The first step to improving your soil is to know what you want in the spring. What will you be harvesting from the garden? Which types of plants grow best for your region and what might be missing from your soil? Once you answer these questions, it will be easier to decide what to add to improve garden soil.
Table of Contents
What should I add to my garden soil in the fall?
It is important you consider what you will be harvesting from the garden come spring, what types of plants grow best for your region and what might be missing from your soil. There are many ways you can improve your vegetable garden and garden beds soil, so make sure you take the time to do it right!
How to improve garden beds soil over the winter
In the fall, you’ll want to add items like manure, compost, leaves, or other dead plants to your soil. These will help fertilize and feed the soil of nutrients. If you’re still not sure what to add, call your local garden shop or extension office.
It is important you consider what you will be harvesting from the vegetable garden come spring, what types of plants grow best for your region and what might be missing from your soil. There are many ways you can improve your soil, so make sure you take the time to do it right!
What are the best things to add to my garden soil during fall?
Healthy soil is easy to maintain and requires little input. The basic elements of healthy soil are air, moisture, organic matter, and minerals. These elements create the foundation for improved plants and support the growth of a balanced ecosystem. Healthy soil is also easier to work with and provides plenty of nutrients for plants to grow strong.
Soil improves with a mixture of compost or manure, rock powders, pelleted livestock feed, limestone, peat moss, or compost from some grass clippings and other plant cover crops. As well as these materials it’s important to amend your soil with leaf mold or organic material.
There’s just one thing to keep in mind when you’re adding raw organic matter to your soil surface. The beneficial soil organisms that will help decompose this material, require nitrogen to do their work. This means that if you don’t add some additional nitrogen along with the organic matter, the microbes will start using up the nitrogen in your soil. To facilitate the process you can add All-Purpose Fertilizer.
If you suspect that your soil pH may need adjusting, autumn is the time to correct it. It’s best to raise or lower soil pH slowly, over a three- to six-month period. Remember that unless you already know that your soil is too acidic or too alkaline, you should always do a soil test to determine the pH level before taking corrective measures.
Simple Tips for Maintaining Healthy Soil For Your Vegetable Garden This Fall
Maintaining healthy soil is easy to do and requires very little input. The basic elements of healthy soil are air, moisture, organic matter, and minerals. These elements create the foundation for improved plants and support the growth of a balanced ecosystem.
Healthy soil also makes it easier to work with. When amending your soil, you can add compost or manure, rock powders, pelleted livestock feed, limestone, peat moss, or compost to improve its texture. Leaf mold or organic mulch from fallen leaves also makes an excellent amendment for improving a garden’s soil quality.
Shredded leaves are my top choice for raw organic matter, since I have many large trees on my property. So its perfect for me to cover the garden with a thick layer of fall leaves that have been chopped up with the mower.
What You Should Know About Fall Gardening
Fall gardening is a great way to get your garden ready for the cold winter ahead! To prepare your garden for the winter, you need to make sure it is well fed. This will involve adding mulch and other organic materials around plants that might be killed by the cold temperatures in the coming months.
This also allows the dirt to retain its moisture through the winter when things like rainfall are less likely. Mulch will help insulate the soil and also feed the dirt as decomposition occurs. It is important to add organic matter like hay mulch, straw, or leaves along with rock powders, pelleted livestock feed, limestone, peat moss, or compost to amend your garden’s soil quality. This is also great to put around any landscape plants as well.
What is compost and how do I use it on my plants and vegetables?
Compost is a mixture of materials that break down to make rich, dark crumbly, and odor-free material. Compost can be made with a variety of materials like leaves, straw, animal manure compost, and green woody material.
You can also buy bags of pre-made compost or poultry litter that are ready to use. Simply add these to the top layer of dirt in your garden at the end of each season for best results.
How does adding compost effect plant growth, health, taste, and nutrient content of food grown from it?
Adding compost to the dirt can help plants grow faster due to the extra nutrients present in the soil. This will also increase the percentage of usable nutrients and provide a whole better planting experience in the spring. If you’re using homemade compost, it’s best to add it in early fall so that the following spring. Then, in the early spring when you sow seeds your garden will thrive from the organic matter. If an essential nutrient is missing, the overall garden health will suffer.
14 ways to keep your vegetable garden healthy over winter
1) Add organic fertilizers
– Fertilizers should be added often during the growing season.
– Material like compost, manure, peat, and lime powder are all good candidates.
– During the fall months try to add hay mulch, straw, or leaves to the garden bed to keep it insulated and moist.
2) Prune trees and shrubs
– Cut back any overhanging branches so they don’t touch another tree’s branches. Overhanging branches can trigger fungal diseases or insect infestation on neighboring plants.
– Remove dead, diseased, or broken branches. Also, remove any suckers that grow from below the graft line of a tree but above the soil level to allow for air circulation.
3) Clean up garden and lawn clutter
– Collect all your gardening tools, pots, baskets, and anything else in the way of the path leading to the front door.
4) Cover any exposed vegetables with mulch or a blanket when temperatures drop below freezing for extended periods of time. A good rule is that when temperatures are just below freezing, cover the plants. Use hay mulch, wood chips, or straw to protect your garden against frost burn.
5) Mulch is a great way to keep weeds out and moisture in. Plants that have been mulched will also look better in the spring when everything else is waking up from its winter dormancy.
6) Watering is important during the fall but there is a right way and wrong way to do it. If you water from overhead, you run the risk of creating an environment for fungal diseases to grow on your trees.
7) Deadhead plants that may not come back next year. Deadheading will reduce disease over time, keep smaller plants from getting lost in the garden and allow space for new plants to grow.
8) Take advantage of free mulch or compost that is available from tree trimming services, landscape businesses, or community clean-up events.
9) Prune your woody plants at least every other year to control their shape and size. Also, cut back any broken or diseased branches.
10) Prune non-woody plants at least once a year to remove dead growth and improve air circulation around the plant.
11) Clean up all garden debris, tidy gardens, and walkways for winter. Make sure pathways are kept clear of weeds, leaves, etc.
12) Don’t forget to weed eat before winter sets in.
13) Consider drainage when adding soil amendments to your dirt. Water will always go where the soil compacts and that is usually the middle or lowest part of a garden bed. You can fill ditches with compost, manure, dry leaves, or straw to help keep moisture from draining away so quickly.
14) Mulch is a great way to keep moisture in the ground and weeds out. A good rule is that when temperatures are just below freezing, cover your plants with an insulating blanket of mulch. This keeps frost from nipping germinating seeds and allows soil temperature to stay consistent all winter long without fluctuating up or down depending on weather conditions.
Our top picks for fall fertilizer for vegetable gardens
| Image | Product | Features | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
| Check Amazon Check Other Retailers | |
 | GreenView 2129872 Multi-Purpose Fertilizer, 33 lb bag – NPK 10-10-10 |
| Check Amazon Check Other Retailers |
 |
| Check Amazon Check Other Retailers | |
 | Down to Earth Organic Vegetable Garden Fertilizer 4-4-4, 5lb |
| Check Amazon Check Other Retailers |
 | Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Plant Food Vegetables & Herbs 2 lb |
| Check Amazon Check Other Retailers |
|
| Check Amazon Check Other Retailers | |
 | The Andersons PGF Balanced 10-10-10 Fertilizer with Micronutrients and 2% Iron (5,000 sq ft) |
| Check Amazon Check Other Retailers |
 | Check Amazon Check Other Retailers |
Note: Because it’s the end of the season, your local garden center may even have some broken bags they’ll be willing to sell you at a discount. You can mix these organic materials right into your garden (or side dress around plants), along with the shredded leaves, manure and compost.
Conclusion
The fall is a great time to start planning for the following gardening season. Whether you’re new to gardening, or a seasoned pro, building better soil is the single most important thing you can do to improve your gardening success.
Your garden plants will thank you! There are many ways you can maintain and improve your soil now, so don’t wait!
