Fall is the time to start resting on your laurels for a beautiful spring and summer season, right? While it’s good to stop and smell the roses in the gorgeous yard you’ve had going for you this past year, it’s important to think ahead to next year. You can start planning now to create an epic spring garden in NJ with just a few tasks. The actions you take in the fall help to prepare your yard and garden for the coming cold season and then the spring warm-up when everything comes back to life again. Each of these tasks is great ideas to start now to reap the benefits later as you take care of your soil to prep it for another beautiful garden.
Testing Soil
This is a chore that most people think is only a spring task, but testing the soil now can help you amend it as you go through your other fall chores.
Test Again in the Spring
You’ll still probably have to test the soil again once spring arrives when it’s time to get ready to plant to make sure that the nutrients haven’t leached out of the soil. This is especially true if you’ve had a wet winter, but amending in the fall can help to make it so that you don’t have to add as many nutrients.
Composting
This is a fall task that really should be something you tackle all year round if you don’t already. Gardeners love composting because it creates liquid gold for the garden out of materials that, in most cases, you probably would throw away. There are composting bins that you can use that take the challenge out of composting as you just add materials to the bin, and spin it to keep it mixed. If you want to go old school, you’ll need to select an area that you’ll use and lay down a tarp. Then, you’ll pile your composting materials onto the tarp and occasionally mix it.
Check Composting Materials
There are a variety of materials you can add to your compost pile, but be sure that you don’t add any plant materials that may have been diseased as you’ll be putting this contaminated material back into the soil. Some serious gardeners keep their pepper and tomato plants out of the compost bin completely to eliminate the possibility of it passing on any disease to your compost.
Removing Debris
Leaves are one of your constant companions falling from the trees and covering everything. It can be tempting to leave the leaf litter on your garden and lawn during the fall months, but removing this debris is a good idea.
Better Health
Bacteria, mold, fungus and other unwelcome pests can be hiding in the leaf litter that you leave strewn about your lawn. Getting rid of it can be a great way to improve the health of the surrounding soil. Don’t take those leaves too far, though, as you can either add them to your compost pile or you can use them to help mulch around the bases of your perennials.
Tilling
Tilling the soil can be backbreaking work depending on your choice of a tiller. For many, this is something that they schedule to do during the beginning of spring when the land has finally warmed up enough to break up the soil. The thing is that fall may be the best time of year to get this garden chore completed. The days are cooler, and the soil is going to be easy to work with already. You’ve just put your garden to bed, so why not get prepared for the next season?
Compost in Place
You can till under healthy vegetation to help it to compost in place. This is one chore that does very well in the autumn. A wet spring that makes it hard to till your garden early may put you behind with your planting schedule, so you’ll avoid this since your tilling will already be completed.
Cover Crops
Fall is a great time to plant cover crops in your garden to help with your soil health. Cover crops help to replace the nutrients in the soil, such as nitrogen and offer protection from leaching nutrients during the winter months. Cover crops that have deep roots help to aerate the soil for next year’s crops, and you’ll just need to till it under when prepping for spring.
Enjoying the fruits of your labor after a successful summer gardening season is great, but don’t get too comfortable. Your next spring garden is waiting for you to start prepping for it already. You’ll be happy that you’ve taken the time in the fall to get your soil as healthy as possible, and you may be pleasantly pleased with the yield of your next harvest thanks to your forethought.
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