 As the first frosty night settles over your fall garden, you might be tempted to pack up your garden supplies and call it quits until spring. While most of us associate gardening with warm, sunny days, there is actually a lot of important work to do in the garden during the cooler months. So don’t pack away those garden gloves quite yet. Here’s a look at what to do in the garden during fall.
Plant Your Garlic Garlic is a fun, easy plant for beginners to grow and fall is the perfect time to get started. Plant garlic bulbs (cloves) in October and cover them with a thick layer of mulch. They will grow slowly through winter, but when spring rolls around, you’ll notice things start to speed up. If you’re planting a hardneck variety of garlic, you will start to see scapes grow around early summer. Scapes are the start of a flower head on your garlic plant and it’s best to remove them. But don’t toss them out - scapes are delicious! Try throwing them on the grill or saute them in some butter… so good! About a month after you harvest those yummy scapes, your garlic will be ready to pull up. Whether you grow hardneck or softneck garlic, a good rule is to wait until 3-4 leaves turn yellow and then you will know it’s time to dig up the garlic. Plant Bulbs for Spring Flowers If you find yourself wistfully looking at the neighbor’s tulips every spring, now is the time to add that same spring beauty to your own garden. Bulbs for decorative flowers like daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths should be planted in the fall. The cooler months is the perfect time to lay out a new flower bed or redesign your existing space. Choose bulbs with flowers of varying heights and bloom times to make sure you have plenty of color to enjoy in your garden when spring arrives. Clean Out Weeds and Put Down Weed Barrier Weed growth generally starts to slow down a bit in fall when the days are shorter and the temperatures cool. This is the perfect time to tackle spaces where the weeds got out of hand during your busy summer growing time. If you notice areas where weed pressure was particularly intense, add a layer of weed barrier to prevent problems in that area next year. Mulch Your Garden Beds and Pathways A lot of home gardeners mulch in the spring because that seems to be when stores are carrying the big bags of mulch on sale, but fall is actually a better time to add mulch to your garden. Think of it this way - you are putting your garden to bed for the winter. Mulch is a thick blanket to keep it warm and insulated. Mulch will also prevent those pesky weeds from creeping in and taking over the space. Empty garden beds will always become a magnet for weeds. Soil needs cover and if you don’t provide it, nature will do the job for you with weeds. Natural mulch sources abound in the fall months and most of it can be collected for free. Crushed up leaves make a fantastic mulch for garden beds. Next time you rake, dump all those leaves onto the garden. Over the winter, they will break down and enrich your soil with vital nutrients. You can also mulch your garden with wood chips and straw - just make sure straw hasn’t been sprayed with any pesticides. Order Seeds for Next Year Seed companies start getting slammed with orders after the new year so fall is the perfect time to beat the crowd and put in your order for seeds. When you start looking for seeds in the fall, you will have time to browse, compare prices, and read reviews of different varieties to find the best vegetables to grow in your garden zone. If you’ve never ordered seeds online and feel a little overwhelmed, I highly recommend Hoss Tools. Redesign Your Garden Space If you’re dying to make some changes to your garden space, do it now. When you start your garden project in the fall, you’ll have a few months to finish the job before you need to start sowing seeds for spring. Fall is the ideal time to build a new garden space, add raised beds, change up the layout, or add garden trellises. Study Up and Prepare to Plant for Spring Fall is also the best time to dive into gardening books, learn about home canning and food preservation, or call in some help to level up your garden. Sometimes you just need a fresh set of eyes to look at your space and make suggestions. Other times you need someone to help you figure out what is ruining your tomato plants year after year or how to deter that pesky groundhog. When it comes to making a solid garden plan to grow food for your family, it pays to do your homework upfront, bring in help when necessary, and get your garden off to a strong start in 2023 from the very beginning. If you need help with your garden, download my Garden Guide here.  Fall is one of my favorite times of year, especially in the garden. When I first started growing vegetables, I struggled to find things that would grow well in the fall and I wasn't sure when I should actually be planting things. It took a couple years of experimenting before I finally figured out a few little tips that helped my fall garden become successful. Let's break down everything you need to know about fall gardening.
What can you plant in fall? Think of fall as a second chance at spring planting. Plant crops that like cool temperatures. I have found that some of the cold-hardy veggies actually grow better for me in the fall than they do in the spring. Vegetables that grow well in fall temperatures include peas, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kale, collard greens, lettuce, carrots, beets, and radishes. When should you plant for fall? Timing is the trickiest part of fall gardening. You will need to look up your estimated first frost date and then count to see around how many days you have left before frost starts to roll into your area at night. For example, my estimated first frost is October 30 so I have around 75-80 days left. As I look through my seed packs, I can plant anything that will grow in that amount of time even if it is frost-tender. You can also add cold-loving vegetables like the ones mentioned above to round out your garden and have additional options that will survive those frosty nights. When do you start seeds for fall gardening? You can certainly start seeds indoors in a sunny window or under grow lights, but for fall, I prefer to just sow seeds directly into my garden beds. As summer comes to an end, I am starting to clean out the plants that are done producing for the year. Then I amend the beds by adding a fresh inch or two of compost before I replant. Just remember to keep your seeds watered. Soil dries out quickly in the late summer sun. Don't forget to mulch! Fall provides an abundance of free mulch for the garden. All of those leaves that you hate to rake are actually a gift! Use them to mulch your garden. I also put a layer of straw over my garden beds when I plant for fall, just to add some extra insulation for winter time. We have pine trees all around the perimeter of our property and I love to use the fallen pine needles as free mulch too. Throughout the fall and winter, I add any kind of organic matter to the garden beds that I can find - fallen leaves, wood chips, straw, pine needles. All of it will break down through the winter time and create a beautiful, healthy soil for spring planting. Plus your fall and winter veggies will thrive with the extra mulch to keep the root systems warm and protected. Extend Your Growing Season with Row Covers Another option for fall is to prolong your growing season by using row covers to insulate your plants. Row covers are also a smart way to combat insect problems, particularly with leafy greens and brassicas that often struggle with cabbage worms. If you are growing in pots, you can also extend your growing season by moving plants inside at night to protect them from falling temperatures. Planting Garlic in Fall Fall is also the time to plant garlic for next year. We plant garlic cloves in October, mulch well, and then leave the garlic beds undisturbed until spring. At that point, we will start watering a few times a week and weeding the beds as needed. By late June, we have garlic ready to harvest, cure, and braid. In my experience, garlic is one of the easiest things to grow! It just takes a long time so don't forget to get some garlic to plant this fall. You can order garlic online through Hoss Tools, Johnnys Seeds, or even Amazon. I recommend elephant garlic for beginners. Hardneck garlic is wonderful because it produces scapes before the bulbs are ready so you get two edible harvests. Softneck garlic doesn't give you scapes, but it is easy to braid after it dries. Choose the type of garlic you like best, but make sure you plant some! Growing garlic is one of my favorite parts of backyard gardening. Are you planting a fall garden this year? What vegetables do you plan to grow this fall?  Things I don’t buy at the store anymore…
1. Tomato Sauce & Salsa - pasta sauce, pizza sauce, diced tomatoes for chili… it’s all from the garden now. 2. Canned Beans - I can my own at home now and I still get the convenience of opening a jar, but it’s way cheaper. 3. Pickles - we make a variety of pickles from sweet to sour to spicy. So we no longer need to buy these. 4. Jams and Jellies - we make our own with local fruit! 👏🏻 5. Canned Veggies - from garden to canner… we eat #homegrown all year. 6. Broths and Stocks - I can my own broth and stock. And it’s way easier and cheaper than I ever really thought it could be. 7. Canned Soup - I make and can my own! I’m not sharing any of this to brag. I’m sharing it because I’m realizing that small changes add up to BIG results over time. I might not be farming hundreds of acres, but I’m stewarding 3 acres well. I’m learning to work with the land to feed my family. I’m learning something new everyday. What’s one skill you really want to focus on learning or improving in 2022?  I turned my backyard into a garden and was shocked at the sheer volume of vegetables we can grow in a single season. Here’s how we maximize space and make the most of our backyard garden.
1. GROW VERTICALLY - You can grow more volume when you focus on growing up. We use livestock fence panels from Tractor Supply and shape them into arches between the garden beds and walls to line the garden perimeter. I have a highlight on the trellises we use and how they are installed on our Instagram page. 😉 2. GROW SEASONALLY - When I planted my first garden, I assumed there was one single garden season and I planted all the things I wanted to grow at once. That’s why I failed. Gardening is best done by the seasons. Some vegetables prefer cooler weather and do well in spring or fall (cabbage, peas, broccoli, lettuce, etc). Others do best in early summer (beans, cucumbers, kale) and still other love the mid and late summer heat (tomatoes, peppers, etc). When you plant in the right season, your harvest will improve drastically. 3. GROW IN SUCCESSION. Try succession planting to extend your harvests. Instead of planting all the green beans at once. Plant a section and then wait and plant another in two weeks. I sow new green beans and cucumbers several times through the warm season to keep them producing all summer long. What’s your favorite garden tip? Let’s share all our best tricks in the comments and help each other grow! |
