• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Carol J. Michel

Award winner author of gardening humor books

  • About
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Shop
    • Gardening Humor
    • Children’s Books
    • New – The Halloween Hare
  • Speaking
    • Upcoming Speaking Engagements
  • Social
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
  • Gardening Humor
  • Children’s
  • All Books

May Dreams Gardens

Ten things your garden wants you to do this fall.

October 7, 2014 By Carol Michel 10 Comments

Your garden wants you to come out do some things this fall. Really. It does. Here are the ten things it wants you to do.

Get rid of the dead stuff. While you are at it, get rid of any plant you don’t like and compost it. After all, growing the plants you love is one of the secrets to achieving happiness in your garden. Plus you will love your garden if you are at least growing the plants you love.

Clean up your vegetable garden. Not cleaning up your vegetable garden in the fall is like throwing all the Christmas lights in a big box after the holidays and leaving them all tangled up. When you get the lights out of the box again, you are mad at yourself for storing them that way. Don’t leave the vegetable garden a tangled mess for spring.

Make up with your houseplants. You know you neglected them all summer. Give them a good shower and a good soaking. Replace that top layer of potting soil with fresh potting soil and trim them up a bit. Put them in the best windows. They will be your new best friends all winter.

Remember fallen leaves are gold. Do not rake them to the curb for the city to pick them up or worse, bag them up for the trash man. Instead, mulch them on the lawn, or rake them up and put them in the compost pile. Crush them up if you can so they’ll decompose faster and take less room. Your garden will love you for doing this.

Add a new garden border or bed. Make it just a little bigger, just a little wider. Don’t scrimp on size. Plant it now or in the spring. You’ll love the results if you do it now.

Evict the weeds. Don’t let any of them think they are staying for the winter. Once you think you’ve evicted them all, go back through and find the “hiders” and get rid of them, too. Your garden will be grateful to be rid of those nutrient sucking, space hogging blemishes of the flower borders.

Mulch your beds and borders. You’ll love how your garden looks when the beds are freshly mulched. While you are at it, give each border a nice fresh, sharp edge going into winter.

Envision spring. Try to remember where in the garden you planted bulbs, then go plant more bulbs in other places. If you can’t remember where the other bulbs are planted, dig and hope for the best. You will love your garden in the spring if you plant bulbs in the fall.

Leave your pruners inside. Fall is no time to prune. It sends the wrong message to the trees and shrubs. However, if you really must use your pruners, use them to cut back perennials, to make the garden as neat as you’d like. But don’t cut back mums. And leave those perennials with interesting seed heads standing so you’ll have winter interest to love. Or cut them back if they are over zealous self-sowers that will make you unhappy in the spring when thousands of their seedlings sprout.

Make some notes. Even if you don’t regularly write in a garden journal, note varieties of annuals you grew and liked, list perennials you want to get in the spring, and draw a map of your vegetable garden so you can rotate the crops to different spots next year. You’ll love having this information in the spring.

Put your tools and hoses away, and the garden decor, too. Winters can be so hard on tools and pots and other garden decor. They’ll rust. They’ll crack. They’ll fade. They’ll be crap by spring if they are left out in the winter time.

Finally, leave a door open just a crack every once in a while. It’s cold in the winter and the garden fairies will use the crack to get in and spend the winter around the houseplants. They won’t be any bother, and some of them will even make toast for you on occasion. (added by Violet Greenpea Maydreams because sometimes Carol forgets.)

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: fall

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kathy says

    October 7, 2014 at 4:02 am

    A very good list. I need to make up with my houseplants.

    Reply
  2. Shady Gardener says

    October 7, 2014 at 5:20 am

    Good, thoughtful post! And yes, I do need to give those extra hugs to the few houseplants I intend to bring indoors this Fall! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Covegirl says

    October 7, 2014 at 1:03 pm

    Very good list!

    Reply
  4. Lisa at Greenbow says

    October 7, 2014 at 1:12 pm

    I enjoyed this gentle nudge to get out there and tuck the garden in for the winter.

    Reply
  5. Dee Nash says

    October 7, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    I completely agree. Great things Carol.~~Dee

    Reply
  6. Mike the Gardener says

    October 7, 2014 at 4:00 pm

    Excellent list! Next year I have in the works, I am going to have a border of potted herbs on the patio … in my mind it looks great … we shall see 🙂

    Reply
  7. Diana says

    October 7, 2014 at 10:56 pm

    I always clean up the veggie garden in the fall. Then I plant bulbs of tulip species which usually only bloom once in the tomato bed (it's a small bed). The tulips bloom before it's time to put in the tomatoes and I don't have to feel guilty about digging them up to put in tomatoes!

    Reply
  8. Rose says

    October 8, 2014 at 1:46 pm

    Great advice for everyone, Carol! All of these are on my fall to-do list, too, though they're not getting accomplished very quickly. I make notes every fall of what bulbs I plant where, and in the spring I take photos, but still sometimes it is a "hope for the best" planting:)

    Reply
  9. LostRoses says

    October 9, 2014 at 5:13 am

    I hate to disappoint my garden but some of the laziness cannot be overcome. But while bringing all the tropicals into the "fern room" I left the door open for the fairies but got a fat mouse instead. Not everything works out. 🙂

    Reply
  10. Unknown says

    October 10, 2014 at 11:59 pm

    The door is open – just a crack! Good advice … I especially relish the bulb planting advice as I can NEVER remember where I planted them last year …

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Categories

  • Blog (3,047)
  • Internal (2)

Blog Tags

annuals Blogging books bulbs dr. hortfreud embrace fairies fall family flowers fruits garden bloggers bloom day garden bloggers book club garden design gardeners gardening gardening geek gardens hoes holidays hortense hoelove houseplants humor indoor gardening insects lawn letters to gardening friends perennials rabbits reviews Secrets seeds shrubs spring tools trees vegetable garden vegetable gardening vegetables weather weeding weeds when a gardener wildflower wednesday winter

The Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Footer

Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Connect

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • maydreams icon

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Books
  • May Dreams Gardens
  • Podcast

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Newsletter Archive

Copyright © 2023 · CarolJMichel.com · Sitemap · Privacy Policy

Book purchase links are affiliate links and Carol earns a small commission if you make a purchase.

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT