Don't Make These 8 Fall Gardening Mistakes

In effect these eight mistakes amount to a reverse to-do list. If you neglect these eight tasks now it will mean more work for you next spring. The first mistake is to stop weeding and there are several other similar chores that you should not neglect. Then there are those positive steps you need to take if you want to have flowers and vegetables in your garden next spring. These tips come from an article by Rebecca Straus which I found on Rodale’s Organic Life website.

Fall is probably the time of year when your garden begins to get away from you. You get lax about weeding and procrastinate cleanup as long as possible?sometimes until spring (guilty).

But staying on top of things will make your job so much easier next season, and it can actually improve the health of your garden. Here are some common errors pro gardeners see people making in the fall and their advice for having the best autumn garden ever.

1/8 Kelly Marken/shutterstock

You Stop Weeding

After a summer of diligently keeping the weeds down, you?re probably ready to throw in the trowel (see what we did there?) and leave them for cold weather and Mother Nature to beat into submission. But that?s a really bad idea, according to Mason Day, a life-long grower and co-founder of the social gardening app GrowIt. ?Weeds often set their seeds in the fall months, so if you let your garden go this year, you?re going to be dealing with even more weed seedlings next spring,? he says. To make the chore easier, master the most effective way to remove weeds.

2/8 Chayanin Wongpracha/shutterstock

You Don?t Trim Back Perennial Grasses

If you want tidy flower beds come spring, don?t forget to cut back dead foliage on your perennials. ?Most perennial grasses grow back from the ground up,? Day says. ?Sure, tall dead grass can provide a winter interest, but next spring it’s going to be hard to trim back the dead stuff when new shoots start popping up in between them.?

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But You Do Prune Your Bushes

Pruning stimulates new growth, so cutting back branches in the fall causes your plant to put its energy into regrowing just when it should be conserving resources by going dormant for winter. This can severely weaken the plant, raising the risk that it won?t make it through the cold weather. Wait until late winter or early spring, when the plants are already dormant to make the cuts. This way they can begin the regrowth process just as they?re waking up from their winter slumber.