Clean Up Your Garden Now in the Fall

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

07 Oct 2008 11:51 AM

As the fall sets in, the last thing you probably want to do is to clean out your summer garden. There is a good reason to pay it some attention, though. Cleaning out the garden now will save you a lot of headache when it comes to next spring, plus you can take the opportunity to do some fall planting.

Why should you clean up your garden?

Those pests and diseases that you may have been fighting all summer are still around even in the fall. They can easily survive the winter and come back with a vengeance once the weather warms back up. These pests and diseases lay in the soil and dead plant debris. Some critters just love making a feast of those old dead plants.

How can you clean up your garden?

Cut back all of your perennials to a few inches off of the ground. The plants will still survive because of their roots, and you won't be hurting them by removing the dead foliage. The stuff that is above the ground is dead anyway.

Since annuals won't come back, remove any annual plants completely, pulling them up from the roots. There is no reason to leave them in your garden. You can always add them to your compost pile.

Pull up any weeds, living or dead. Although you may not have any plants for them to compete with, there is no reason to let them get the upper hand, um I mean, leaf. Diseases and pests love weeds and will take full advantage of them over the winter.

Remove any leaf debris and keep the area clean. You might think that the leaves protect the roots of your perinneals and add nutrients to the soil, but they also harbor diseases and pests. If you want to use leaves for compost, shred them first and then turn them under the soil. Otherwise, add the leaf debris to the compost pile as well.

One word of caution about adding things to your compost pile. If you know a plant that has been battling disease over the summer, don't add it to the compost pile. Diseased plant material should be removed and destroyed, otherwise your might reintroduce the disease back into your garden. Sometimes composting doesn't completely destroy plant diseases.

Happy gardening!

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog and caring for little ones in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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