Important Fall Garden Advice!

I refer to my garden-blogger companions to give their sage advice, and I am constantly amazed at how much more information there is out there.  Here are some terrific tips that came from the empressofdirt.net.

Fall garden tasks are often ignored as we instinctively retreat to the indoors as the weather turns colder, letting the garden fade out.

However, if you can muster the enthusiasm/long johns, the payoff is quite fabulous: healthier plants and soil, gorgeous spring bulbs, masses of fresh garlic in the new year, productive bees, and more.

I hope you’ll find some helpful ideas as well as some new favourite blogs to follow.

Let’s get started with healthy soil. Here’s a few ideas:

1. Pine Needle Mulch | Our Fairfield Home & Garden

  • Pine needles make wonderful garden mulch. Organic mulches serve several purposes: they protect the soil during the winter, provide habitat for worms and friends (lots of insects and beneficial bacteria), and gradually break down to add structure and enrich the soil.
  • There’s a common gardening myth that the acidity of pine needles is harmful for a garden. Not true! By the time the needles break down, the acid level is insignificant, and there’s plenty of goodness in there.
  • See more of Barb’s tips on Tucking In The Winter Garden here….

2. Cover Crops | Learning & Yearning

  •  Cover crops are plantings used to protect and enrich the soil. You may have noticed farmers using these crops on their fields during the winter. The plants are not actually harvested for consumption but instead are incorporated into the soil, the same way we add compost.
  • Cover crops can be planted in the home garden with the same benefits.
  • Susan is experimenting both with cover crops and a no-dig garden method for super healthy soil. Find out which cover crop she’s using here: Cover Crop In A No-Dig Garden….

3. Leaves Are Gold In The Garden | Empress of Dirt

  • Somehow this crazy tradition started where we rake up leaves, bag them, ship them away, and then buy the equivalent soil enricher in the spring.
  • Leaves are actually an incredible resource, providing free mulch for the garden with no shipping involved. Smart and free!