Around this time last year, the man and I were on vacation. This year, no such luck! I am on garden cleanup duty. As much as I love(!) making my garden bigger each year, the hard truth is: the bigger the garden, the more fall cleanup there will be. If this is something you don’t necessarily enjoy (like me), I’ll be sharing some ideas later in the post that might make this task more enjoyable.
As for my own garden, there are a few beds that need to be weeded and mulched, or maybe they can just be left alone until spring. I’ve really been neglectful, but in all fairness my efforts for most of this year have been on interior home improvements.
The vegetable garden area definitely needs work…spent foliage to be pulled out and this year I’m going to try something new in addition to the normal compost: adding shredded leaves directly to the beds to work themselves into the soil over the winter. I’ve read about this – eager to try it out! So eager in fact, that I bought a leaf shredder from Amazon. I will be sure to give a full report after I’ve used it. Just waiting for those leaves to come down.
One long-running project that we did finish up was a retaining wall along the side of the house. I have grand plans for making this area into an edible landscape – think berries and leafy greens, mixed in with decorative shrubs and perennials. This year as the wall was in progress, I used the space to house containers for veggie growing.
Here is a view of the wall from the front side of the house.
And another view:
As promised, here are my best ideas for making fall garden cleanup fun:
- have a plan – work goes better with a plan in place
- use this opportunity to get some great fall themed photos
- maybe there is a project that could be finished up fairly quickly
- use a new tool (leaf blower, bright colorful rake, or whatever you fancy)
- visualize changes you want to make in your garden next year
- decorate for autumn (always a fun thing to do!)
- bring a nice fall beverage along – think apple cider! – and enjoy the season while you work
- check out the wildlife and how their patterns are changing with the season, especially those squirrels and birds as they prepare for winter
- finally, look at it as a way of getting to spend more time in your garden, even if just to tuck it in and say “see you later”
I hope this was helpful and maybe a little bit motivating. I would love to know what you are up to in the garden this fall – leave a comment or let me know how to find you on Instagram!! Cheers!
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