It's fall, which means it's time to prepare your lawn, trees, shrubs, and garden for winter.Leaves, pine needles and weed-free grass clippings are great for enriching soil. Finely mulch pine needles and leaves with a chipper/shredder or mulching mower, and then till three inches of them into your soil-beds. By tilling in the fall, it gives the organic material plenty of time to decompose before spring planting.
To thwart weeds, some farmers plant winter wheat, and gardeners plant things like garlic so they have a head start in the spring.
Clean up and remove all organic materials from the garden area! Pull up the entire plant, shaking as much soil as you can from the roots. Do not compost garden plants. Some insects lay their eggs on the leaves, and plants may harbor viruses, molds, and fungi that can proliferate in the warm, moist compost. Bag them and put them in the trash.
After removing the spent plants, add more compost to the beds. Clean, disease-free plant residue can be turned into the soil along with your leaves, and you should remove everything else. Turn it into the soil gently. For plants that remain in the ground such as strawberries, apply mulch around the base of the plant.
A slow-release fertilizer is also a good thing to put down in the fall, which makes the nutrient available to lawn, plants, and trees as they rejuvenate in spring. Fall is also an excellent time to apply calcium, which is the foundation of a good feeding program, and an essential nutrient. Calcium does not move very far in the soil, so its best to work it into the plants root zone in the soil.
Plant row of lettuce which is a vegetable that seems to come in all at once, or not at all. The secret to a successful garden is to plant seeds every week or two throughout the planting cycle. This provides plants at various stages of growth. As you harvest the older ones for salads you'll have new ones only a week or two away.
Spinach often winters over and for a nice spring crop. Harvest leaves in fall for salads and meals and leave the plants in the ground. Mulch them, and sometime in the early spring you may see green shoots again - a welcome sight after the long, cold winter.
With lawn, trees, shrubs, vines, and perennials such as raspberries and asparagus, it is usually impractical to dig things up every year like a vegetable garden. Therefore, aerating can be advantageous. You can also use a root feeder.
Fall is the time to collect flower seeds from plants such as daisies, Echinacea, and marigolds. For daisies and Echinacea, use your garden shears and snip off the flower pods. Allow them to dry covered area such as a garage or shed. Then store them in a clean, dry container with a tight fitting lid. For marigold seeds, all you need to do is pluck off the brown, cylindrical seedpods and allow them to dry.
