Garden Center at Mesa #6862

When a crisp day breezes in, take advantage of it to do a second round of planting and outdoor maintenance. Now is a great time to get fall flowers and flower bulbs in the ground. Neaten up your trees and bushes, too, with pole saws, pruners, and chainsaws. Read on for more on fall planting, fall garden maintenance, and how to transition to your fall lawn and garden.

Patch or Fertilize Your Lawn
Patch up bald spots on your lawn by overseeding them. Autumn is a great time to fill in brown or bare places in your yard. However, be mindful of fallen leaves on freshly seeded areas. New grass seed needs air, sun, and water 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. Rent an aerator to aerate your lawn before fertilizing to get those nutrients down near the roots right off the bat. An edger gives extra polish to the perimeter of your yard. Water your cool-season lawn regularly and tend to any pesky weeds that show up. Warm-season varieties, like those in the southern states, are winding down their growth for the year. It's better not to fertilize it now, as you don't want fresh grass growing right before it goes dormant. 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. Chrysanthemums, often just called "mums," provide a beautiful pop of fall color. Find them in shades of purple, pink, red, orange, yellow, and white. Surprisingly, pansies can overwinter as far north as parts of The Great Plains, so consider adding them. They're hardy, but mums are even tougher. 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 pots or strongly rooted in the ground. Succulent planters allow for easier upkeep of sensitive succulents. You can 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 sets in. If you use retaining wall blocks to surround or accent your garden, try giving a finished look with rubber mulch. It'll overwinter just fine and look new longer than bark chips or other mulches that fade with weathering.

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 frost and freeze damage to extend their season. You can get extra life out of your garden by covering your plants with 5-gallon buckets, tarps, or even painting drop cloths. It'll warm your plants like a greenhouse, and they'll survive a frost.

This works well early on, until you're fully into the colder parts of the season. Uncover the plants when it warms up again and let them enjoy that fall sunshine. Once the temperatures regularly dip below freezing, say goodbye to the garden for now.

Put the Garden to Bed
When your annuals start looking rougher, dig up the plants. Northern climates might be putting the garden to bed for the season in October or November, while warmer climates might wait until November or December. After your annuals are done blooming for the year, dig them up and dispose of the detritus, or dead plant debris. Feel free to let them decompose to enrich the soil unless you had one of 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 leaf bag and dispose of them. You don't want to bring the disease or slugs to next year's garden. However, if you have a compost bin in the corner of the yard, feel free to add the slug-riddled plant parts there.

After you've removed the old plants, you've got 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 lets the soil rest and helps nutrients penetrate. 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 indoor plants to bring joy into your home. Just make sure they get enough water, and turn them regularly to give all the leaves equal sunlight. Remember to place decorative dishes beneath them if the pots don't have built-in overflow dishes to catch any extra water.

Warm the Outdoors with a Fire Pit
Stretch out your fall evenings with a patio heater, fire pit, or outdoor fireplace to take off the chill. No matter if you're looking for outdoor heaters for decks, small patios, or cozy porches, we've got options. All you have to do is discover the one that matches your decor style.

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

Ease Into Fall
This fall, tidy up your yard with us. We've got everything 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 and outdoor living products online, in your Mesa, AZ store, or in our mobile app.