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Tuck In Your Fall Garden

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Tuck In Your Fall Garden

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With fall winds nipping in the air, it’s about that time to put away the gadgets and shut down the fun for another season. However, there are some ways you can enhance next year’s growth as well as support the environment at the same time. Try incorporating a few Eco-friendly ways to tuck in your garden for fall. If you think you’ve got it down already take a gander as a reminder and see if these ways ring more true than ever.

Take a Walk-Thru

This may seem simple enough and maybe something you do anyway, however this time you are looking at your garden through a different lens. First, look for any repair that may need attention, particularly anything that is wasting resources. Water conservation is essential, especially in drought stricken areas, so look for and note to repair a leaking sprinkler head or outdoor spigot (faucet). Also, take note of plants that did not do well or became overrun to assess next years’s planting.

Prepare

Covering vulnerable species such as fig trees is a detailed recommendation you should research according to your yard and garden choices. However, as the usual weeding, deadheading, and turning of the soil is always required, this year use some compost. Compost can be found at any chain yard store or through local suppliers. If you have your own, give or sell some off to enhance your immediate living area.

Fertilize

Once compost or even peat moss is mixed in with your hibernating soil, adding all natural fertilizer could have you hit-the-ground-running come spring. Selective pre-emergent natural herbicide is best put down in the fall. Look for formulas that contain vinegar, citrus, clove and pepper ingredients.

Other additions to your pre-winter soil mix, as reported by My Little Green Garden, include:

  • Coffee Grounds – Used coffee grounds are a good organic amendment to add nutrients and improve drainage. And earthworms love them! Most coffee shops will even give you their used grounds if you ask.
  • Worm Casings – A little goes a long way – we’re talking tablespoons here. It’s rich in minerals for your plants.
  • Bone meal – This can add calcium and phosphorus to your soil to help with root growth, flower growth, and to prevent blossom-end rot. It can also raise your soil pH level over time.
  • Blood Meal – This adds nitrogen back into your soil to help your plants become more green and lush. It comes in a black granular form that you add to your soil. Blood meal can also make your soil more acidic, which lowers the pH level of your soil.

Feed the Birds

Fall is the best time to install or repair bird feeders and bird houses. This supports the local bird population (that don’t go south) through winter giving them full reign of your property come spring. They will act as guardians by controlling or eliminating pests while adding aesthetic pleasures all around. Birds are the perfect natural pest control along with bees, bats, butterflies and ladybugs.

Next Year’s Planting

Consider adding some protective species to next year’s planting to ward off natural pests that may have nibbled too much on this year’s utopia. Plus, these plants contribute to ecological support such as attracting useful critters like bees and ladybugs.

  • Camphor
  • Mints
  • Scented pelargonium
  • Wormwood
  • Southernwood
  • Lavender
  • Balm of Gilead
  • Rosemary
  • Sage

In addition to protective species, you may want to raise up your gardens beds this year by planting in boxed plots. Boxes, made from reclaimed wood, bamboo of other sustainable material contain runoff and conserve water. It controls root systems that may not catch underground pollution which may happen when planted more conventionally.

 

These Eco-friendly ways to tuck in your garden this fall will inevitably reap springtime rewards in the form of less work with more results. Enjoy your land and keep it clean with these and many other natural solutions to yard and garden maintenance.