Fall is the Best Time for Gardening

Why have we never considered gardening in the fall? Fall is cooler, the bugs are almost gone, and we'll have a couple of months of gorgeous blooms before the first hard frost arrives. The soil has benefited from several months of rain and has rebuilt its nutrients. Here are more reasons fall is the best time for gardening.

Help For Pollinators

We wouldn't be alive but for the bees, butterflies, birds, and other beings that help our food to grow. Therefore, planting wild geranium or Virginia bluebells in the fall months helps them get food with which to fertilize ours. They will have food from spring to fall and into the beginnings of winter.

It's A Beginning

The ground doesn't get too hard to dig until the end of November or the beginning to mid-December. If you live in northern climes, then fall garden work should begin in August. In the southern portion of the country, fall gardening can go past Christmas.

This head-start gives the roots of the plants time to get established. As the cinnamon fern and lady fern slumber through the winter, they use the nutrients at their disposal to grow hardy and robust. In spring, they will bloom beautifully while others are still grasping for a toe-hold in the soil.

It's Better For The Plants

Let's say you envision sowing trees in the fall. You picture red maples, sassafras, Virginia and Loblolly pines. The heat of summer and sometimes spring drains the life out of everything. Water from the roots won't evaporate, cheating your maple trees of their nutrition. The cooler temperatures are, the less stressful on newly planted trees and flowers.

Cooler Weather Is A Good Thing

We've discussed the lack of water evaporation in fall, but photosynthesis also takes a breather. This is how plants synthesize water and nutrients from sunlight. In the fall, the sunlight isn't so strong. This means the new plants won't need as much water as they do in spring.

Part of a fall garden is bulbs planted for spring. Tulips, buttercups, iris, hyacinth, crocus and more require over-wintering to hoard the nutrients in the soil for spring blooms. These are best planted before the ground gets hard in late November and early to mid-December.

Size Matters

Flowers in three-inch containers and trees in gallon buckets take a smaller hole in the soil. Gently pulling the root system out of the root ball and planting in a well-watered hole gives the root system a chance to dig in and absorb the water into the root system. It doesn't matter if the tree doesn't have leaves; it will burst into full leaf in the spring.

Bare Spots

Fall sowing allows the gardener to see where the bare spots need replenishing. Ground coverage is thinner. The leaves and bugs are gone. Now you can see if a ground cover like creeping myrtle or live English ivy is required. Perhaps you could use wild strawberry or wild blackberry plants. Filling the empty spaces in your garden is a colorful (and could be a flavorful) adventure.