Every warm sunny day of summer I think to myself, “please never end, ever.” And then it starts to feel like fall, I’m so glad. September in Portland, is the best month, in fact, we got married in September on a clear 80-degree-day three years ago. It’s usually warm, dahlias are blooming, apples and peaches are plentiful and the garden is usually overflowing with veggies to harvest.
It actually makes me kind of depressed to prep the garden for fall because it is what makes the end of summer official. It’s also a lot of work and why would I put in work to officially end summer? Because it’s worth it! The years that I haven’t done fall prep work, spring prep ended up being ten times harder. What happens when you don’t prep:
You’ll have to untangle rotting plants from trellises and stands
Digging out soil and add lots of compost and fertilizer
You won’t have any compost because you didn’t make any last fall
Volunteers will pop up all over your beds because you didn’t pull the old veggies out
You get the point.
So, now that you’re committed, when should you prepare for fall/winter? Whenever you feel ready. I usually wait until the last tomato harvest, but you can start preparing other parts of your garden before that. Once you’re ready, do the following:
1. Pull out plants that have fulfilled their summer cycle, are dead or rotting.
Dead garden vegetable plants are great to add to your compost. Be careful about including rotting or unripened vegetables as they can seed in your compost. If you take good care of your compost and regularly turn it, you might not see as many volunteers. Squash, tomatoes and nasturtiums are the ones I see growing out of my compost most often.
2. Weed your garden.
I have not had much luck keeping weeds out, but it’s a good practice to clean up your beds and get everything out (including old rotten veggies) in the fall. In Portland, where it doesn’t get below 40 degrees very often, weeds thrive year round, so do what you can.
3. Mulch and fertilize.
Your vegetable garden will likely get a big dose of compost next spring, before you fill it up with new plants. But your perennial gardens need love too:
Prune back perennials as they start to die off (the detritus is great for your compost heap). I cut back all our large grasses, hydrangeas, salvia, lavender, etc. Pruning of plants, shrubs and trees is best done during the dormant period, most often during fall. Although there are a few trees and shrubs that are “year-before” budding trees. This means their buds are on the tree throughout the dormant cycle and if you prune them, you won’t have any flowers come spring. There are a few trees, including Japanese maples and pears, that shouldn’t be pruned in the fall because they are more likely to catch certain diseases. Contact your arborist to find out what and when to prune. Prune your roses in the fall as well. Check out my guide for rose pruning.
Assess your soil and determine what is needed in your soil for the trees and shrubs in your yard. Younger trees and shrubs have different fertilization needs than older, larger trees. Ornamental trees have different needs than fruit trees. Again, talk to your arborist and find out what makes the most sense for your yard.
Add wood chips or mulch. Wood chips are great over winter because they can be used to protect plants and bulbs from freezing temperatures and, long-term, they’ll decompose into enriched soil Although, if you don’t want your yard to look like a children’s playground (like ours does!), then mulch away. Some plants, like roses, need extra care in the colder climates, for example, my mom layers hay or pine needles over hers to keep them warm. Wood chips are super easy to get from chipdrop.com! You get a LOT of chips, but definitely enough to cover your whole yard and it’s fresh organic matter. Did I mention it’s free?
4. Plant trees.
Say what? That’s right, go to your local nursery on a gloomy Saturday, pick out some trees, follow our guide for planting and get it done. Fall is the best time to plant trees and shrubs. Period.
5. Plant bulbs.
This is the one thing I almost never get around to doing. Who is thinking about daffodils and tulips, when there are 1 million decorative gourds to buy? Get your bulbs. Plant them. And one sunny (or rainy, if you live in Portland) day next spring when those crocuses pop through, you’ll be patting yourself on the back.
6. Take down trellises.
I take my trellises down each year, pull all the old plants out of them (for compost) and store them in my garage. I do think primarily because I don’t grow anything over winter on them and because I move things around each year. Especially since this is my first year in this garden. I learned a lot about how certain plants grow in the places I planted them and have ideas for next year to do some rotation and potentially plant some things in different parts of our yard.
7. Plant fall veggies.
Portland Nursery has a fabulous planting guide that I suggest you download and print and tape to your refrigerator. There are plenty of vegetable planting options (at least in the Pacific Northwest) in September, October and November! If you have a cloche or raised bed covers, you could have more variety throughout the year.
Any other tricks or hacks for fall prep?