The leaves may be putting on their autumn show, but it’s not time to hang up the gardening tools just yet.

Take advantage of the cooler weather to clean up your garden and get it ready for next growing season.

Give your garden a once-over:

• Divide plants that have outgrown their space as necessary.
• Look for signs of disease or damage.
• Note which areas could use soil amendment and new plants.
• Check to see if any plants need to be moved to more suitable locations.
• Adjust the shape of the garden bed if needed.
• Look for hardscape elements that might need repairing like edging, walkways or trellises.

Get your garden ready for winter:

• Dig up tender bulb or tuber plants that won’t withstand winter.
• Bring houseplants indoors but check for insects first.
• Weed garden beds and remove spent annuals.
• Deadhead and prune one last time. Disinfect pruners between plants to reduce the risk of spreading disease.
• Do not prune roses. This stimulates new growth that may not be able to survive cold weather.
• Divide overgrown perennials.
• Amend soil.
• Add mulch after the first frost where necessary.
• Remove summer annuals from window boxes and planters, and replace with cool-weather bloomers like pansies or ornamental kale.

Prep your garden for spring:

• Plant spring bulbs.
• Plant shrubs, trees, roses or climbing plants.
• Apply fall fertilizer to established lawns; turf or sow bare areas.
• Dig new garden beds and amend the soil.

When your gardening chores are all done, be sure to clean all your tools and store them properly so they’ll be ready to go for next year. Find more gardening advice at eLivingtoday.com.

 

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