10 Fall Gardening Tips

10 fall gardening tips for year-round color. Fall gardening varies significantly depending on your location. For instance, in Los Angeles, where I live, fall feels like a continuation of summer.

In contrast, temperatures in the Northeast can drop quickly. Regardless of your climate, fall is the perfect time to prepare your garden for the winter ahead.

These 10 fall gardening tips will get your plants, flowers, and vegetables through the big chill ahead.

10 Fall Gardening Tips

1.  Plant Perennially

Incorporate Evergreens: Use evergreen plants and shrubs to maintain a lush green backdrop when other plants are dormant. Even if you're in an area with a few weeks before the hard frost, there's still a chance to add a burst of color to your fall garden.

Select autumn-blooming flowers, perennials, and shrubs that provide vibrant color throughout the fall and winter.

For a final splash of color, plant dianthus, hardy asters, hardy chrysanthemum, ornamental peppers, primrose, ornamental kale, pansies, and Indian summer rudbeckia. Group your plants in clusters to create a more impactful display of color and texture.

In areas with mild, wet winters, this is a prime time to plant perennials, shrubs, trees, and a vegetable garden.

2.  Flower and Vegetable Bed Cleanup

Maintain Your Garden: Regularly deadhead spent blooms and trim back dead or dying foliage to keep your garden tidy and encourage new growth.

Clean up flower beds and the vegetable garden. Weed. Cut back yellowing or brown foliage.

3.  Water Wisely

When the ground freezes, plants can no longer get any moisture. If you live in a cold climate, be sure to water your lawn, plants, vegetable garden, and trees thoroughly for the next few months. It may be the last drink they get for a while.

4.  Prune Late-Flowering Perennials and Shrubs

Cut back late-flowering perennials and shrubs, such as hydrangea, buddleia, and peonies, to the ground and mulch them. Prune rambler roses now, but wait until late winter or early spring to prune other types of roses.

Do not prune spring-flowering shrubs, such as lilacs or forsythia, whose buds have already formed.

5.  Mulch Much?

Use Mulch: Apply a layer of mulch to retain moisture and suppress weeds, while also providing a finished look to your garden beds. You don't mulch to keep the ground warm all winter but to keep the ground temperature uniform.

When the ground freezes and thaws,  plants are often heaved up, exposing their roots, so you want to avoid that cycle.

Wait until the ground is partially frozen to mulch around plants in cold areas. Otherwise, the plants are lulled into thinking it's still summer and will keep growing.

This tender new growth makes the plant vulnerable to a hard freeze, which is why you should not fertilize in late fall.

Mulch should be at least six to eight inches deep to maintain a constant temperature. However, mulch only up to two inches deep over tree roots, which need air and moisture.

Do you live in a warmer climate? Mulching is still a good idea. If you mulch with organic material, such as compost, your flowerbeds will self-fertilize and be ready to plant next spring. 

Also, a layer of mulch at least four inches deep will discourage weeds and erosion in your vegetable garden.

6.  Fertilize the Lawn

7.  Don't Burn Leaves

8.  Prepare Garden Tools for Winter

Drain and put away garden hoses you won't be using this winter. Clean and sharpen gardening tools. Wipe blades with a thin coating of oil: varnish or seal wood handles. 

Check the owner's manuals for directions on how to store power tools such as lawnmowers and leaf blowers.

9.  Protect Trees

Use trunk collars to protect fruit trees and trees with thin bark from rodents over the winter.

10.  Store Bulbs

In cold climates, dig up summer-flowering bulbs and tubers, store them in a dry, cool place, and plant spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips.

By following these 10 fall gardening tips, you can create a vibrant and colorful garden that lasts throughout the year. And make short work of spring gardening next year.

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