photo courtesy of Flickr and theothermonalisa
The dog days of summer are over and now you can sit on your butt and relax, right? Not so fast. Before you snuggle in for a long winter you’ve got some fall garden chores to tackle. Taking some time to prep your garden in the fall will mean better soil awaits you in the spring.
Pick the Stranglers
Quite often you’ll have some vegetables, such as tomatoes or peppers, on the vine that haven’t ripened yet. With fall’s diminished hours of sunlight they’re not likely to complete the task, either. Pick them all, place them in a paper bag, and store them somewhere cool and dark in your house—they’ll ripen up in no time.
Ready Your Soil
Remove all the remaining vegetable plants in your garden to make way for next year’s crop. If possible, put them in your compost bin and they’ll make a great soil nutrient when doing next fall’s garden chores.
The fall is actually the best time to fertilize your garden for two reasons. One—you never have to worry about the fertilizer coming in direct contact with your plants and burning them and, two, the fertilizer will have all winter to slowly break down in your vegetable garden’s soil and create a nutrient-rich growing environment for your young plants next spring.
Before fertilizing your soil you should always do a soil test to determine the exact pH level of your soil. What you used last year may not be what your soil needs now, so always double check in order to achieve a balanced pH. Once you know your soil’s pH level add the required fertilizer and/or a little of that lovely compost you’ve been brewing.
Last, but certainly not least, show your garden tools some love. Wash the dirt off everything, dry them well and store them in a safe place for next year. If anything needs replacing, now’s a good time to have a look as gardening supplies are likely on sale in the fall.
There you have it—a short, but necessary, fall garden chore checklist. You’ll be glad you took the time to do it now so all that’s left in the spring is planting those yummy new veggies.
Join us next time when we’ll show you how to install stone garden edging. This is another great fall project that you’ll be glad you tackled before spring arrives.
Until next time—go plant something tasty!
