Heirloom Grown

  • Home
  • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • Privacy policy
  • Chickens
    • Breeds
    • Coop
    • Chicks
  • Gardening
    • Growing Guides
    • Seed Saving
    • Seed Starting
    • Soil Health
    • Greenhouse
  • Subscribe
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • Privacy policy
  • Chickens
    • Breeds
    • Coop
    • Chicks
  • Gardening
    • Growing Guides
    • Seed Saving
    • Seed Starting
    • Soil Health
    • Greenhouse
  • Subscribe
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • Privacy policy
  • Chickens
    • Breeds
    • Coop
    • Chicks
  • Gardening
    • Growing Guides
    • Seed Saving
    • Seed Starting
    • Soil Health
    • Greenhouse
  • Subscribe
×
Home

Fall Garden Chores

Published: Aug 17, 2023 · Modified: May 21, 2025 by Josiah · This post may contain affiliate links · Leave a Comment

Share!

3 shares
  • Facebook
  • X

A great spring garden all depends on what you do in the fall. Do these fall garden chores for an abundant spring garden!

Mulch your garden with leaves

Take advantage of all that available mulch in the fall (AKA leaves). These leaves are full of nutrients for your plants and can act as a protective barrier against harsh winter conditions.

In my annual garden I lay down a good 6-8 inches of fallen leaves. This mulch will break down over the winter and leave you with the best soil imaginable. Here are a few reasons you should mulch your garden.

This mulch will also protect the soil from the constant freezing and thawing that goes on in winter. Mulching your garden in the fall is a must.

Remove diseased plants

If you had any tomato plants with blight, cucumbers with powdery mildew, or any other diseased plants it is best to remove them in the fall.

Keeping the diseased plants and their foliage out of the garden will help protect next years plants from the same diseases. All of your healthy plants that died can be composted to use as a fertilizer.

Save seeds

Fall is a great time to save seeds from your garden so you can plant them next year. You can learn to save marigold seeds, zucchini seeds, and more here.

Seeds in storage containers

Plant vegetables

Believe it or not you can grow some vegetables in the fall. Here is a list of 9 fall vegetable plants to get you started on your fall garden.

Amend your soil

Fall is one of the best times to amend your soil. Besides adding mulch for organic matter you can add compost, manure, and animal bedding.

Compost, manure, and spent bedding will all improve your soil life so that next year's plants grow strong. Make sure that you won't be harvesting anything from the garden before you add manure and bedding as these can spread diseases.

Compost ready to be thrown in the garden
Compost ready for the fall garden!

Manure and fresh bedding needs to sit for six to eight weeks before you can safely harvest anything from the garden.

Start a compost pile

With all the dead plant matter, there is no better time to start a compost pile than in the fall. Add things like dead plants, animal bedding, vegetable scraps, leaves, and other dead plant matter to start your compost pile.

If you start a compost pile in the fall you should have compost by spring! You can read how to start a compost pile here.

Let your chickens do the work

Fall is a great time to let your chickens in the garden to help prepare it for winter. Your chickens will turn the soil, eat weed seeds, and clean up leftover vegetables. Here are a few ways that you can put your chickens to work.

Chickens ready to scratch at the ground
Chickens love to "help" out in the garden!

Pull weeds

You don't want any weeds to overwinter in your garden because they may come back worse next year. Before you put your garden to rest make sure to pull all of your weeds, especially any that have gone to seed.

Plant fall perennials

Fall is the time to plant walking onions, hard-neck garlic, echinacea, and many other perennial plants. These plants need the cold winter weather to grow correctly next spring. You should also plant some perennial flowers like tulips and daffodils in the fall.

Echinacea flower head in full bloom
If you want blooms like these then make sure to plant echinacea this fall

Cut back perennials

In late fall once you have had a good frost you can start to cut back all of your perennials. Strawberries, Echinacea, and most fall plants need to be cut back in the fall. You can learn how to cut back perennials here.

Harvest all your vegetables before the first frost

Tomatoes, peppers, beans, zucchini, cucumbers, and many other vegetables should all be harvested before your first frost. Other plants like collard greens and lettuce don't need to be harvested because they can handle the cooler weather.

You can find your first and last frost dates here. These date won't be exact so make sure to watch the weather!

Pin This!

Fall Garden Chores Pin

Other Posts you would enjoy

9 FALL VEGETABLES TO PLANT
HOMEMADE CHICKEN COOP CLEANER
BEST ORGANIC FERTILIZERS

More Gardening

  • how to hand pollinate
    How To Hand Pollinate
  • A pile of cut up chives
    How To Grow Chives
  • Space saving garden ideas
    Space Saving Garden Ideas
  • How to make a round hanging planter
    How To Make A Round Hanging Planter

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome!

Josiah here, I'm a gardener and chicken keeper who's always trying to grow more food. I am here to help you grow!

About me

Popular Posts

  • How To Make Chickens Friendly
  • How to layout a greenhouse
    How To Layout A Greenhouse
  • 5 things every chicken coop needs
    5 Things Every Chicken Coop Needs
  • Free Printable Seed Packets
    Free Printable Seed Packets

Seasonal Posts

  • Things To Know Before Getting Chickens
  • How to Grow the Best Heirloom Cucumbers
    How to Grow the Best Heirloom Cucumbers
  • Bedding for chicks: What is best to use
    Bedding for chicks: What is best to use
  • Best DIY Potting Soil Mix For Seedlings

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • About

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright © 2025 HeirloomGrown