Putting the Garden to Rest: Fall Activities Calendar & Upcoming Content
Fall Beds to cleanup- pictured above is a spent Zinnia bed from the 2024 growing season ready to be weeded, cut down and amended.
It’s finally here- cool temperatures in North Texas!!! Over the coming weeks, I’m going to be focusing most of my content on Fall cleanup, how I inoculate my soil with local microorganisms and fungi, as well as what amendments my soil test has guided me to add to my raised beds.
If you haven’t completed your yearly soil test, I highly encourage you to do so. It is inexpensive and a great way to get guidance on improving next years crops. I use Texas A & M Soil testing lab.
Here is a screenshot from my soil test for 2023, since I haven’t gotten back 2024 yet. As you can see, the Nitrogen in my soil is completely depleted and I could use some boost of Potassium and Phosphorous. Since my pH hovered between a 6 and a 7 around my garden, I feel it’s safe to add wood ash this year to help naturally boost the Potassium levels for my plants. The exception to this would be areas where acid loving plants are in the ground (berries, hydrangeas etc)
Here’s a quick overview of the general calendar I will be following:
Week 1 : This is probably the most important week for setting up our Fall garden plan.
Cleanup & Soil Testing
Set up capture of local indigenous microorganisms and fungi to help “boost” soil life.
Cleanup this year will be mainly covering cutting back spent plants, raking leaves and clearing out beds for Fall planting. Many of my perennial bulbs, rhizomes and roots benefit from a mild fertilizer in the Fall- so I apply Bulb Tone to my daffodils, lilies, peonies and iris. The least expensive place I’ve found to buy an 18lb bag of Bulb Tone is Walmart- here’s the link.
For the final step I’m going to be capturing local biology with a trap and cooked rice under my oak trees. I’ll go into more detail about this later, but this type of collection offers an excellent boost to soil life. I first learned about the recipe from Nigel Palmers book on Garden Amendments. If you don’t have a copy, I highly recommend it. This is a far more cost effective way of gardening than constantly spending money on fertilizers and amendments and can dramatically improve your plant and soil health.
Nigel palmer’s book on natural garden amendments. I’ve had a lot of luck with recreating some of these recipes so far!
Week 2 and 3: Applying organics and adding in local biology to boost soil life.
Applying organic matter (leaves, chips) to beds along with inoculants and biology we captured in week 1
Use a portion of our collected inoculants to make a shelf stable version that we can use year round and keep in fridge.
Create Lactic Acid Bacteria Solution (online video below if you can’t wait to try to make it!)
Clear fallen wood and burn. Use ash as supplement.
Organic Matter: applying organics like wood chips and leaf mulch to our garden beds can be a huge benefit to our garden because it keeps the soil covered which boosts soil life and prevents weed seeds from taking over dormant beds.
Inoculants: once we’ve applied the organic matter, it is necessary to apply our collected microorganisms and fungi to the soil to help digest all the nutrients back into the soil. This is particularly helpful in the Fall when the soil receives regular moisture from rainfall and is allows for quick turnover of organics into the soil.
Burning: wood ash has it’s place in adding lots of calcium and potassium into the soil. It can make the soil more alkaline in large quantities, so moderate application rates should be applied. If your soil test shows a higher pH, do not apply.
Week 4-6: continue to apply supplements and create fermented weed juices
Apply lactic acid bacteria solution
Apply IMO 2 if needed.
Apply micronutrient and fermented weed juice suppplements.
Weeks 4-6 we’ll be moving closer into the end of Fall and beginning of winter and it will be more critical to make sure all systems are shut down in the garden (due to freeze) and the yard is tidy for next years spring growth. In a way, these weeks are all about “putting the garden to rest” and completing some light amending and care to our soil.
I’m going to try my best to stay on schedule with this plan and share as many recipes and processes with you all as I can. During this time of year, I am also planting 12 new varieties of Peonies on my property, shipping out peony root orders and shutting down all my irrigation for the winter time- so it’s a busy time of year.
If you’d like to take a look at my shop- please check out our current peony offerings to place your order today. We are expecting to ship roots fairly late this year- likely first week of December. Most of our Lily bulbs will not be available until end of December when the stalks have fully died back.
