Preparing your Garden for Next Season

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The days are getting colder the leaves are changing. The garden is definitely fading which is a true sign that fall is here and it is time to start preparing your garden for next season. I’m going to share with you everything that we do to put our garden to bed so that it is in tip-top shape for our next growing season.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 

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Make Any Final Notes

Fall is definitely bittersweet for me I hate putting the summer garden to bed but, I absolutely love planting next year’s garden. Before we start ripping up and tearing up the things in our garden to get it ready for next year we always make sure that we take a walk through the garden with our garden journal.

I absolutely love our garden journal it is a digital garden journal so I only print the pages that I need. I print them out, hole punch them and put them in my daily planner. I carry that journal with me anytime I am walking in the garden and want to take some notes.

You can check out our Garden Planner and Journal – HERE!!

Before we start ripping anything up I’m going to grab my journal and I’m going to walk through the garden make any final notes about the season. I mark down where things are planted, what grew really well, and what didn’t grow so well. I document everything I can think of, by keeping really good notes next year’s garden will be so much easier to plan.

I love our garden journal so much I want to know what you guys use to plan and document your garden. What do you like about it? What don’t you like? Send me a DM on Instagram. I’m always looking to add to our garden journal.

Remove the Weeds & Dead Plants

After making any last minute notes about the garden we are going to start pull out all of the weeds. The weeds are going to go in the trash because when you compost them the compost doesn’t normally get hot enough to kill the weed seeds and we don’t want weeds in our garden next year.

After the weeds we’re going to cut out all of the old plants. Any plants that are diseased are going to go in the trash and any plants that are still somewhat healthy are going to go in the compost bin, to make more rich soil for next year.

Prune the Perennials

The next thing on my checklist for getting the garden ready for winter is to prune back all of our perennials. We have a lot of black-eyed susans and purple cone flowers so i’m going to go trim them back, none of them have disease so they are going to also go in the compost bin. Then I will trim our hydrangeas and a couple of other perennials around the yard.

I use these Friskers Pruners for just about everything!!

Plant Spring Bulbs

Something that I love to do in the fall is plant our spring bulbs. This year I planted about 30 more daffodil bulbs, 10 tulips and 10 irises. If you want to know more about planting daffodil bulbs check out Planting Daffodils.

Spring bulbs get planted in the fall, they need a cold period before that they before they can grow. So you plant them now you wait and they are one of the first things that bloom in the spring.

Test Your Soil & Add Amendments

The most important things that you can do for your garden in the fall is to add any amendments and organic matter that your soil might need. The best way to determine what your soil needs is to get your soil tested. If you want to know more about testing your soil check out this page –

We are going to get our soil tested to figure out exactly what amendments we need to add to the soil. To start with we are going to add some composted topsoil probably about one to two inches on top of our beds, these beds are fairly new this year so they compacted a lot. They do need some good topsoil to bring it back up to level.

Tidy Up

The very last thing to do to prep the garden for winter is to just do some tidying up. We are going to go around and wind up all of the hoses drain them so that they don’t freeze and break. We’re going to put away any seed starting trays, make sure that they’re washed and ready to go for the spring. Tidy up and make everything look nice, put everything away and make it organized so that come spring when we are ready to hit the ground running with the garden everything is in the correct space and it’s easy to find.

Tidying up allows me to take an inventory on some things that we need for next year. I know that we need some fertilizer, so I’m going to make sure that I order that now so that we have it. We also want to inventory all of our seeds and supplies to make sure that we have exactly what we need for next year.

Christmas is a great time to ask for some of those gardening tools you have been eyeing up. And if you need some ideas check out our Garden Must-Haves.

I know that you guys have had a long and tiring gardening season and the very last thing that you want to do is work in your garden anymore you really want a break. BUT I promise by putting your garden to bed the right way and spending a little bit of extra time in the garden will make a huge difference come spring!!! You’ll be ready to go.

You won’t be running behind, your seeds and your seedlings will get in the ground as soon as possible. Making it so that you’re going to harvest sooner and isn’t that what we want we want, to be able to harvest as soon as possible. Take the extra time and make sure that you put your garden to bed.

Recap – Preparing Your Garden for Next Season

Let’s review some of the things that we do to put our garden to bed. And if you are looking for a checklist of all of the things be sure to download one HERE.

1. Walk around our garden and make any notes about our garden in our garden planner.
2. Start pulling out the weeds and the plants. Anything that it was healthy throughout the season goes in the compost bin and anything that had disease goes in the trash
3. Trim up all of our perennials make sure that they are trimmed back and ready to go for next year
4. Plant some of those spring bulbs; daffodils, irises and tulips. So that we have some spring flowers as soon as the weather gets warm.
5. Test your soil!! When your tests come back make sure that we add any amendments that are recommended. Also consider adding a one to two-inch layer of composted topsoil just to top everything off. This is not always necessary.
6. Tidy up everything in our garden and around our yard. Put the hoses away, clean everything up, and organize everything so that we know exactly what you have and need. Then be sure to place your order sooner rather than later.

If you are looking for a handy checklist when you are preparing your garden for next season and so you don’t forget anything we have a FREE one for ya.