In order to ensure your fall garden matures before the first frost, get it started in mid-summer (typically late July to early August, depending on your hardiness zone).
Whenever you see summer plants dying or diseased, remove them to avoid disease. But generally, fall cleanup begins after the first killing frost. Even then, we only remove dead crops or debris as it invites disease and pests.
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.
You need to be planting seeds and seedlings for your fall and winter garden between 6 to 8 weeks before your average first frost date. Some even as early as 10 weeks.
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.
Spading or tilling the soil in the fall allows for the winter conditions of freezing and thawing to naturally break the soil into its particles. This results in crumbly state desirable for spring planting. Soil is often damp or wet in the spring which makes deep spading more difficult.
Plant your fall vegetables so that the crops you choose have time to reach maturity before the first frost in your area. Find your first frost date, then count backward based on days to maturity for each type of veggie you want to grow. That's your ideal planting date.
Soil testing, removing plant material and adding organic mulches, compost and cover crops are all smart gardening techniques for fall cleanup. Use shredded leaves raked from your lawn to cover vegetable gardens or beds. Photo: Rebecca Krans, MSU Extension.
"Tillage turns the soil, while no-till uses disks to slice into the ground and slip seeds in the narrow slice," Mirsky said. "There is no soil disturbance of substance in no-till." In terms of labor, tillage-based systems require several field operations to prepare a seedbed.
In fact, tilling in the fall can make next year's garden weeds far more populous and troubling. And in the process, actually destroy thee soil quality while making it easy for erosion to take away your garden's top layer of soil.
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.
Fall is the best time to add compost to perennial gardens. Apply a top dressing of about an inch or 2 of compost. You can work it into the top few inches of soil or just leave it on top as mulch. Applying compost in autumn will give perennials a healthy boost for the coming spring.
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.
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.
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.
Although September marks the beginning of fall, there are still a few fast growing vegetables that can be planted this month and be harvested before the first frost in most gardening zones. Remember to keep your soil warm by removing all mulch and maybe try using a plastic sheet to trap heat into the soil.
You can sprinkle the all-purpose plant food around your plants. However, you should apply the granules on top of the soil and wait for absorption. This article helps you understand how to use miracle fertilizers and the effects of overusing them.
The autumn season comes with a mix of warm soil and cool air, perfect for planting grass seed and allowing time for new grass roots to develop before winter sets in. It is also a good time to fertilize to build stronger, deeper roots for winter, resulting in a thicker, greener lawn next spring.
The effect of tillage on soil
However, tillage has all along been contributing negatively to soil quality. Since tillage fractures the soil, it disrupts soil structure, accelerating surface runoff and soil erosion. Tillage also reduces crop residue, which help cushion the force of pounding raindrops.
In no-till farming, farmers do not till their fields before planting. Instead, they use specialized equipment to create a channel that is just spacious enough for seeds to be planted, minimizing soil disturbance.