Layer fallen, shredded tree leaves, compost and fertilizer in the garden bed and turn under the soil. You could also dig trenches in the garden, pile in the leaves and compost and cover with soil. These organic soil amendments will decompose over winter and leave the soil more fertile when spring rolls around.
Remove spent plants and debris.
Any diseased plants must be removed and disposed of in the trash, never added to the compost. Also remove any dead plants which will invite disease and insects. Chop beans and peas off at ground level, leaving their nitrogen-fixing roots in the soil to feed next year's crops.
As fall weather takes hold, you need to change your gardening practices to get your landscape ready for the season ahead. Start your work about six weeks before the first hard freeze.
It's important to cut back foliage in the fall to protect flowering plants from disease and give them a clean start for regrowth as winter starts to turn into spring. However, there are some plants you can keep around through the winter since they benefit wildlife and still offer visual interest for your home.
Whether you're new to gardening, or a seasoned pro, building better soil is the single most important thing you can do to improve your gardening success. And fall is the best time to do it! To learn more, read Building Healthy Soil.
To fight back against diseases, remove all plant material from the garden, with the exception of winter vegetables or cover crops. In the fruit and vegetable garden, it is especially important to carefully dig up and remove decomposing roots to prevent the release of disease-causing microbes into the soil.
To ensure a successful fall and winter harvest, you need to start many of your late-season crops in the peak of summer. In most regions, this means planting in the heat of August to give your crops time to size up while growing conditions are still good.
Your garden is only as healthy as your soil. Adding nutrient-rich compost in the fall will greatly improve your soil next spring. Healthy soil is teeming with life — from macro-organisms like earthworms and pill bugs down to the microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, and microbes.
Leaving the garden intact for the winter means you'll get a jump start on controlling pests in the spring. Skipping a fall gardening clean up is one important way to help these beneficial insects. Ladybug larvae, such as this one, are voracious predators of many garden pests, including the aphids in this photo.
Leave Leaves for Wildlife
Fallen leaves also provide wildlife, especially pollinators, with some winter cover. Bees, moths, butterflies, snails, spiders, and dozens of arthropods and pollinators overwinter in dead plant material for protection from cold weather and predators.
When you're preparing your garden beds for a new season, don't rip your plants out of the ground, roots and all. If you do, you'll be robbing your soil microbes of a good meal and degrading your long-term soil fertility.
In fall, plants do not need as much water as they may have needed in summer. But rather than stop watering altogether, it's best to wean them from weekly watering to every other week to monthly throughout fall.
Fall Fertilization of Garden Plants
Perennials appreciate having a high phosphate fertilizer with low nitrogen content. Applied in the fall, you will be assured of stronger plants in the spring producing more flowers than you ever thought they could.
You can apply topsoil anytime, but most gardeners like to add it in spring before planting. In the fall, it may also be added as a top dressing that will allow nutrients to break down into the soil. You may add topsoil into plantings by adding to the holes where shrubs are planted.
Also, do not cut back hardy perennials like garden mums (Chrysanthemum spp.), anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), red-hot poker (Kniphofia uvaria), and Montauk daisy (Nipponanthemum nipponicum). Leave the foliage. It's important to protect the root crowns over winter.
When To Stop Watering Plants in Fall. When the air and soil temperatures consistently fall below 40 F, it's time to stop watering. The ground can't absorb water once the top few inches freeze. Continue to water your plants up until this point so they're as well-hydrated as possible going into winter.
When To Winterize Your Gardens. The best time to start winterizing gardens is after the first hard freeze in the fall. A hard freeze occurs when the temperature gets below freezing overnight, killing off tender annual plants and vegetables.
Some fruits and vegetables that you should compost with caution are those with high acidities, such as citrus fruits, pickles, and tomatoes. The acid content of these foods can kill the good bacteria in your compost pile and slow down its decomposition.