Fall for Your Garden in Autumn!

Autumn is still a very important season in the garden! The cooler temperatures that have recently made an appearance in the Pacific Northwest make tending the garden easier on you and your plants. It's is a great time to plant, prune and clean-up the garden.

Fall is the time to reflect on your garden's success, but remember there's still time left for to do some important garden maintenance. Fall gardening takes advantage of cooler temperatures and less bugs. Putting the garden to bed for the colder months ahead isn't nearly as hectic as waking it up in the spring, and your efforts will pay off big time! Here are some fairly easy tasks to do now, to make next year's garden even better. 

1. Enrich garden beds with compost or manure. 

2. Collect dried seeds from open pollinated flowers & veggies. 

3. Clean bird feeders to get them ready for use. 

4. Gather herbs, seed heads and flowers for drying. 

5. Clean out cold frames for winter use. 

6. Cover water gardens with netting to keep the falling leaves out. 

7. Keep trees and shrubs well watered until the ground freezes. 

8. Cut back perennials. (Definitely cut back diseased perennials and remove all foliage, but don’t compost!)

9. Clean, sand and oil garden tools before storing them for the winter. 

10. Take cuttings of plants for propogation.

If you still have energy left after these gardening chores, I will have MORE ideas for you next week!