Fall yard and garden tips

As the days start getting shorter and the nights get cooler, it is a sure sign that it is time to begin to think about getting your garden ready for winter. By following a few fall yard and garden tips to prepare your flowers and shrubs, you will reap huge benefits next spring.

One of the first things you can do is to rake your lawn every few days instead of waiting until all the leaves have fallen. You want to let the grass get as much sunlight as it can right up through the first frost. Another plus of doing the raking in small pieces is that it doesn't become such a major project.

You can shred the leaves and use them as mulch if you are into green choices. As the fall turns to winter, it is a good idea to give your lawn one last dose of fertilizer and one last cutting before you service your lawnmower and put it away until the spring.

As the air gets crisp, it is time to look at your flower beds. Are some of your flowers crowding their beds? This is the time of year to thin out the beds. Coneflowers and Shasta daisies are the perfect candidates for this type of thinning. It is good for your flowers to thin them, both of these flowers are lovely but quite aggressive in taking over a bed and crowding their neighbors out.

Fall is also the perfect time to plant the bulbs that are going to make your spring garden a stunner. Daffodils, tulips, lilies of the valley, snowdrops, crocuses, and hyacinths are some of the many popular spring flowers.

When it comes to roses, there are two schools of thought. One thought is that you should prune in the fall to protect the branches from winter damage and the other believes that it is best to prune the roses in the spring. Either way, you still need to protect the roots of your roses. You can use your leaf mulch to form a mound around the whole root ball of the rose bush. The zone you live in will determine how high you make your mound, just cover it well, at least a few inches.

Make the last pass through your flower beds and pull out any weeds. These should be disposed of in the garbage so that there is no chance for them to take root again. While you are giving your beds the once-over, you can remove any annuals that have died or dried out.

Some of your perennials will have stalks that are sticking up, hostas are great for this. Anything you remove in the fall will make your job that much easier in the spring. Remove your wind chimes, garden figures, empty flower pots and water features. Clean them up, dry them off and store them away until spring.

Do one last walk around to be sure everything looks clean and orderly. Now you can sit back and relax for a month or so until it is time to put out your holiday decorations.