Fall Gardening Checklist

Falling leaves signal the beginning of the fall garden clean up season. With the cooler fall weather upon us, it’s time to get outside and prepare your garden for the onset of a Canadian winter. Maybe you haven’t spent that much time in the garden over the past few weeks, with kids going back to school, or you have managed to get away and spend some time off at the cottage, but there is a lot of little tasks that need to be completed to get your garden ready for winter.

September:

• Collect seed and herbs for drying.
• Add compost or manure to garden beds.
• Cover water features with netting to collect falling leaves.
• Check houseplants for pests, then start to move indoors.
• Plant new trees and shrubs.
• Clean bird feeders, gardening tools.
• Continue watering trees and shrubs until the ground freezes.
• Bring in any clay pots.
• Pull weeds before they go to seed to reduce the number of weeds next year.
• Fertilize your lawn.

October:

• Plant spring flowering bulbs.
• Transplant shrubs or young trees to new locations.
• Cut diseased areas out of perennials. Do not compost.
• Clean up garden debris.
• Remove all vegetable plants and fallen fruit.
• Remove dead annuals from the garden, after a frost.
• Cut back perennial foliage to discourage overwintering pests.
• Leave flowers with seeds for the birds.
• Continue watering trees and shrubs until the ground freezes.
• Sharpen lawn mower blade and pruners.
• Trim tall grass away from trees and corners of your home to discourage small rodents from creating nests.
• Dig up tender bulbs such as dahlia, canna and gladiola (tips for overwintering found here!).
• Divide perennials (typically spring and summer blooming plants get divided in the fall).
• Sow seeds that require cold stratification such as poppies and milkweed in late October.

November:

• Sow seeds that require cold stratification such as poppies and milkweed.
• Fertilize your lawn.
• Turn off outside water connections.
• Drain garden hoses.
• Buy bulbs to force for winter.
• Continue watering trees and shrubs until the ground freezes.
• Wrap screening around fruit tree trunks to protect from small animals.
• Mulch rose bushes.
• Clean fallen leaves in downspouts and gutters.

Thanks to our friends at Landscape Ontario for the inspiration on this article.