9 Tips to Keep Your Summer Garden Thriving Into Fall

With fall just around the corner, it’s easy to forget about your garden you’ve been tending to all summer long. And while you may be thinking it’s not even worth it to keep your garden thriving for the fall, it’s actually easier than you may think!

Let’s jump right in to get the scoop on how to keep your garden thriving, even when the air gets cooler and the leaves start to fall.

Fertilize Lightly

Fertilizer is always important to keep your plants, flowers, and veggies looking great and producing new blooms, but during this time of the season, you don’t need as much as you did during the early days of summer. You can fertilize lightly, but it’s best to not use a full application.

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Continue to Plant

While it may seem counterproductive to keep planting veggies and plants when the temperatures drop, early fall is still a great time to continue.

But how? Well, the soil is still warm from the summertime, and many roots as well are still actively growing.

Mulch Your Garden Beds

Placing mulch on your garden beds and around trees or shrubs will protect them from any major temperature drops that can come out of the blue this time of the year. You can use a thin layer of wood chips or mulch from the store. Mulch also protects root systems, to keep your plants growing.

Use Your Leaves

If you’re used to raking up your leaves, don’t put them away this year. Instead, you can use these leaves in your garden beds to help keep your soil nice and full of nutrients.

Harvest Your Vegetables

Late summertime is one of the best times to harvest your fresh vegetables from your garden. In doing so, you can make room for your fall crops!

Prune

It’s essential to prune off any dead or diseased plants from your garden. This will ensure any disease on foliage doesn’t spread to other parts of your garden in the upcoming months.

Remove Weeds

To further prepare your garden for fall, it’s important and necessary to remove any weeds that have been poking through the soil or mulch.

Weeds are still very much growing during the late summer, so this is the best time to get rid of them before they spread to other parts of your garden or lawn.

Dig Up Your Bulbs

Don’t forget to tend to your perennials during this time of the year. Dig up any bulbs using a shovel and be extra careful not to damage them in the process. Then simply trim the stems and store them over the wintertime.

Keep Your Plants Out of the Shade

It’s still important this time of year for your garden to get some sunshine. Ideally, plants will continue to thrive with four to six hours of full sunshine.