Here’s How to Clean Up Your Garden at Summer’s End

By Fall, your garden will be showing signs that its job is coming to an end. Green grass is fading, flowers have mostly gone, and leaves have turned yellow, orange, and red. Now’s the time for a good garden cleanup so that next spring your soil, tools, and supplies will be ready to start fresh.

Cut Back Your Perennials

Your flower garden will likely include some perennials. Start winter preparation by inspecting them carefully. Look for diseased plants and cut their foliage down to ground level. Discard diseased material outside of the garden. Some healthy plants benefit from Fall pruning and some are better pruned in Spring. The latter will drop their seeds for next year’s growth. Here are a few plants for pruning in Fall vs. Spring:

Save Your Seeds

It’s a good idea to save vegetable seeds. For things like beans and squash, let the fruits ripen and dry on the vine before picking. Store seeds in labelled jars in a cool dry place.

Fall Composting

If you’re not currently composting vegetable, fruit, and garden waste, Fall is the perfect time to begin. It’s good for the environment and it keeps your garden and kitchen organic matter out of the green bins.

• Start composting with carbon and nitrogen-rich items like disease-free plant matter, fruits and vegetables past their prime, grass clippings and leaves 

• Your compost pile should measure around one cubic yard—big enough to allow microbes to efficiently break down materials you add to the compost 

• Turn or rotate the compost regularly 

• A compost bin or tumbler makes it easier and faster to aerate your compost 

• Tumbling breaks down and aerates the compost, producing results in as little as three weeks

Clean & Store Your Garden Tools

Good quality garden tools should last multiple seasons if you look after them. In the Fall, spending time cleaning tools and making any necessary repairs will keep them in good shape.

• Cleaning Your Garden Tools: Over the growing season, garden tools pick up soil-borne disease and moisture which leads to rust on metal parts. Use a wire brush or fine steel wool to clean off accumulated rust and dirt. Disassemble tools with moving parts so you can get into all the crevices. Use medium-grit sandpaper on large tools such as forks, spades, and hoes. 

• Sharpening Your Pruners: Well-used cutting tools will need sharpening. For pruners, use a whetstone to sharpen the beveled side in a curved motion. Remove any burrs on the blade’s flat side. A little oil or water on the whetstone may be needed. 

• Sharpening Your Shears, Loppers, Shovels, Spades & Hoes: Sharpen these items with finish and sharpening files—progressing from medium to fine grit. Hold the blades in a bench vice or stabilize them on a table so you can get even strokes with the files. Push the file across the blade and away from your body, but don’t pull a file backwards over the blade. Each stroke should be diagonal, ensuring that the cutting teeth bite into the metal.

• Lubricate Tools Before Storing: Metal blades and tool heads should be lubricated with light machine or synthetic oil before storing for the winter. 

• Cleaning Tool Handles: Clean wood handles with a stiff bristle brush and sand any damaged parts. Coat them with boiled linseed oil to prevent future splintering. For plastic-coated handles, chip off any damaged coating and recoat with liquid or spray plastic. 

• Storing a Garden Hose: Turn off the hose’s water supply inside the house. Open the outdoor tap to drain water still in the hose. Remove the spray nozzle and allow it to dry before storing. Disconnect the hose and let it drain completely, separating any joined sections. Coil the garden hose in large loops, with no kinks and store in your garage or basement. 

• Winterizing Plant Pots: Some plant pots do not winter well outdoors. Stone pots will crack, especially those with soil inside that expands when frozen. Store empty pots inside a garage or basement.

Proper Garden Supplies Storage

Proper storage of leftover landscape materials will keep them usable for next Spring. You need to keep excess moisture away while providing adequate air flow: 

Garden Soil: Keep bagged soil in plastic bins and store in a dry shed or garage. 

Compost: Because you will need to turn compost over the winter to raise the damp bottom layer, it’s best to dump excess compost into an accessible bin. 

Mulch: Ensure there are air holes in your bags of mulch and store them in a dry garage or shed. Bulk mulch can be placed on a tarp and covered with a second tarp, but leave some edges free for air flow. 

Fertilizer & Pesticides: These products should be well sealed and stored in a dry environment where the temperature is stable (it doesn’t need to be climate controlled).

Getting your garden ready for winter takes some time and effort. But the work will be well worth it when Spring rolls around again. You’ll be happy that the garden is ready to produce new and healthy growth because you took care of any issues before it went to sleep.