As the days shorten and the weather turns cooler, working in the garden may be the last thing on your mind. But don’t put away your gardening gloves just yet! Fall is the perfect time to lay the groundwork for a spectacular spring gardening season.

  What’s more, with a few simple steps toward sustainable gardening practices, you can improve your yard and garden as well as create a healthy habitat for native birds and other animals.
 

Love the Leaves

  Nutrient-rich leaves make wonderful compost, which will give all your garden plants a big boost the green way. Plus, amending soil with compost creates a habitat for other beneficial critters to take up residence.

  Leaf composting is simple. Just rake your leaves into an existing compost pile, or create a temporary enclosure with wooden stakes and chicken wire. Another option is to store fall leaves in plastic trash bags, then use them in the spring as an alternative to shredded bark mulch. This saves money and is better for your plants.

  Shredding the leaves will speed the breakdown process and, if used on beds as mulch, will allow water to penetrate and prevent the leaves from smothering your perennials. Use a lawn mower with a bag attachment to shred the leaves, if you don’t own a shredder.

Divide and Conquer

  Warm days and cool nights are ideal conditions for dividing and transplanting perennials such as coneflower, bee balm, turtlehead, black-eyed Susan, ferns and other prolific perennials. Dividing plants will keep rapidly-spreading perennials in check, rejuvenate old plants, and is an economical way to add to your garden — or share and swap with other gardeners.

  To divide your perennials, start by digging up the entire plant. Then carefully divide the crown and root ball into two equal parts, using your hands or a sharp spade. If the root ball is particularly large, you may want to divide it into even more parts. Finally, replant each division, allowing ample space for future growth, and water well. Be sure to admire your work next spring.

Mess for Success

  Don’t be too tidy in the garden! Overlapping shrubs and trees, a pile of brush in the corner of the yard, and leaves piled under the hedge all provide important habitat for birds, small mammals, toads, snakes and turtles.

  When cleaning up the yard and garden, keep an eye out for praying mantis egg cases. These cases are tan in color, about an inch long and nearly as wide, and look like hardened foam (see photo). They’re often found on shrub branches or herbaceous plant stems.

  If the egg case is on a plant you want to prune back for the season, carefully cut the branch or stem with the egg case and place the case in a protected spot in the garden. In the spring, lots of baby mantises will emerge to munch on mosquitoes, moths and other pesky insects that might otherwise attack you or your garden plants.

Bird Benevolence

  Trees and shrubs that bear fruit in the fall are an important food source for birds, both those that migrate and those that over-winter with us. Wait to prune berry plants like holly, beautyberry, dogwood and viburnum until the birds have had their fill. Seed heads of coneflower, penstemon, liatris, aster and black-eyed Susan also are good food sources, so leave them in the garden until they’re picked clean by our feathered friends.

  Fall is also a great time to clean bird feeders in preparation for the lean winter season when over-wintering species will rely heavily on your handouts. Nest boxes can also be cleaned out so they are ready for spring inhabitants.

Dream of Spring

  Once the cold weather has forced you indoors, you can still get your gardening fix by dreaming of spring. Consider starting a gardening diary to record your successes and less-than-successes as a reference for next season.

  Did the coneflower get too tall for its location? Would your bee balm avoid powdery mildew in a sunnier spot? You can begin planning a new garden bed as you warm yourself by the fireplace. Fall is also the time to consider replacing a section of lawn with native plants. That’s easier on the environment and can provide birds and other animals with food and cover. An upcoming column will have advice on sustainable lawns and meadows.

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  In contrast to the spring frenzy, fall gardening has a slower pace that matches the winding down of the season. By taking simple steps this fall, you’ll give yourself a head start on spring when you’ll likely have a longer to-do list.

  And as you put your garden to bed for the winter, keep in mind that your property is part of a larger ecosystem. An environmentally friendly approach to your garden can improve the health of your soil, your plants and the animals and insects that call your back yard “home.” -CL-

  Kirsten Werner is Director of Communications at the Natural Lands Trust, the region’s largest land conservation organization, preserving open space in eastern PA and southern NJ.