Fall Cleanup – Top 10

No matter how long I try to prolong the summer season, reality sets in.

Gardening is almost over, so it’s time to clean up, put away, and prepare for next year. Soon the soil will be too hard to dig in, so better get a few tasks done before it’s too late.

When you check off more of your fall cleanup to-do list now, you’ll have more time for planting and pruning come spring.

This is my top ten for wrapping up the season.

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1.) Plant cleanup & compost plants

Nothing is worse than spring finally arriving and realizing one’s plants from the previous year are still stuck in the ground: crunchy, brown, and dead.

So spring planting is delayed because fall cleanup never happened.

I harvested the last of my tomatoes a few days ago and realized it’s time to compost the remains of my tomato, zucchini, and bean plants. There’s no reason for dead plants to remain in the ground all winter looking like scarecrows.

So dead plants go into my compost bin.

Fall is also the time to remove and discard flower, fruit, or vegetable plants that are diseased or insect-infected. Also, discard weeds that have gone to seed. You don’t want those spreading and creating more weeds!

If you have any suspicions of late blight in tomatoes, destroy all parts of tomato and potato plants. Sanitation prevents many recurring problems. Prevention is key! Never try to compost tomato or potato plants that have blight. Yikes.

2.) Improve tired & depleted soil

After you’ve yanked all the expired plants, it’s time to reinvest in your soil prepping it for next year.

Tomatoes are heavy feeders, if you don’t replenish the soil, you’ll be disappointed with lackluster plants that won’t thrive.

So be sure to add a few amendments to give garden soil all the nutrients it requires to grow big plants.

Since I grow in raised beds I remove the top layer of dirt and use it to fill in low spots in my yard. This gives me room to add the necessary amendments.

After a 6-inch layer of compost, I mix in several bags of cow manure.

I also sprinkle in some horticultural vermiculite, a lightweight soil conditioner that improves soil aeration and moisture retention. Perlite works equally well if you can snag some cheaply.

Then I add the blood meal and bone meal, both natural plant foods for fertilizing bulbs, perennials, shrubs, and vegetables. The added nitrogen creates lush and deep green plants.

Next, I top with Dr. Earth fertilizer and some fish fertilizer. I’ll also add any bagged worm poop left from spring. The last step is to rototill so like a good recipe, all the “ingredients” are nicely mixed.

3.) Clean hummingbird feeders for fall cleanup

By mid-October, the last hummingbird for the season is gone for the season and I won’t see one again until mid-April.

As sad as this makes me, having my feeders cleaned and ready to go in spring will ensure my hummingbird babies will return the following year.

I learned in the past few years, that hummingbirds remember their food sources from the previous year and will return the following year to that same location for their sugar water.

I’m hesitant to use any bleach, even a diluted 10% form, so I scrub them down with an old toothbrush and mild dish soap. I cleanse every crevice, dry them, and then store an old brown box until the following year.

While I store my hummingbird feeders for the winter, I do leave out my regular sunflower feeders all winter.

I eat all year long and so do the birds. When berries and other food sources become scarce in winter, I do my best to keep those filled with birdseed.

4.) Rake the leaves or mow them

If you have numerous trees on your property, then raking up the leaves is a good idea. Leaving thick leaves on the lawn promotes disease over winter. Rake the leaves and put them into your compost pile.

If raking isn’t your thing, then chopping the leaves with your mower will also work to dispose of them.

A third great option is to rake the leaves and store them in bags. In my experience, it takes about two years, but after that interval, you have the most nutrient-rich compost imaginable. Your garden loves this!

The only problem is where to store these bags for two years. But if you can swing it, the broken-down leaves create absolute “black gold” for your veggie and perennial beds.

5.) Clean your garden tools for fall cleanup

Most of us gardeners have a few really nice tools we’ve acquired over the years that get the job done.

It’s not like a good tool ever goes bad so taking pristine care of them makes sense. Now is the time to clean, sharpen, and store tools so they are ready for spring.

If your tools require sharpening now is the time during fall cleanup. Some garden centers or small, family-run hardware stores may offer this service. Or buy steel wool and files and do it yourself.

Good tools deserve respect and care! And if you don’t have any good tools, Christmas is around the corner.

6.) Plant your garlic

From now until Halloween, it’s time to think about where to plant your garlic. Don’t let yourself down! Failure to plant garlic in the fall means you won’t have any to harvest the following August. So make sure to cross this one off your list.

I wrote a whole blog post in detail about how to plant garlic that you don’t want to miss!

But real quick, don’t ever use grocery store-bought garlic. Organic only! The best place to acquire garlic for fall planting is roadside stands.

Expect to pay the dirt cheap price of 50 cents to a dollar per clump. And remember: bigger cloves make bigger garlic heads. So bigger is better in this case.

7.) “Mulch” the garden

When I use the word mulch, I’m not talking about the thick bark in brown, black, and red that many people spread in their landscaping and around trees.

I’m not a fan of this tactic because thick mulch can keep the valuable autumn rain from getting to plant roots. A cover of mulch near tender tree trunks can also encourage rodents to burrow nearby. I’ll pass!

Some fungi are also encouraged by a mulch covering during a damp season. Also bad.

So when I say mulch I really mean compost. Adding a thick black layer of compost to your landscaping and garden beds will do wonders for both.

Compost looks just as nice as traditional mulch and doesn’t harm the plants. If you are worried about weeds, add some cardboard underneath to smother them.

8.) Dry your herbs before the frost comes

One day it’s 80 degrees, sunny and gorgeous. The next, the hand of frost (or the hand of death as I call it) comes for your plants. And just like that: your plants are dead. Wasted.

Make sure you snip and store your favorite herbs before frost kills them.

Some of my favorite herbs to dry and store are basil, oregano, tarragon, rosemary, cilantro, and parsley. This way you’ll have fresher herbs to use in the winter than the stale grocery-store variety.

Fresher ingredients translate into tastier recipes and tastier food. Even the prices of dried herbs are going way up!

I like to snip my herbs and place the stems into brown bags to dry. When crispy, I crunch them up and put them into old herb bottles I’ve washed and saved. You can learn more about saving and storing herbs here.

9.) Store your patio furniture, pots, and outdoor pillows

Ever leave your outdoor pillows out all winter along with the patio furniture? Guilty is changed here. I’m blaming it on 4 kids, 2 dogs, a cat, and 2 Guinea pigs. But you blame this negligence on whatever works for you.

But the damage is done. Leaving your patio furniture out in winter and exposing it all year is a bad idea and will shorten its usability lifespan.

We have a nice sized garage but I confess it’s full. There’s no room to store patio furniture or my nice pots.

Many of my pots were not made to sustain the extreme temperature changes we face in my climate.

I’ve also discovered that even the winter sun can be strong and fade the color of my furniture and pots. The extreme cold wrecks havoc on plastics and even the durawood furniture doesn’t tolerate it well.

An alternative to storing this furniture inside is to wrap it with tarps for fall cleanup. The tarps provide some protection from frost and prevent fading.

Now is also a good time to put away your trellises, those shepherd’s hooks, anything else metal that could rust, and your cornhole set.

10.) Winterize plants for fall cleanup

It’s time to decide what plants you will let go of and which ones you’ll try to bring inside for the winter for fall cleanup. Most of my annuals are looking pretty shabby so I’ll replace them with mums and move on.

You might want to consider bringing in a few succulents and bulbs indoors that you want saved.

I have some lovely gerbera daisies that I never did take out of their grow pots and Boston Ferns are tough to let go of. I also bring inside a few potted geraniums and begonias and hope for the best.

Some of my more vulnerable perennials will get the royal treatment and get covered with mulch, and leaves and hopefully, this added shelter will spare them the worst of the harsh winters we experience.

Since we are cramped for room and I have a plethora of indoor plants, I take some plants like the geraniums and ferns to the basement and place them in a sunny window. During this dormant season, I only water every two weeks. Usually, come spring the plants come out fine.

What did I miss? How do you get ready for winter?