The weather is cooler, but you are still out in the garden. But what about when your gardening season is over? There are three fall cleanup mistakes that you want to avoid making. You will find them below.
Fall Cleanup Mistakes 1 – Not Removing Plants
As your plants start withering and dying, you should immediately remove them from your garden, including their roots. When you keep them in the garden too long it can cause a lot of problems in the short term and the long term.
Plants that are dying are less resistant to disease. They can attract fungi, disease, and mold. The disease can even get into the soil and damage your plants next year.
Fall Cleanup Mistakes 2 – Leaving Your Soil Bare
Once you have taken your plants out, you don’t want to leave your soil bare. Otherwise, you may find that you have a lot of weeds growing in the garden that you need to remove next year.
You want to plant something like annual rye as your cover crop. Once you have that planted, use a 1/2” straw layer for mulch. This is going to help with keeping the weeds out as well as keeping the moisture in.
Fall Cleanup Mistakes 3 – Not Caring for Your Garden Hardware
Once you have cleared your garden, you want to make sure that you are cleaning your hardware, such as your cages, stakes, tools, and trellises. You want to make sure that they are cleaned and disinfected. This way you don’t have to worry about transferring plant diseases to your plants next year. Pour ½ of a cup bleach into 1-gallon water and use the mixture to wipe down your tools and hardware.
When you store them early, it also will help with preserving your stakes and trellises longer. When they are exposed to the elements longer, they are going to break down more easily.
These are three fall cleanup mistakes. We hope that you have found this to be useful. If you’d like to know more about our services, including our fall cleanup services, contact us to get a quote.
