Fall into your garden

I approached my first year gar­den­ing as a sol­dier going into bat­tle. I pur­chased the nec­es­sary equip­ment. I made sure every­thing was in proper work­ing order. I did my own ver­sion of gar­den­ing cal­is­then­ics. Could I bend over? Could I squat? Did I mind hav­ing fin­ger­nails per­ma­nently stained with the earth?

Then, I dug in, so to speak. I fought the brave fight against inva­sive species and weeds, watered like my ex-husband was pay­ing the bill and thought­fully pur­chased all the right cul­ti­vars. I waged the good fight, won a few skir­mishes, lost more than a few, and then wel­comed the com­ing of fall. I could now take off my armor, lay down my hoe and enjoy a few months of well deserved rest. Wrong! My gar­den­ing bud­dies glee­fully let me know that my work had only just begun. If I truly wanted a spring and sum­mer yard and gar­den resplen­dent with beauty I would need to take up my hoe and really dig into fall.

The fol­low­ing tasks are in no par­tic­u­lar order which may be loosely trans­lated into they are all impor­tant. Nurs­eries and gar­den­ing sup­ply stores should be required to post these tasks before sell­ing the naïve those beau­ti­ful seeds and plants, but that could be the sub­ject of another article.

Leaves are a rich source of nitro­gen, but left in place they can be a wet mess that may kill your grass, so rake them. One of our Mas­ter Gar­den­ers actu­ally stops at neighbor’s homes and asks to carry away their leaves for free. All by them­selves leaves, if shred­ded, will decom­pose into very nutri­tious leaf mold. Pack the leaves into tomato cages in fall with some greens and watch them mag­i­cally turn into very usable leaf mold by June. Cut out and carry away old veg­e­ta­tion, par­tic­u­larly if it is dis­eased. In the case of some legumes like beans and peas, it is good for your gar­den to leave the roots intact. Root nod­ules con­tain nitrogen-fixing bac­te­ria which can fer­til­ize your garden.

Prune cau­tiously. It’s impor­tant to con­sult reli­able books and/or web­sites like ohioline.osu.edu/lines/hygs.html to deter­mine the proper time for prun­ing. For exam­ple, hydrangeas pruned after August will prob­a­bly not bloom the fol­low­ing season.

Amend the soil of your flower and veg­etable beds with the proper mate­r­ial. OSU exten­sion will pro­vide soil tests for a fee that will let you know the cor­rect amend­ments. Gen­er­ally speak­ing, a manure-based com­post will prob­a­bly do the trick. Cul­ti­vate the soil at least 8 inches deep to incor­po­rate the soil amendments.

You should mulch less-hardy cul­ti­vars for win­ter safety. Ohio winds can be dev­as­tat­ing for some weaker species. A com­fort­able coat of mulch can help them weather the storm.

Plant replace­ment grass seed and pro­tect with straw. Don’t be dis­mayed by squir­rels or other wildlife dig­ging into your newly planted grass seed. The loosely com­pacted soil makes a won­der­ful hid­ing place for their win­ter stash.

Look ahead to Spring and deter­mine what new bulbs you need to plant in the fall. You also may want to think about replac­ing some of your old bulbs. In fact, some gar­den­ers treat tulip bulbs as an annual and replace each year. It’s impor­tant to pro­tect newly planted bulbs from squir­rels and other wildlife by cov­er­ing them with wire mesh. Also, con­sider divid­ing bulbs in over­pop­u­lated areas and give extra bulbs to fam­ily and friends.

Be cer­tain to ade­quately water your gar­den until the first freeze. This will insure your plants have enough water to sus­tain their growth period when they man­u­fac­ture the nec­es­sary chloro­phyll for Spring survival.

Repo­si­tion your plants. This is a good time to map your gar­den, ana­lyze what did well, what didn’t and adjust accord­ingly. This includes improv­ing aes­thet­ics as well as coun­ter­ing fail­ure to thrive. I find one of my biggest obsta­cles to be lack of sun. So I am mov­ing my sun-loving plants to bet­ter loca­tions and fill­ing in with shade-loving plants like hostas.

This list is by no means com­pre­hen­sive even though it may seem exhaust­ing. The old bib­li­cal phrase does seem to apply to fall prepa­ra­tions. “What ye sow ye shall also reap.”

Michelle Pear­son is an OSU Exten­sion Mas­ter gar­dener volunteer.

Posted by Master Gardener on Oct 21 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.