The Great Fall Wrap Up

As the days shorten and get more dreary and the coolness of fall sets in, as a gardener, it can feel like a welcome reprieve. It’s very tempting to just harvest what you want and leave the garden to be a problem for springtime. But it is well worth it to fight through that feeling and get a few things done to prepare your space for a more bountiful season next year.

Warm Season Vegetables

As we approach the first frost, remember that all warm-season crops will be destroyed by freezing temperatures. So make sure to harvest all of your warm-season crops before that first freeze. Don’t forget the warm-season crops that can be stored and ripened inside for a longer taste of summer as we head into winter. Sweet potatoes that get harvested this fall should be cured. If you haven’t done this before, check out our instructions here.

Your overwintering crops like garlic, shallots, and elephant garlic should be weeded and then covered in a thick layer of straw or leaves.

Fall Tasks for Native Perennials

Any native perennials you have should be cut back, but not removed since many native insects need these stems to complete their lifecycle. The shorter stature of the stems also means that next spring, the new growth will cover up the stems, making it look nice while also allowing insects to complete their lifecycle, as some insects stay in the stem until June. The Xerces Society has a great handout on this.

This is also a good time to rake up your leaves and use them as mulch around any perennials or annuals you have. This, once again, allows native insects to use the leaves as overwintering shelter without killing your grass, making your space look tidier, and getting the benefits of free mulch.

If you have orchard trees, don’t forget to get them ready for winter. You can check out our orchard winter prep instructions here.

Last but not least is how to prep your soil for next year.

Pull out, or cut off at ground level, all plants left in the veggie garden that you don’t intend to harvest. If the plants are left standing dead, any pathogens that might be on the plant can survive the winter and reinfect the garden next year. However, cutting the plants down and giving time over winter for them to compost can help break the disease cycle.

If the plant you are removing had a disease, the best idea would be to either put it in yard waste or allow it to fully compost before using it anywhere in the garden. If the plant didn’t have a noticeable disease you can compost it or you can also leave it on the soil surface and then cover it with mulch so that it can break down over winter.

This is also a good time to aerate, amend, and mulch your garden soil. Doing these actions in the fall gives the microorganisms in the soil time to improve your soil so that it’s rich and ready to go in the spring. The first step is aeration. We don’t recommend tilling, as it causes enormous damage to the beneficial organisms in the soil. Instead, we recommend using a digging fork, or ideally a broadfork, to aerate the soil without pulverizing and turning it. What you do is simply push the tines of the tool into the soil and then pull the handle back towards you to about a 45-degree angle. This will lift and crack the soil, allowing oxygen to get deep into the soil and breaking up compaction much deeper than a tiller ever could. Then move the tool back 6-12″ and repeat the process all the way down the bed.

After you aerate your soil it is the perfect time to add any amendments. If you need to add something like sulfur or lime to change the soil pH, manure, or compost, this is a great time to add it to the soil surface. Worms and other soil organisms will integrate it into the soil and pull it down deep into the soil profile over the long months of winter.

We then recommend topping the soil with a nice layer of mulch. Any plant material can be used as mulch but our favorites are straw and tree leaves. Mulched tree leaves stay in place more easily, whereas full leaves are more prone to blowing away. You can apply 3-6″ of mulch to the soil surface. Mulch helps insulate the soil surface, which protects the soil from the temperature swings of winter. These moderated temperatures help to keep worms and microorganisms active in the soil surface. This means that all winter long the worms and microorganisms can work on breaking down the mulch, adding its nutrients to the soil, mixing in the applied compost, and building soil structure. If the soil is not insulated when the temperatures get very cold or overly warm, worms will dive down deep into the soil to find more moderate temperatures and microorganisms will go dormant, meaning they can’t work to improve your soil.