Leonard Bartlett
After a great season, it's time to prepare your garden for winter and ensure a beautiful and vibrant spring. We will suggest some useful tips that will help you and save your exertion in the long run so if you want to diminish the total work during next's year keep reading.
Tidy up rotting plants and invasive weeds
Besides looking sloppy, old rotting plants can carry many diseases, pests, and mushrooms. Some insects could lay eggs on your crops during the summer and survive that way until spring so it's very important to remove all haulms and leaves.
Burying your plants also adds some organic matter to your ground and improves its overall health. Don't forget to dig all invasive weeds and put them in the garbage or burn them. Removing them is the only way to stop those plants from pullulating next year.
Prepare your ground and plant cover crops
Many people leave preparing the soil for the new season of spring but in fact, autumn is a very good time to dig in the soil amendments such as manure or compost. In most areas throwing in nutrients at this part of the year means that addictions have time to break out and develop until spring. Once you did it, you can shroud the bed with some plastic to prevent rain to wash the amendments.
Early in the spring, you can remove sheets. In many areas, early autumn is an ideal time to plant cover crops like rye, tare, or shamrock. These crops will inhibit soil erosion and increase the level of organic matter in your garden beds. Before this, we suggest you contact your local seed provider for the best autumn cover crop in your area.
Trim perennials and harvest your compost
Autumn is also a great time to cut some perennial plants, but be sure to pick the right ones. Some plants like blueberries prefer a spring trimming that protects the plant from stress and diseases. In the autumn, you should concentrate on plants like rosemary, thyme, sage, and even blackberries.
Don't ignore your compost pile. Mass composted during the summer is presumably finished but you can use it to fill up garden beds, straighten deficient soils or fertilize sods.
Replenish mulch and review the cultivars in your garden
Mulching in the winter has almost the same benefits as summer mulching. With this, we can reduce water loss and protect the soil from erosion. A dense layer of mulch close to root vegetables can also be good against frosts and extend your crop.
Autumn is the best time to revise underperforming plants in your garden and detect why they behave like that. Maybe you should extend your picking by adding sorts that mature earlier or later in the season.
One of the factors you can't affect is the weather but luckily others are inside your control. Soil fecundity, humidity levels, and plant standing are something you should and can take care of.
Clean and sharpen tools
It is not easy to keep your tools clean when yardwork is in full swing. Autumn is also a great time to revive your tool's lifespan. Wash them and remove dirt and dust. Remove rust if there is any with a wire brush. With all this, your tool is good as new for another season in spring.
