temperatures winter will bring until they develop new growth in the spring.

Cover crops in your garden with a thick layer of mulch to provide extra insulation. After applying the layer of mulch, cover crops in your garden with a tarp; this will protect the bulbs and roots from harsh winds or snow. 

Which Flowers Are Best to Plant in Your Garden During Fall?

Just like there are spring bulbs for vegetables, there are some plants and flowers in which the best time to plant them is fall. In fact, the variety of flowers that you can plant during the spring is actually greater, since fall actually has more good planting days than spring. The reason for this is that the ground is still warm from the summer, but the temperatures aren’t as harsh, so the roots have a better chance of taking hold and surviving. 

When it comes to what you should plant in the garden, you can break down your options into two categories: spring flowers and plants, and flowers and plants that have already bloomed and can be enjoyed in the fall.

Spring flowers and plants are those that may not break through and bloom until the following spring. Planting them during the fall allows the root systems to begin to form so that once spring arrives, they show up faster and grow stronger throughout the spring season.

These include pansy, daffodil, iris, primrose, and tulip flowers. Plant these spring bulbs deep within the soil to ensure they aren’t damaged during winter.

The second type of flowers and plants are those that have already bloomed and can be transferred from the pots in which they were sold to your garden. In this case, you might want to opt for plants that feature typical fall colors, like red, orange, or yellow. 

Common types of plants incorporated in fall gardens include:

  • Chrysanthemum
  • Dianthus
  • Aster
  • Celosia
  • Japanese Anemones
  • Blue Mist Shrubs
  • Autumn crocus
  • Goldenrod
  • Tickseed
  • Sweet Alyssum
  • Marigold
  • Purple Fountain Grass
  • Black-Eyed Susan

You can usually purchase these plants at your local nursery or grocery store. Most stores will offer seasonal plants that ensure the best growth and life span, but feel free to ask a specialist which plants they recommend to fit in with the rest of your garden. When transferring these plants and flowers from their pots to your garden, be careful. Try to capture the entire root system so it’s not disturbed or damaged.

A Bit of Care Is All You Need for a Beautiful and Healthy Fall Garden

By following the tips and recommendations in the checklist above, you don’t just ensue your lawn is healthy and ready to survive the winter months. You’ll also cultivate a beautiful fall garden with lush plants, beautiful flowers, and healthy soil that will last until next year and look just as beautiful in the spring.

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