Fall is the perfect time to get out and prepare your lawn and garden for the winter months, so you’ll have an incredibly healthy garden in the spring. Here are some fall tips to get you started:
1. Leave your leaf blower in the garage and pull out a rake to collect all those leaves. This is not only good exercise for you, but it is also better for the environment. Plus, your lawn will love all the sunlight and air it wouldn’t get when suffocating under a damp blanket of leaves.
2. Clean up your flower garden by removing all spent flowers and vines. Keep an eye out for leaves that are diseased or infested and dispose of them separately (in the trash) so they don’t spread around your yard next year.
3. Add the collected leaves, twigs, grass clippings, flowers, and shrubs to your compost bin. Don’t have one yet? Composting101.com gives you step-by-step instructions, tips, and answers for all your composting questions.
4. Opt for an organic mulch to enrich your garden soil, retain moisture, protect your plant roots, and prevent soil erosion. You can use wood chips, bark, sawdust, grass clippings, straw, or your compost collection. The key here is to make sure you use dry materials because wet grass clippings or leaves, for example, will clump together and block much-needed air and sunlight.
5. Help your lawn get through the cold and windy months by winterizing it with fertilizer. Fertilizers help lawns store vital nutrients that aid root development and result in fuller growth in the spring. Terracycle has a natural lawn fertilizer made from worm droppings (sounds gross but works great).
6. Take some time to consider your spring flower garden. Who doesn’t love tulips, daffodils, and lilies? It is best to plant bulbs in late September so that they take root well before the ground freezes.
7. Put up some all-natural bird feeders for our feathered friends. Tie a string on a pineapple, brush the pineapple with peanut butter, and then wrap it in birdseed. Hang from a nearby branch and watch the birds flock to your feast.
8. Once all the leaves have fallen from the trees, you can prune diseased, infested, dead, or broken branches. Make sure to trim branches that are too close to your house or neighbor’s property.
9. Clean and sharpen your garden tools so they will last for many years and perform great in the spring.
10. Get out there and enjoy the cool weather and changing leaves before winter hits and you get trapped inside.