Garden Center at Las Cruces #3505

On a fresh fall day, take advantage of the weather and do outdoor maintenance and a second round of planting. Now is a great time to get fall flowers and flower bulbs in the ground. Read on for more on fall planting, fall garden maintenance, and how to transition to your fall lawn and garden.

Fertilize or Patch Your Lawn
Patch up bald spots on your lawn by spreading fresh grass seed. Cooler weather is a great time to fill in brown or bare places in your yard. However, make sure leaves don't fall on freshly seeded areas. New grass seed needs water, air, and sun to grow, and leaf litter can block out the air and sunlight it needs to germinate.

If you're in a northern climate, prepare your cool-season grass for the fall with lawn fertilizer. Aerate your lawn before fertilizing to get the most bang for your buck. Water your cool-season lawn regularly and tend to any weeds that show up. It'll need different maintenance than warm-season grass, which goes dormant as the weather cools. Taper down watering on warm-season lawns.

Fall Planting
Fall planting is often overlooked, but autumn is the perfect time to get additional flowers in your garden. Mums, the nickname for chrysanthemums, provide a beautiful pop of fall color. Find them in shades of purple, pink, red, orange, yellow, and white. You might also choose some marigolds for orange, yellow, and red flowers that last until the first frost, or longer if you shield them. Remember to explore the wide variety of fall plant and flower options.

Succulents and shrubs put on a show of flowers in the fall, especially if they're kept in planter pots or already well-established in the ground. Succulent planters allow for easier upkeep of sensitive succulents. Customize the soil in the planters to fit these desert plants, as they need a sandy succulent soil mixture. For shrubs, look after the ones you've got or plant new ones, weather permitting. Get in new plants now, especially if you're in a warmer climate and have time before the frost and cold comes.

Cut and Cover Perennials
In climates where you might have a cold snap here and there, but then it'll warm up above freezing again, cover your plants. Protect your garden from freeze and frost damage to extend their season. You can get extra life out of your garden by covering your plants with tarps, buckets, or even painting drop cloths. It'll warm your plants like a greenhouse, and they'll survive a frost. Read other fall-planted perennial tips, too.

This works well when the weather is still transitional, until you're fully into the colder parts of the season. Uncover the plants when the thermometer goes up again and let them enjoy that autumn sun. Once the temperatures regularly dip below freezing, it's time to say goodbye to the garden for now.

Put the Garden to Bed
When your annuals start looking rougher, dig up the plants. Northern climates that get cold earlier in the fall may be putting the garden to bed for the season in October or November, while warmer climates might wait until November or December. After your vegetables and annuals are done for the year, dig them up, then chop and dispose of the dead plant debris. You can let them return their nutrients to the soil, but there are two exceptions: if your plants dealt with disease or if you had a snail problem.

For gardens overrun with snails and slugs or if your plants struggled with disease, put the old plants in a lawn and leaf bag for disposal. You don't want to bring the disease or slugs to next year's garden. However, if you have a compost pile, feel free to add the snail-riddled plant parts there.

After you've removed the old plants, you have a clean slate. Prepare your garden bed for the spring by rotating the soil with a shovel or renting a rototiller. You want to bring the deeper soil to the surface, send the topsoil lower down, and generally break up the ground. It helps nutrients penetrate and lets the soil rest. It's also an excellent opportunity to test the soil and see what, if any, soil amendments you need. Different crops and plants use different nutrients. Test your soil to see if it's balanced or if you should add certain nutrients that have been depleted.

Indoor Gardening
Gardeners with potted plants can extend their growing season by bringing the plants indoors to a sunny window. Indoor gardening allows both outdoor plants to live longer and house plants to bring joy into your home. Just rotate them regularly to give all leaves equal sunlight, and make sure they get enough water. If the pots don't have built-in overflow dishes, be sure to add shallow bowls beneath them to catch any extra water.

Warm the Outdoors with a Patio Heater
Stretch out your fall evenings with an outdoor fireplace, patio heater, or fire pit to take off the chill. No matter if you're looking to heat a small patio, a cozy back porch, or a spacious deck, we've got options. All you have to do is pick the one that matches your decor style.

When you're curious about how to choose or build an outdoor fireplace, we have the supplies you need. Bricks, mortar, a wheelbarrow, trowels, and more — let us help you get this fall project from doing to done. If you'd love some extra heat but rather not install a fire pit or fireplace, we also have patio heaters, including gas, propane, and electric models.

Ease Into Fall
This fall, tidy up your plants and flowers with us. We have the tools you need for leaf cleanup, putting the garden to bed, and replenishing nutrients in your soil so it's ready for next spring. Shop our wide variety of fall garden care online, in your Las Cruces store, or in our mobile app.