Autumn Gardening Planner
Time to spruce up your garden and take care of these fall gardening chores to help make next growing season a bit easier.
Cameron Watkins
Trade out your tired patio tomatoes and peppers for cool season spinach, lettuces, kale and parsley. Mix them with pansies for an edible fall container planting, says Cameron Watkins of C. Watkins Garden Co.
Early Fall
- Prepare beds for spring planting.
- Plant spring bulbs, except tulips, in beds and lawns.
- Plant containers and baskets for winter color.
- Take hardwood cuttings.
- Sow sweet peas for an early display the following year.
- Plant wallflowers for spring color.
- Bring houseplants back indoors, checking for pests and diseases first.
- Protect slightly tender exotics from frost by wrapping in fleece.
- Cover slightly tender perennials with a thick mulch of straw or bark chippings.
- Move tender dahlia tubers and cannas inside.
- Turf or sow lawns.
- Apply a fall lawn fertilizer to established lawns.
- Lay chamomile lawns.
- Make a woodpile shelter for wildlife.
- Prune hedges for the last time.
Ideas for Fall Container Gardens
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Late Fall
- Plant shrubs, roses, trees, hedges, climbers and fruit bushes.
- Plant tulips.
- Sow broad beans.
- Plant onions and garlic.
- Grow trees from seed.
- Indoors, plant amaryllis bulbs and prepared hyacinths and narcissi.
- Trim late-flowering shrubs to reduce winter wind damage.
- Rake up fallen leaves and compost.
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Any Time of Year
- Make a compost bin; fill, turn and empty when necessary.
- Make a wooden obelisk.
- Create a bog garden.
- Dig out a pond.
- Make a border and lawn edge.
- Make a rose arch.
- Check tree ties, and loosen if necessary.
- Look out for pests and diseases, and take appropriate action.
- Cut out dead or diseased wood.
- Clean all cutting tools after use to prevent spreading plant diseases.
Next Up
Summer Gardening Planner
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Winter Gardening Planner
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