The fall is the best time to add compost or manure to your garden soil. There are many forms of nitrogen that can exist in compost or manure. Not all forms of nitrogen are forms that plants can use. Some forms of nitrogen need to be broken down by bacteria or other plants into forms that are usable.
Mulch Your Flower Beds
You can either apply the leaves directly to the garden beds or chop them up in a wood chipper to give you a fine mulch that will provide nutrients to give you strong growth in the spring. Use extra leaves or straw to mulch plants that need more frost protection, like roses.
Cover Up the Garden Beds
Add a couple inches of compost or manure on top of your beds any time before the ground freezes. Then, add a light layer of straw or mulch to prevent soil erosion, nutrient leaching, and weed development.
When winterizing your garden, instead of aerating and raking the soil where your roots veggies are, just put down a nice protective layer of mulch or leaf mold. This will help keep moisture and nutrients locked in the soil.
Micro-organisms are the life of soil, and they need food and nutrients all the time. The more leaves left on your garden, the more feed for these micro-organisms that make soil healthier and plants grow stronger. As the leaves decay, they add organic matter back into the soil, which lessens the need for fertilizer.
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.
A fall garden can be beautifully productive at a much slower pace. Even so, the trick is remembering that, like the summer garden, the fall garden needs to be started months before the cool weather comes. For me in USDA zone 6, I prepare for the fall garden in July and August.
A constant, fresh supply of organic matter is necessary to keep it growing healthy. While routinely adding an extra layer of topsoil to your lawn can be helpful, fall is the most opportune time to do so. This is because the winter can be a particularly difficult time for the plant life on your property.
Adding shredded leaves to my raised beds is one of my favorite ways to enrich garden soil. Chopped leaves lighten heavy soils, feed the worms, add nutrients and help the soil retain moisture. You can compost them first to make leaf mold or you can dig several inches of shredded leaves into the soil in autumn.
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.
Experts say raking and removing leaves can be worse for your yard – and for the planet, too. Leaving at least some of the leaves in your yard can help fertilize your grass and other plants, provide shelter for animals and even reduce emissions from landfills.
Yes, leaving fallen leaves to decompose does return valuable nutrients to the soil, provides habitat for lots of important and valuable insect species over winter, and acts as a natural mulch.
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.
Even if you haven't been building a compost pile, you still can till in old plant matter that will break down over winter to nourish your soil. Simply run your tiller over your garden plot to blend in the roots of the summer crops you've harvested.
Cover With Mulch
If you don't want to plant cover crops, cover your garden soil with mulch, which protects the ground from the winter elements while holding everything in place. Organic mulch is the way to go. Bark, wood chips, straw, grass clippings, rice and other seed hulls are great options.
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.
Leaves, wood chips, sawdust, straw and compost make excellent mulches and are easy to apply. Spread these organic materials on the soil surface around your plants, creating a 2 to 4-inch layer - but make sure you don't cover the plants!