Fall Vegetable Garden Care

Fall is an excellent time to get started on some of those gardening projects that are often hard to do in the spring. Once you pull your vegetables out of the garden for the year be sure to incorporate some organic material into the soil. It’s common to add organic material in the spring however a fall application has several benefits. With the leaves that are falling from the trees we have a ready supply of organic material to add into the garden and the second benefit is the winter will give the organic material time to break down in the soil so the nutrients are ready for your garden to use next year.

It’s also a great idea to till your garden or work it up in the fall or early winter as opposed to tilling in the spring. Most years fall weather is drier than early spring plus you aren’t on a time crunch trying to get your garden ready before you plant vegetables in the spring. Soil that is worked up when it is dry or just slightly damp is easier to till and is less likely to have large clods which can easily happen when the soil is wet. If you decided to plant a cover crop be sure to wait to work the soil till the cover crop has been killed by a frost for the season to get the biggest impact on your soil health.

Another task that can easily happen in the fall is to do a soil test in your garden, lawn or flower beds as this allows you can add any necessary nutrients or soil amendments before you plant in the garden up in the spring. Typically, in the fall the soil lab is less busy so the results come back faster plus you aren’t impatiently waiting for your results so you can get started planting.

Fall is an often-forgotten time of the gardening year as many of us are ready to be done with the work by the time late fall or early winter shows up but it can also be an extremely valuable time to get a head start on next year’s garden.

Have questions? Contact our office where our Horticulture Extension Agent will assist you with questions.

Phone: (316) 321-9660

Email: callae@ksu.edu