6 Essential Fall Garden Prep Tips - HTK Company
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6 Essential Fall Garden Prep Tips

September 24, 2024

As the cooler months approach, it's time to get your garden ready for its winter rest. This prep work will set your garden up for success in the spring. Here’s how you can prepare your garden for fall with ease:

1. Leave the Leaves: Nature’s Mulch Saves You Money and Improves Your Soil

It may be tempting to rake and bag those fallen leaves, but consider leaving them in place. 

Leaves are nature’s mulch, offering free nutrients to improve your soil and creating a safe habitat for critters that need warmth for the winter. Plus, they protect your garden from erosion.

2. Amend Your Soil for Spring

Give your soil a nutrient boost now by incorporating organic matter like compost, manure, or other amendments. These will break down over the winter, enriching the soil for spring planting. Earthworms and fungi will do the heavy lifting for you until then. 

Need to cut through stubborn roots or bags of compost? The Handy Safety Knife is perfect for the job!

3. Clean Up Diseased Plants

While most plants can be left in the garden to decompose naturally, diseased plants should be removed to prevent future problems. If your plants showed signs of disease earlier in the season, now is the time to pull them out. 

Keep your Handy Safety Knife close by for safely cutting through stems and roots!

4. Remove Invasive Weeds

Don’t let invasive species take over next season—make sure to dig them up completely. Cutting back won’t be enough, as many invasive plants will regrow or even spread. Be thorough with removal, and avoid adding them to your compost.

5. Split and Divide Bulbs

Autumn is the ideal time to split and divide bulbs like hostas, tulips, daffodils, and lilies. By separating them now, you’ll encourage stronger, healthier plants in the spring.

6. Plant Spring Bulbs, Cover Crops, and Garlic

Now is the time to plant spring-blooming bulbs like daffodils, tulips, and crocuses. Planting cover crops such as rye, vetch, or clover can help protect your soil from erosion over the winter. And if you're a garlic lover, plant those cloves now to harvest fresh garlic next year! 

The Handy Safety Knife makes quick work of slicing open planting bags or trimming cover crop stalks.

Bonus Tip: Prune (Select) Perennials

While many perennials can be left to overwinter, some benefit from a fall prune, including roses, herbs, and certain vegetables. The Handy Safety Knife is perfect for light pruning work. Just be sure to research which plants prefer a spring pruning to avoid cutting them back too soon.


Don’t head into fall garden prep without the right tools! The Handy Safety Knife makes every gardening task simpler and safer, so order yours now and be ready to tackle the last of your autumn projects with ease.

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