Autumn Garden Maintenance: A Guide in 10 Steps
Autumn Garden Maintenance: A Guide in 10 Steps
Starting this week, the official fall season has begun! What does this mean for your garden and what you need to do to maintain it?
In August, we posted a blog about preparing your garden for the upcoming fall season here. A lot of those tips still apply, but this has more to do with what you should do once the cold weather begins and starts affecting your garden.
Here are Homescape Now’s top 10 tips for garden maintenance as the season changes and winter approaches. While some of these won’t need to be taken care of until it really starts to get chilly, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared and get started on your fall garden maintenance.
The 10 Steps to Garden Maintenance in the Fall
These 10 steps will ensure that your garden is ready for anything the upcoming fall and winter weather has in store – let’s get started!
1. Hydrate Your Plants
First and foremost, you will need to ensure that your plants, lawn, and trees are still being adequately watered throughout the fall season. Now, depending on your local weather, they may be receiving enough natural hydration from the rain, but if it’s dry, they will still need to be watered by you or your irrigation system.
You should water them up until it gets cold enough at night to freeze the ground. After that point, it won’t be necessary.
2. Clear Debris
As leaves start to fall and other debris starts to gather around your plants, shrubs, etc. you will want to make sure everything is cleared before the ground freezes. On top of it making your landscaping look neater, piles of debris can also be a great breeding ground for pests and diseases that could damage or even kill your plants and trees.
3. Plant Evergreens and Shrubs
As it’s only the beginning of the autumn season right now, it is still early enough to plant evergreens and shrubs for the year. They will still have enough time to get their roots established before winter.
4. Plant Fall Annuals
Since all of the colors from your summer plants are fading, now is a great time to plant some fall annuals to brighten up your landscaping! Here are some great options.
5. Dig Up Summer Bulbs
If you would like to save some of your bulbs from this summer, consider digging them up and saving them in a temperature-controlled area. Hardier bulbs may even be able to stay in the ground if you live in an area that doesn’t get too cold in the winter.
6. Fertilize Your Lawn
Don’t forget to fertilize your lawn and plants to ensure they’ll stay healthy throughout the colder seasons.
7. Mulch
Autumn is a great time to mulch your garden, shrubs, and around your trees. After all the debris from dead leaves and other materials has been removed, mulch generously to protect the plants and the soil they are growing in.
8. Empty Everything with Standing Water
You should also empty everything in your landscaping that holds standing water before there is any chance of freezing. This includes watering cans, irrigation systems, rainwater barrels, etc.
Doing this will help you avoid any containers or systems breaking when filled with frozen water or in freezing temperatures.
9. Mow the Lawn
Before the really cold weather sets in, you should make sure that your lawn has been well-groomed and taken care of. Keep the grass cut short – the lower you cut the quicker your soil will dry out.
10. Bring Sensitive Plants Inside
If you live in an area that faces more extreme weather as the fall season progresses, make sure that your more sensitive flowers, plants, and bulbs are taken inside so they last until the spring.
Contacting a Professional for Your Fall Garden Maintenance
For further assistance with your autumn garden maintenance, consider contacting a trusted, local landscaping service to help out.
For those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, consider contacting Homescape Now to get your property in tip-top shape for the following year. Contact us today!
