Steps to Transition Your Garden from Summer to Fall
Since we have you thinking about landscaping, here are some excellent ideas to help you get your gardens ready for the upcoming winter from our guest blogger, Savannah Hemmings.
You might be lamenting the end of the gardening season as fall approaches. Don’t! Fall is still a growing season, and there are many ways to transition your garden from summer to fall. Doing so ensures that you’ll have a healthy garden for the fall — and for next spring and summer too. Here are nine steps to follow.
1. Plant Fall Flowers
Peonies, pansies, marigolds and asters are all flowers that do well in the fall. The soil is still warm enough for them to set nicely for the season. If the sight of your blooming primroses and roses was the height of your summer, these can be their fall siblings. Choose bright yellow, orange and russet for the picture of fall.
2. Plant Fall Vegetables
Yes, most vegetable gardens are planted in the spring. But that doesn’t mean you can’t plant some in the fall also. Spinach, kale, broccoli and cauliflower can all be planted now — and enjoyed immediately. Be sure to check the growing time of the plants you’re interested in to make sure the growing time will be sufficient. In Minnesota you still have time to get a late leaf lettuce crop in, and it’s a great time to plant onions to over winter and get some early scallions next spring.
3. Check on Plants for Winter
Annuals, biennials and delicate plants need to be checked on to see that they will make it through the winter. If it looks like they won’t, it may be time to clean your garden and make way for new. Alternatively, you may decide to move some of them indoors.
4. Harvest Before the Cold Sets In
This is a fun one! Fall is the time for harvest. The tomatoes you planted last spring, the beans from this summer and the last of corn will all be harvested this fall. So will your herb garden. For the vegetables, plan to eat, give away or can the bounty. When tomatoes or zucchini are suddenly ripe, there can be plenty! Have recipes ready, like roasted tomatoes and zucchini bread, that will use them up. For herbs, snip about one-third of a mature plant. Use them fresh, or hang to dry in a warm place so you can enjoy cooking with them all winter long.
5. Maintain Your Plants for Winter
If you have new plants, they may need extra protection from winter weather. Put insulation or blankets around the roots, making sure they’re not too tight. Tight covering can impede water flow and proper oxygen to the plants.
6. Deadhead the Blooms
Deadheading — taking off blooms that have faded or died — is an essential part of any gardening regimen. The one you do in the fall will be the last of the season. Deadheading makes plants grow more vigorously. Be thorough as you work through the garden.
7. Clean Garden and Outdoor Fixtures
Nothing is more dismal in spring than planters, bird feeders, statuaries or tables and chairs that greet the season kind of dirty. Fall is the time to clean them. If you have to spruce them up after winter, it will be easier if they were clean to begin with.
8. Plan your Spring Garden
A lot of work for glorious spring gardens begins in the fall. Look through catalogues and sketch out where you want your flowers, vegetables and herbs next year. Are dwarf junipers on the agenda for next year? More roses? Lavender? If you want some plants that attract pollinators, like honeysuckle for hummingbirds, now is the time to plan where it would be placed. A thoughtful garden is a good garden.
9. Plant Spring Bulbs
Told you Fall was a busy planting season! This is more of a transition from fall to spring, but it’s absolutely essential if you want any plants that grow from bulbs. Most bulbs need a season in the ground in cold weather to grow, so now is the time.
So much planting takes place in the fall! Follow these tips to transition your garden between seasons, and you’ll be able to enjoy your garden into the fall season as well.
Savannah Hemmings is a lifestyle blogger and personal shopper. She has a passion for curating and creating beautiful spaces. You can read more of her work at SincerelySavannah.com.