Five Tips for Sustainable Fall Gardening
In Georgia, cooler weather has finally rolled in, which makes it the perfect time to prepare your garden for the spring. Ready to roll up your sleeves and dig in? We’ve put together some advice that will allow you to keep your yard looking its best while remaining friendly to butterflies, birds, and other beneficial insects. Here’s what to do, what not to do, and why it makes a meaningful difference.
1. Litter Those Leaves
Ending litter may be one of our main initiatives, but not when it comes to leaves. Instead of raking and bagging them, use them as mulch for your garden beds. Of course, you’ll want to make sure to keep them away from the base of your shrubs to discourage pests and rot from taking up residence, but leaves are a great way to insulate tender plants over the winter, and they also act as natural fertilizers and weed controllers as they break down over time.
By doing this, you’ll benefit moths and butterflies (caterpillars overwinter in leaf litter), and you’ll also save bags of leaves from going to your local landfill.
2. Think Twice About Cutting Your Perennials
Your once colorful blooms may have faded and dried, but they still provide a lot of benefits for local wildlife. Seed heads provide nourishment for many species, and stems often house eggs for the next crop of beneficial insects, including native bees. Consider waiting to cut down your your plants until they emerge in early spring, or alternatively, leave the bottom two feet, where most eggs can be found, intact.
You should remove any diseased plants to stop the spread, and you might also want to cut back aggressive and invasive species at this time of year. Just be mindful of the critters who may be preparing their winter homes.
3. Plant Ahead
Fall is a great time to plant shrubs and trees. Sowing them at this time of year means they won’t be stressed by heat and will receive plenty of rain by the time they’re ready to sprout. If you’re a fan of spring flowers, you should also take advantage of the cooler weather to plant bulbs like daffodils, tulips and hyacinths. All you need to do is get them in the ground before the ground freezes.
4. Enrich Your Soil
If you composted this summer, you can reap the benefits by adding it to your empty garden beds. Over the winter, the compost will break down and integrate into the dirt, restoring important nutrients depleted during the growing season. Your plants will have such a good start in the spring as a result! We also recommend picking up a soil testing kit, available at most home gardening and hardware stores, to test the pH level of your soil.
5. Weed and Seed
Just because the weather has mellowed doesn’t mean weeds have gone away! Pull them out now to save yourself from dealing with hundreds of them in the spring. Doing this will also help keep disease out of your garden. You should also consider patching any gaps in your lawn with fresh grass seed. This will allow a new lawn to establish itself before winter dormancy.