Topics For Work In The Fall Garden

We have been enjoying such nice weather for the past several weeks and have even gotten to some fall work a little early to take advantage of the cool days and nights. Following is a glossing over of a class I teach in the late Summer called ‘Work in the Fall Garden’, and some of the topics that I am discussing now in my client’s gardens. I can’t go into all the details in a brief post, but these are broad topics you should be considering and executing upon right now.

Planting, Transplanting and Division
Fall is an excellent time to plant, transplant and divide plants, primarily because you have well into November for plants to establish roots before Winter, and then they have several months in Spring to root further before the heat of Summer. They will still need care and water in following seasons, but will not suffer from transplant shock as the heat of Summer kicks in after doing this work in May. As with my pruning classes, I always say you must know your plant, as some plants do prefer Spring division. Also, with cooling weather and the hope of more rain (and delivery this week), you do not need to be paying attention to plants every day, like in the Summer.

To Cut Back or Cut Not
For a long time now, the trend, especially with uninformed landscape contractors, has been to clear our gardens and to cut perennials down to the soil, leaving a barren, exposed soil.  It looks clean and neat, but can be harmful to plants and eliminates habitat for so many of our important and beneficial insects to spend the Winter. We need to consider leaving plants over Winter and leaving leaves in bed.  They protect plant roots from Winter weather, like last Winter, and provide the important material for insects to overwinter.  Yes you can do some clean-up and remove excess leaves. Yes, you can shred some leaves and put them in other spaces as a winter mulch. Excess leaves spread out over your lawn and then mulched in with the lawn mower is a great way to put organic material back into your lawn without smothering it.

Soil Testing and Amending
What plants aren’t doing well from this year? Is one bed suffering more than others? Are some of your shrub leaves yellow or not a healthy green? Did your vegetables not produce well? Do you have a lot of disease or insect infestations? Are plants not flowering like they have in the past or growing strongly? Soil Testing is the answer. One $26 soil test can save you immense amounts of money in replacing plants or plants that don’t perform. Go to UMass Soil Lab, and they provide all the instructions and will recommend amendments based upon what you are growing. Test specific beds and don’t mix together as you may need to do several tests based upon what you are growing. Do it now, and you can address the issues before Winter and have a better year in 2026. I am happy to consult with you on this process as it can be a little overwhelming. but it will provide you with great knowledge and direction.

Leaving or Shredding Leaves
Think about your local forest and how happily things grow. They provide their own mulch and organic material with fallen leaves. It is a huge effort to provide new leaves every Spring from the organic material in the soil and water. If you remove the leaves every year, then your soil will have less and less organic material to provide for plants. This is why there is such a struggle with Street trees and woody plants and trees in gardens that are cleared every year. On top of that, many people replace with really crappy mulch in the Spring that doesn’t add back to the soil. Organic material is a zero sum game. Every time you take away, you need to add to replace, especially in gardens with lawns and less organic material. As best you can clean up and leave the leaves in your beds and mulch them into your lawn. Xerces Society has a great piece on Leaving the Leaves.

Clearing Dead and Diseased
Always clear dead and diseased material. Roses need good hygiene, especially in Fall. If you have perennials that tend to get disease like Peonies, Rose, Bee Balm, etc, clean up and cut back where appropriate and many of these diseases overwinter in soil and can get worse. I have in the past, picked every leaf off of susceptible Roses in Fall to minimize continued disease. You can prune dead and diseased branches and plants anytime.

Planning for the Future
Now, before we get too far into Fall, is the time to take pictures and start thinking about any edits you want to make to your garden. If you do transplanting or division into new beds, take pictures and put stakes in the ground where you want to plant in the Spring.  Prepare beds in the Fall for Spring work with amendment and new soil, as they will settle and set up for work in the Spring. If you took my suggestion in the Spring to take photos, you will know where to plant the bulbs you recently ordered and should be arriving in the coming weeks. Taking pictures of your garden throughout the year make Winter planning easy.

I know this is an oversimplified discussion of these topics, but one thing that I try to reinforce with all my clients and students is to think ahead. Whether it is soil care, designing, pruning, dividing, You should be ahead of your garden and directing it rather than reacting to it and responding to challenges.  Pruning is the classic example.  People often see it as a chore when things are overgrown, as opposed to pruning to direct your plants what you want them to do.