Fall Checklist
Once your fall checklist has been completed, you can watch your mailbox for seed catalogs and dream about next year’s garden.
- Purchase spring flowering bulbs Wait until the soil cools before planting.
- Plant perennials up until the 3rd week in September. Warm soil and cool air is the best time to establish plants.
- Continue to water at least twice a week if dry
- Water until the ground freezes for evergreen trees or shrubs planted this year. They need the water in their roots to make it through the winter. This is how they stay “evergreen”.
- Clean out garden beds. Leave some plants standing for wildlife. Birds enjoy the seeds and insects can take shelter.
- Leaving a light cover of fall leaves on your gardens is a good idea.
- If you have issues with slugs, it is a good idea to cut down your Hosta. Leaves left to die and rot over the winter can be heaven on earth for slugs in the spring.
- Divide perennials. Replant if weather and temperatures permit.
- Place markers in your garden where you have empty spaces you want to fill in next year.
- Consider placing chicken wire around the base of shrubs and trees. The rabbits did a number on these in Minnesota last winter. If they are not protected well, the rabbits and deer can chew away the bark, killing the plant.
- Plant spring bulbs. Daffodils and allium are deer and rabbit proof!
- Store stakes, labels, and other garden accessories
- Dig up tender bulbs (Cannas, dahlias, caladiums and other tropicals) and store them inside.
- Add a light sprinkle of compost to your beds
- Shred fall leaves for mulch
- Empty containers, clean them out, and store
