Garden Gab – Fall Planning: Your Secret Weapon for Spring Garden Success

This past weekend boasted gorgeous sunny days with highs in the 60s. Why is Fall the best time to plan for your upcoming spring garden? It may seem a bit untimely or jumping the gun to think about gardening but bear with me. NOW is the time to plan what you want to grow and how. If you plan to grow a veggie garden, then ask yourself what do you love to eat? Or maybe your vision is not a veggie garden. Maybe it is a garden to feast with your eyes (think Monet). Flowers. Lots of flowers. My garden is a chaotic mix of both veggies and flowers with a haphazard splay of culinary and folklore herbs thrown in for good measure. Ask yourself, what do you want to grow?

This is also the time of year that gardening supplies are moved out of retail locations to make room for holiday décor. It is easy to find off season gardening supplies at steep discounts. If you have a clear plan in mind, then the clearance aisle leftovers may exactly what you need to prepare for spring. I am also a big fan of repurposing. I view everything on the clearance aisle through the gardening lens. I will turn basically any vessel into a gardening pot if I can simply add drainage holes to the bottom. Keep your eyes open and think outside the box.

Many online seed suppliers are currently offering discounts on overstock of seeds from this past year before they release their new varieties for next year. I already scored a great deal on several seed varieties from some of my favorite sources. I should receive seed packages in the mail about the same time that this article is published. This is the equivalent of Christmas coming early for me!

Now is the best time begin prepping your growing space. If you have an existing garden, amend your soil with nutrients. Adding compost, mulch, and etcetera in the fall allows the winter months for the amendments to break down and the nutrients to be available to the plants come spring. Putting your soil to bed (AKA covering with mulch, cover crop, etc.) not only improves the soil over winter, it prevents nutrients from being lost from exposure to the elements.

If you plan on developing a new in ground growing space, my favorite way to prepare the space is to cover with all my fall leaves and then a weighted tarp. Come spring when the tarp is lifted the leaves have broken down, the grass has died back and VIOLA! Instant garden space without digging or weeding. This is similar to ‘lasagna style’ gardening. I won’t bore you here with the step by step instructions as there are many online resources. Besides I past 350 words a while back.

The moral of this story is do not wait for spring to start your garden. NOW is the best time to start your garden plan and preparation. Then come spring, you will be ready to hit the ground growing. I will offer one word of caution. It is VERY easy to go overboard. Trust me on this one, I speak from personal experience. Don’t let planning become a runaway garden train. Overcommitting to a growing space too large to manage will predestine gardening failure and disappointment. Start smaller and allow room to grow. Happy planning!

Here’s to growing all the things,
Shannon