fall gardening

Does it sound odd to you that I'm having a gardening post so close to fall. You know the non growing season?

Well don't be scared I'm not sowing my seeds just yet, but I am still preparing my containers for next year.

I don't want to be in such a rush to get things done in spring so I do what I can in fall to streamline things. And with a container garden this can be easy, though you can do some of these things in a regular garden as well.

I just got back in from filling some pots with compost and small organic material for next spring. As pots become available due to fall death and harvest I can add the old soil into a compost heap for over wintering and refill these pots with matured compost that I had going over the year. This accomplishes 3 things,
1) I don't rush to fill everything in spring so I need only to add seeds/saplings.
2)The rich soil gets to freeze in uncovered or insulated containers during -40°C winters. This helps kill any harmful bugs/virus/bacteria that may have gotten into the compost during the year.
3) Allows me to compost previously used soils with other organics to re-enrich them for the next year (is re-enrich a word?).

you know what else you can do in fall?
Buy cheap seeds.
Seeds are usually good for up to 5 years (some types are exceptions but meh those are usually good for 2-3 years). Just check the package date on your seeds and you can stock up on cheap clearance seeds for the spring. Other gardening tools and items are also on sale during the fall so stock up if you have space. Anything that needs assembly or preparation can be done in fall so it is ready to go come spring.

re-organize your space during fall for less damage to plants as moving your pots around in spring can damage or stress your plants causing them to lose their fruit/flowers. And again it lightens the load to move around empty pots.

Fertilize your pots in fall so that the soil is rich for your seedlings. This can also prevent fertilizer burn if done properly because you are allowing time for fertilizer to spread out in the soil instead of being concentrated in one spot.


See plenty of things out can do to make spring less busy.


Blessed Be
~Flaming