What are your fall tasks for soil?

Hello,

This will be my first fall with some perennials planted in one of my beds. I also have one shade bed which I did not have time to plant a thing in. I have dug up and amended my heavy clay soil with compost, topsoil, turface and perlite in some places and then planted some things.

Now that fall is coming soon I am wondering what I should do in the beds where I have stuff planted, since I obviously can't dig like I did before. Should I just mulch, or is there some other good thing you can do to produce a positive result next spring?

I'd like to hear what more experienced people do to their gardens in the fall.

Thanks,

Maureen

Leaves. Everyone in the neighborhood's. All I can coax, wheedle and steal. We shred em with the lawnmower and dump them on the garden beds.

I agree about the leaves, they are wonderful, and in the Spring move them to tha side, add some compost, and put the leaves back on.
Josephine.

should add that I don't use black walnut leaves b/c of their alleopathy, but they "shed" later than many others anyway. Oak are my favorite.

That's good to know about leaves, we have 3 large trees and definitely no shortage!

So do you just dump them on top of the perennials and let nature take it's course? Would you put leaves under or over mulch? I have not mulched at all yet.

leaves are my favorite mulch. Think of a forest floor...

Shreding them with a lawn mower will make a more attractive mulch for a perenial bed and add nutrients to your soil faster. Mixing them with other materials like grass clippings, or some wood chips may help to keep them in place if wind is a consideration.

My own fall soil building tasks are digging the existing mulch into the soil of the raised and adding more on top. Also, gathering more materials.

And making more compost. I love to make compost. Nothing beats seeing a row of steamy compost bins on a crisp fall morning.

Wayne in the Adks.

Oak leaves, all other leaves, pine needles and straw. I put straw and leaves in the back garden where I leave some of the tropicals out. Pine needles for Hydrangea, Azalea, Gardenia. Pine needles have an acidic composition the acid loving plants like.
Rj

Thanks all, this has been very helpful. I will definately have a boatload of leaves to work with. I guess I'll ask our lawn man to run over them with the mower this year, and then I'll work them into the perennial beds along with the mulch. I'm using something called "Midnight Mulch" BTW.

Thanks again everybody!

Maureen

I agree leaves...straw I never heard of pine needles but will try them on my Hydrangeas since they did nothing this year I don't think they were too happy and I have a hugh supply of them available from the neighbors.

Zeppy how come no black walnut leaves??? I have 4 BW trees and I have put them on the compost pile for years but then again I never used the compost for anything until this year. I don't use them on my flower beds just because the maples are closer to the beds. Are BW leaves ok in compost?? I just this year started really trying to compost built a bin and really trying to make it work. In the past I just had a hugh pile that was not heating up well and was getting out of control. I don't want to put anything in that would be harmful.

SAndy

Sandy, see this link, or do any google search for "black walnut" and "compost"...

http://sisw.org/compost/compostfaqs.htm

Some people can be a little too alarmist about BW trees, but I planted a large garden quite close to two of them (but not under the drip line) and everything did well. Especially the nightshade family, which is supposed to be particularly sensitive to juglone.

Thanks Zeppy looks like I will be ok I doubt they would make up more then 1/3 of my compost mix. I am looking at an area between 2 BW trees for a raised bed garden. It would still be far beond the drip line of either of them. I may double check if there is another logical area but I am pretty sure it will go there. I will just remember when I mulch in the fall to bring leaves in from the another area of the yard to use in the garden and put the BW leaves in the compost bin.

Go to Bordine.com for a list of plants that are tolerant of black walnut trees and those that are not. The list for the ones that are is much larger.

I'm in the same boat wondering what I should do with my beds this year. Will putting a coating of leaves on my garden lead to a massive population of slugs?

I no longer add leaves to my beds for mulch until they have rotted down. Sometimes in the bags they came in. Because not only have we imported slugs and other bugs over the years, we have also imported weed seeds. Not to say that we haven't gotten some good things out of the bags, but they are where we got our first starts of crabgrass. It is also where we got our starts of zoysia which I didn't even recognize until our DIL showed it to me a couple weeks ago. I have been pulling it out and throwing it in the burning pile for years. Then trying to buy it for her each spring because she said she likes it. She can have all she wants from our yarden.

I shred my leaves and put this in my compost and then I also buy Peat Humus, 40lbs for $1.14 at Lowe's and Home Depot. The only problem for leaves is if you have put down weed killer. Mikey

I'm making the veggie garden (about 30' by 45') into the chicken pen for winter. The girls are very good at tilling the shredded leaves and straw into the beds with their big ole feet, and even better at eating grubs and weed seeds. Not to mention the poop factor. Hoping this works well for us...

Zeppy, It looks like you have a good plan, be sure to let us know how it works out.
Josephine.

I attended a workshop on soil ecology and nutrition this weekend. So I'll be adding lime to bump up the ph in my acidic soil and also planting a cover crop after I prepare the soil.