
A Few Tips on Fall Gardening for a Beautiful Lawn and Garden
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Fall gardening allows gardeners to eliminate overgrown plants, revive areas with fresh color combinations, and add early-season blooms and late-season colors.
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More about Fall Gardening
As the summer gradually ends and the weather cools, it's time to plan for a beautiful lawn in the Fall. Many gardeners overlook fall gardening due to the possibility of early winter frosts. However, Fall is the perfect time to rearrange and plan a beautiful lawn with delicious vegetables, blooming flowers, and plant combinations that will thrive in Summer and beyond. Use this time to eliminate overgrown plants, revive areas with fresh color and foliage combinations, and add early-season blooms and late-season colors. Planning is the key to a successful fall garden.
Choosing the Right Seeds
The key to successful Fall gardening is knowing your local climate and the expected first hard frost. Understanding the maturity time of your plants is crucial. Choose seeds labeled “early season” or those with the fewest days to maturity. Select vegetables with the shortest growing season to ensure they mature and are harvested before the frost. The Old Farmer’s Almanac is a reliable source for determining the exact dates of expected hard freezes. With this information, you can plan and prepare, feeling empowered and in control of your garden's future.
Seeds for fall gardening often sell out by the end of summer, so it’s wise to purchase them in Spring or early Summer and store them in a cool, dry place. Alternatively, you can order bulbs, perennials, shrubs, fruits, vegetables, hedges, and trees online during the fall. The key is to act promptly and plan, ensuring you have the right produce for your garden and the best conditions for their growth.
Preparing Flower Gardens
Crops left over from the last season can spread bacteria and disease if left in the garden, so remove any leftover spring/summer crops and weeds to prepare your soil for Fall gardening. Till the top layer of soil, wet it down, and let it set for about 12-24 hours. Once this has been done, you are ready to start planting. Consider bulbs or a perennial garden, and decide on the flower's color, size, and shape preferred for a particular area this Spring.
Poppies, tulips, and other flowers need a good, long winter's sleep and do not bloom well if awakened before fully rested. If the bulbs are not planted deep enough, or if the soil stays too warm during a mild winter, the bulbs may begin to come out of dormancy early and grow. Once the tips emerge above the soil line, they are subject to damage when the temperatures return below freezing and bloom poorly during the Spring. Plant them deeply within the flower bed, and mulch thoroughly to protect the bulbs from freezing and thawing. Add organic matter to the flower bed by applying a three-to-four-inch layer of well-composted mulch. Doing so will create an excellent natural fertilizer that helps the bed maintain a higher moisture content.
More about Mulching in Flower Gardens
Mulches used to protect plants over winter should be loose material such as straw, hay, or pine boughs. The mulch will provide insulation that keeps the bulbs from going through short freezing and thawing cycles without compacting under the weight of snow and ice. When the ground freezes for an extended period, the mulch will keep the soil from thawing too early, so the bulbs remain dormant longer. The hard freezes are usually over during the Spring, and the bulbs can safely awaken and flower beautifully. When they are done blooming, the extra organic matter will nourish the bulbs, and the cycle begins again.
Decide if landscaping fabric or plastic should be laid on the soil and then covered with bark mulch and wood chips to prevent weed penetration. Doing this may make life easier, but it also creates a barrier between the soil and the mulch that prevents soil improvement and can make adding plants more difficult. Avoid applying mulch directly in contact with plants. Leave an inch or so of space next to plants to help prevent diseases flourishing from excessive humidity.

Fall Vegetable Gardening
The crops that enjoy the heat, such as tomatoes, sweet potatoes, okra, and peppers, will grow until the first frost, which can be pretty late in the year in southern areas. Other crops, such as cucumbers, snap beans, and Summer Squash, will stop towards the end of Summer. If planted around the middle of the Summer, they can be harvested until the first frosts. Hardy, tough vegetables will grow until the temperature is as low as 20 degrees, but those that aren’t as strong will only be able to grow through light frosts. With a large amount of mulch, the edible parts of root and tuber vegetables, such as potatoes, cassava, and dahlias, can be saved if a freeze kills the plants' tops.
Mulching in Vegetable Gardens
If you use mulches in your vegetable garden, bark chips and composted bark make a neat finish to the garden bed and eventually improve the soil's condition. Smaller chips tend to be easier to spread, especially around small plants. It is best to apply them after the soil has warmed up in the Spring. Cool, wet soil tends to slow seed germination and increase the decay of seeds and seedlings. Depending on the size of the chips or how well-composed the bark mulch is, they may last for several years.
11 Fall Gardening Tips for a Beautiful Lawn and Garden
There’s so much more to know about Fall Gardening and the suggestions covered here are good starting points.
- Use the Fall season to eliminate overgrown plants, plan to revive areas with fresh color and foliage combinations, and add early-season blooms and late-season colors.
- Use the Farmer's Almanac to determine the time of the first expected hard frost. Then, plant and harvest accordingly.
- When planting in the Fall, choose vegetables with the shortest growing season.
- Buy seeds at retail stores by the end of Summer or purchase them online.
- Remove any crops and weeds left over from the last season to avoid bacteria and disease in the garden.
- Till the top layer of soil, wet it, and leave it alone for between 12 and 24 hours.
- Plant bulbs deeply within the flower bed.
- Decide if landscaping fabric or plastic should be laid on the soil where bulbs are planted before covering it with mulch.
- Leave an inch or so of space next to plants to help prevent diseases flourishing from excessive humidity.
- Apply a layer of well-composted mulch three to four inches deep to vegetable gardens.
- Plant tomatoes, sweet potatoes, okra, peppers, and other heat-loving vegetables early in the year to be harvested and enjoyed until the first frost.
Consider applying these tips in the Fall to have a charming outdoor living space with colorful flowers and delicious produce in the months ahead.
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