The work you do in fall directly determines how easily your garden bounces back in spring. Gardeners who skip the seasonal closedown often find themselves dealing with compacted, depleted soil, diseased plant debris, damaged perennials, and dull tools when they want to be planting — not scrambling to prepare.
This checklist walks through everything worth doing before the first hard freeze sets in, prioritized so you can tackle the most impactful tasks first if you're short on time.
Clear Out Spent Crops and Diseased Material
The first task is a thorough garden cleanup. Pull spent annual crops — tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, beans, and herbs that won't survive frost — from the beds entirely. Don't leave them to decompose in place. Plant debris left over winter becomes habitat for overwintering pests and a reservoir for soil-borne disease pathogens like blights, wilts, and molds that will re-emerge next season.
Healthy plant material — tops from non-diseased vegetables, green stems, spent bean plants — can go into your compost pile. Any plant material that showed signs of disease during the season — blight-spotted tomato leaves, powdery mildew-covered cucumbers, rust-infected foliage — should go into the municipal compost or trash, not your home pile. Home compost doesn't reliably reach temperatures high enough to kill pathogens.
Amend and Protect Your Soil
Fall is an excellent time to add compost, aged manure, or other organic matter to your beds. Tilling amendments into the top 6–8 inches of soil in autumn gives them months to integrate and break down before planting begins. This is especially valuable in raised beds, where soil naturally settles and nutrients deplete over the growing season.
After amending, cover bare soil with a layer of organic mulch — shredded leaves, straw, or wood chips work well. This mulch layer does several important things simultaneously: it protects soil structure from compaction by rain and snow, suppresses early spring weed germination, insulates beneficial soil organisms through winter temperature extremes, and breaks down slowly to add additional organic matter by spring.
Alternatively, consider planting a winter cover crop in empty beds. Cereal rye, winter wheat, crimson clover, or a blended mix sown 4–6 weeks before hard frost establishes quickly, holds soil in place through winter, and can be turned under in spring as a green manure — feeding the soil while also preventing compaction and erosion.
Divide and Protect Perennials
Fall is the optimal time to divide overcrowded perennials that have begun to die out in the center or produce fewer blooms. Hostas, daylilies, ornamental grasses, and most flowering perennials can be dug, divided with a sharp spade, and replanted with minimal stress in cooler fall temperatures. Water the transplants well and apply mulch around them before freeze.
For tender perennials that won't survive your climate's winter outdoors — cannas, dahlias, elephant ears, begonias — dig the tubers or rhizomes after the first frost kills the foliage. Allow them to dry for a few days, then store them in breathable containers (mesh bags, cardboard boxes with newspaper) filled with dry vermiculite, peat, or shredded paper. Keep them in a cool, dark, frost-free space — a garage, basement, or root cellar — until replanting time in spring.
Plant Spring-Blooming Bulbs
If you want tulips, daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, and alliums in spring, fall is your one opportunity to plant them. Spring-blooming bulbs require a cold dormancy period to develop properly — they need to experience winter temperatures to trigger blooming. Plant them after the soil has cooled (daytime temperatures consistently below 50°F), but before the ground freezes hard enough that you can't dig.
Plant bulbs pointy-end up at a depth roughly three times their diameter. Water them in after planting and mark their locations so you don't accidentally disturb them before they emerge in spring. A layer of mulch over the planting area helps protect them during temperature fluctuations.
Care for Your Garden Tools
Tools stored dirty and wet over winter rust, corrode, and degrade significantly faster than those properly maintained. A few minutes of care now extends tool life by years and makes spring planting more pleasant.
Clean soil from all metal surfaces on shovels, trowels, hoes, and rakes. Remove rust with steel wool or a wire brush. Sharpen blade edges on shovels and hoes with a flat file. Wipe metal surfaces with a light coat of mineral oil or linseed oil to prevent oxidation during storage. For wooden handles, sand any rough or splintered areas and apply linseed oil to condition the wood and prevent cracking. Store tools in a dry, sheltered space — hanging them off the floor prevents handle rot and keeps edges from dulling on concrete.
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Winterize Irrigation Systems
Water left in irrigation lines and hoses can freeze, expand, and crack pipes and fittings — damage that only becomes apparent when you turn the system on next spring. Drain and disconnect hoses from outdoor spigots and store them coiled in a garage or shed. For drip irrigation systems, flush the lines, remove and store emitters, and drain all components before temperatures drop below freezing.
If you have in-ground irrigation, this is typically the time to schedule a professional "blow-out" — compressed air is run through the system to remove standing water from all lines. Skipping this step is one of the more expensive gardening mistakes in cold climates.
Make Notes Before You Forget
This last item costs nothing but five minutes of time and pays dividends every season: write down what worked and what didn't this year while it's still fresh. Which tomato varieties produced abundantly? Where did the drainage problem appear after heavy rain? Which bed would benefit from more compost next spring? What pest caused that mystery damage in August?
A simple notes app or garden journal entry captures this information before winter draws a curtain over your memory of the season. Future-you will be genuinely grateful.
A well-closed-down garden is a gift to your future self. Take the time this fall, and your spring will start with momentum instead of cleanup.