SHIFTING ROOTS

home, garden, food, and prairie lifestyle

  • About
    • Contact
    • Work With Me
    • Features
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog
  • Gardening
    • How to Start a Garden: Especially if you’re in Zone 3 or Zone 2
    • Seed Starting
    • Vegetable Gardening
    • Perennials
    • Cut Flowers
    • Small Space Gardening
  • Recipes
    • Canning
    • Preserving
    • Prairie Fruits Cookbook
    • The Best Pumpkin Recipes
    • How to Make a Tempting Christmas Cookie Tray (Plus Recipes!)
  • Popular Posts
  • E-Books
    • Pretty & Practical Garden Planner
    • Cut Flowers Made Simple
    • Constant Colour Perennial Garden
    • Small Garden, Big Harvest
    • Growing Roots Online Gardening Course
    • Frost Proof Flower Garden
    • Bouquets Made Beautiful
    • Savvy Seed Saving Annual Cut flowers
    • Prairie Fruits Cookbook
    • Online Gardening Consultations
  • Seasons
    • Christmas

How to Clean Up Your Garden in the Fall When You Have No Time

September 15, 2019

Pin2K
Share37
Tweet
2K Shares

The vegetables have been picked, the temperatures are cooling, and fall has arrived.  You know you should clean up your garden for the year, but lets be real–you’re feeling the time crunch with back to school, a busy work life, or just plain being sick of your garden.  While a proper garden clean up is ideal, I’m going to give you my guide to what you must do–and what you can skip, so that your garden is dealt with in record time.

No time do a fall garden clean up? Here's some good tips on which jobs you must do with your vegetables and perennial flowers, and which chores you can skip until Spring. #gardening #tips #beginners #fall #autumn #garden #vegetables #perennials #chores #tasks

Fifteen Minutes a Day of Garden Clean Up is Better than a Punishing Weekend Marathon

I’m going to talk about the elephant in the room.  The reason why you’re likely putting off preparing your garden for winter is that you think it’s going to take you FOREVER.  You don’t have a spare 5 hours to devote to the garden, so why even bother?  Plus, all the rewards that come with maintaining your garden (aka pretty flowers and delicious vegetables) have already passed, so there’s little motivation to continue.

I challenge you to pick one chore a day (or three each week, whatever is manageable) and get that one thing done.  You’ll build positive momentum and your garden will be winterized before you know it!

Let’s dive in to what you absolutely must do first:

Pick any Remaining Vegetables

You’d be surprised how often vegetables get unnoticed or left behind and manage to avoid light frosts.  Just today as I was taking one last photo shoot in my garden, my friend and I noticed 8 cucumbers on my cucumber trellis that had managed to survive.  There were also quite a few yellow pear tomatoes that were perfect for eating.

No time do a fall garden clean up? Here's some good tips on which jobs you must do with your vegetables and perennial flowers, and which chores you can skip until Spring. #gardening #tips #beginners #fall #autumn #garden #vegetables #perennials #chores #tasks

Add as Much as You Can to the Compost

This is the last chance you’ll have to fill your compost well, so load it up with any bad vegetables, vines, greenery, leaves, or any other organic matter you have.  The one exception?  Anything that is diseased.  Put those plants in the garbage or burn them.

Remove Plants and Dirt from Pots

Take out all your tired flowers and dying vegetable stalks and add the remaining dirt to your main garden.  If you garden exclusively with pots, leave the dirt in over the winter, and you can mix it up with nutrient rich compost and manure in the spring.

Do not compost any plant material that is diseased.  The disease will not be killed in a home compost, therefore making next years garden more difficult when the disease comes back with a vengeance!

If you have a little more time: Give your pots a quick wash with a hose or hot soapy water.

No time do a fall garden clean up? Here's some good tips on which jobs you must do with your vegetables and perennial flowers, and which chores you can skip until Spring. #gardening #tips #beginners #fall #autumn #garden #vegetables #perennials #chores #tasks

Like the bottom pot?  Here’s how you can DIY your own.

Remove any tender bulbs and Store for the Winter

Depending on what zone you live in, the definition of tender bulbs will vary.  Where I garden in zone 3b, we have to remove dahlias, calla lilies, and glads.  If you skip this step, your bulbs will rot into the ground and you will not have those flowers next year.

To store tender bulbs, lightly remove most of the dirt and store in a cool, dry, and dark place.  Check every month or so and remove any that have molded or gone soft.

If you have a little more time: Plant spring bulbs like tulips and daffodils.  Divide and transplant any overgrown perennials.

Related: 36 flowers for a gorgeous cut flower garden

Weed Your Garden One Last Time Before Winter

Don’t let the weeds get the best of you.  Remove any weeds before they go to seed and make your garden more difficult to deal with next year.  Same goes for any overgrown perennials that you want to reign in.

(P.S.–I get a lot of flack for my hatred of perennials that take over a garden bed.  However, you must understand that we bought a house in which that the yard was so overgrown that for two years in a row I removed over 200 ferns. . each year.  I’ve also been removing purple bell flower and lily of the valley for three years and I’ve barely made a dent in my flower beds.  They just keep coming back!!  While those flowers are lovely, there are so many other varieties I would rather grow in that space.)

If you have a little more time: Go one step further and add some compost and manure to the freshly-weeded soil so you’re ready to go for next year.

No time do a fall garden clean up? Here's some good tips on which jobs you must do with your vegetables and perennial flowers, and which chores you can skip until Spring. #gardening #tips #beginners #fall #autumn #garden #vegetables #perennials #chores #tasks

Rake the Leaves and Mow the Lawn

You don’t have to rake the leaves.  However, those leaves can be used to insulate perennials, as compost for the garden, or to store root vegetables without refrigeration.  Raking the leaves is a task that can easily be hired out to high school students or church youth groups quite inexpensively.

Mow the lawn (if you have it) so that your lawn doesn’t look terrible come Spring

If you have a little more time: Add grass seed to bare spots.

Insulate Tender Shrubs

I live in a climate where people generally do not wrap any of their shrubs to winterize them.  However, I know this is a common practice many places in Canada and the US.  If you see your neighbours wrapping burlap around a shrub that you also have in your yard, you’ll want to do the same.

Readers, if any of you have some advice for the beginners reading this article, could you please leave it in the comments?

Now for the things you can skip. . .

Plan the Perfect Garden

Get your free Garden Planner and worksheets and start creating the garden of your dreams.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Trimming the Dead Leaves of Perennials

It may not look as pretty, but your perennials will still return even if you don’t cut away all the dead stuff.  It can easily be done in the spring.  Depending on the perennial, the dead leaves and stalks can create some nice winter interest in the yard.

No time do a fall garden clean up? Here's some good tips on which jobs you must do with your vegetables and perennial flowers, and which chores you can skip until Spring. #gardening #tips #beginners #fall #autumn #garden #vegetables #perennials #chores #tasks

Clean Your Garden Tools

In an ideal world, you would clean and disinfect your garden tools.  It will help them last longer and prevent the spread of disease.  Will the world end if you don’t?  No.  At the very least, tidy up your shed and make sure your tools have a home so that you can easily find them again.

Pruning Fruit Trees

You should prune your fruit trees.  However, this is a task that is better hired out if you don’t know what you’re doing.  Unless you have a giant orchard, paying an arborist to prune a couple of trees in your backyard is going to be way more cost effective than you hacking away at some poor tree and ruining it unintentionally.

What happens if you just leave it for a year…or five?  Well, probably nothing the first year.  In later years, your fruit may have one good year with tons of fruit, then nothing the next year.  The fruit that does manage to grow may also not be as large as it could be.

Related: 28 Hardy Fruits You can grow in zone 2 and 3

Finished all your gardening tasks?  Buy yourself a pot of Mums and enjoy the beautiful fall season.  We won’t judge if you also buy yourself a pumpkin spice latte and cozy up with a good book too.

What fall gardening chores do you do?  Any that you skip?

No time do a fall garden clean up? Here's some good tips on which jobs you must do with your vegetables and perennial flowers, and which chores you can skip until Spring. #gardening #tips #beginners #fall #autumn #garden #vegetables #perennials #chores #tasks
Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

7 Comments
Filed Under: Gardening, Harvest Tagged: Autumn, compost, fall, fall clean up, garden tools, Gardening, no time, perennials, pots, time saving, Vegetables, Weeds

About Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

Comments

  1. stephanie says

    September 28, 2018 at 8:47 am

    I have been slowly at it and hopefully it'll make things much easier! One day I worked on the tomatoes, another the basil, and another the weeds. I think I've just got the (darn) peppermint left to cut back! Slow and steady wins the race :)
    Reply
  2. airbnb cleaning sydney says

    June 10, 2019 at 7:41 pm

    A well-detailed cleaning tips, thanks for sharing this one.
    Reply
  3. Mia says

    October 5, 2019 at 12:25 pm

    If I put leaves on the garden beds this fall, what do I do with those leaves next spring? Rake them up and compost them? Will leaves be as protective to the perennials as mulch or straw over the winter time? Thank you for all your great tips!
    Reply
    • Kristen Raney says

      October 7, 2019 at 10:56 am

      It depends on how you like your flower beds to look. You could actually just move the leaves aside around your perennials and they would help control the weeds. If you don't like the look, rake them away and work them into your vegetable garden (I find they decompose in about two weeks) or put them in your compost.
      Reply
  4. Christina says

    October 8, 2019 at 8:55 am

    This was helpful! Having a young one, I’m slowly chipping away at step one: harvesting the veggies. Sigh. Slow and steady. Some days it seems impossible.
    Reply
    • Kristen Raney says

      October 10, 2019 at 10:49 am

      It feels the same over here too.
      Reply
  5. Tracy W says

    September 16, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    Thank you. It seems much more manageable broken into chunks, rather than the marathon.
    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Grow roots with us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

P.S. First time gardener? You'll want to download the quick start gardening guide below!

Recent Posts

  • How to Grow Eucalyptus for Cut Flowers (Even in a Short Growing Season!)
  • 26 Best Flowers to Grow for Dried Flower Arrangements
  • 17 Perennial Flowers That Love Shade
  • How to Design a Cut Flower Garden in Raised Beds
  • How to Start a Cut Flower Garden

Welcome!

Hi, I’m Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Connect with Shifting Roots On. . .

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Find What You’re Looking For. . .

Privacy Policy

I love seeing the world through this loving boy’ I love seeing the world through this loving boy’s eyes.  Honestly, I’ve been so sick that I wasn’t really in the mood to “do Valentines Day” but there was this sweet little voice going on about how excited he was for today and how much he loves his family and I just couldn’t resist.  So whether you’re on your own, part of a couple, or in the thick of life-with-littles craziness, Happy Valentines Day!

#valentinesday2020 #mylittlevalentine #boymomlife #lifewithlittles
How do you pass a cold -28 day? By planning your How do you pass a cold -28 day?  By planning your garden, of course!  Today in my stories I’ll be going through the steps I take to start planning everything out.  I’m curious, do you start planning now or wait until the last minute?

P.S.  want your own copy of this planner?  This is the newly updated paid version and it’s on sale by itself from now until Sunday for only $5.  If you’re from Canada, use the code CANADA to make $5 USD be closer to $5 CAD.  Head over to the link in my bio to get yours.

#gardenplanning #gardenplanner #gardenersofinstagram #gardenersofig #organizedlife #organizedliving #wintergardening
Curious about growing lettuce indoors? My experim Curious about growing lettuce indoors?  My experiment is a success so far, although it’s still going to be awhile before I’m eating another salad off of them.

Okay, so maybe a little rant today.  I think sometimes in the gardening space we’re guilty of making things seem easier than they are.  Myself included.  This lettuce project is a case in point.

Was it easy?  Yes.  But will it provide me with endless salads all winter long? Nope.  Or at least not at this scale.  I’m going to estimate that I’d need at least 15 plants this size, especially since it’s winter and everything just grows slower.  And I’m the only person in my family who really eats salad.

In conclusion, this is a fun project to pass the winter, and not a truly sustainable source of lettuce.

Thoughts?

#growinglettuce #eatwhatyougrow #growwhatyoueat #wintergardening #indoorgardening #plantproject #sustainablefood #gardenersofinstagram #gardenerslife #northerngardening
Part of the mystery of seed starting is knowing ex Part of the mystery of seed starting is knowing exactly what to start when.  Every two weeks, I'll be posting these handy guides so you have enough time to order your seeds and be ready to plant when it's time for your area.  To find out when these veggies, herbs, and flowers need to be started where you live. . . ⁠
⁠
1. Search out your area's last frost date.  There are plenty of calculators on the Internet.⁠
⁠
2. Count backwards 8 weeks from that date.⁠
⁠
3. Start these seeds when that date hits.⁠
⁠
If you follow me because we're in similar zones--don't panic, it's not time yet!! I won't be starting my 10 week seeds for another two weeks, and even that is slightly on the early side. (I'm starting everything a bit early so I can hopefully plant it out before baby gets here--I won't be physically able to do it after.) I like posting the info early for followers in warmer zones and so you can save it and still have time to order/buy seeds & supplies.⁠
⁠
Which one of these are you most excited to start?⁠
⁠
#seedstarting #seedlings #homegardener #northerngardener #homesteading #urbandhomesteading #homesteadingskills #gardenlife #gardenlifestyle #startingseeds
Eeeek!!! My luffa seedlings are up!! I’m growing Eeeek!!! My luffa seedlings are up!! I’m growing the whole seed packet in hopes that a few of these little luffa babies will provide me with zero waste sponges that I can use for home cleaning, and as an exfoliant in home made beauty products.

The catch?

These plants are notoriously hard to grow, especially when you live somewhere cold with a really cold growing season—and if they get a hint of frost on them they turn to mush and all my hard work is ruined.

Gulp.

But gardeners are born optimists, so I’m giving it a shot—because you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

P.S. if you’re trying luffa in zone 3 like me, just basically ignore all the directions on the seed packet.  Start them immediately (two weeks ago would have been ideal) and follow along because I’ll show you exactly what to do and when.  I’ll be popping these under a grow light once the sun goes down.

#luffagourd #luffa #loofah #seedlings #seedstarting #northerngardening #northerngardener #gardenersofinstagram #gardenersofig #mygardenthismonth #gardenlife #canadiangardening
This weekend I took a big leap of faith. I came t This weekend I took a big leap of faith.  I came to New York to meet with other content creators/business owners to dig deep into what we do and create a strategy around our messaging.  I don’t even know how to properly describe what all went down, but is was incredibly life changing and I really feel connected to this tribe of women who are committed to playing to win and being the people our businesses need us to be.  I’m so excited to share what I’ve planned for my business with you in the coming months.

#playtowin #gardenblogger #businessowner #wahmlife
Is there such a thing as a no-fail houseplant? I Is there such a thing as a no-fail houseplant?  I think the Sansevera or Snake Plant or Mother-in-law’s tongue comes close.  Sure, it might be the vanilla of the plant-loving world, but it is so good for so many situations!⁠
⁠
It can handle you forgetting to water it, low light, or bright light.  It is somewhat forgiving if you are an over-waterer. ⁠
⁠
I’ve had this one for 2 or 3 years now and I keep getting rewarded with more spikes.⁠
⁠
Plant lovers, is there another houseplant you think would be perfect for beginners?⁠
⁠
#crazyplantlady #houseplantsofig #houseplantsofinstagram #snakeplant #houseplantlove
Load More… Follow on Instagram

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2021

Copyright © 2021 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in