Fall garden chores are just as important as what you do in spring to get your garden ready for the season. In fact, having a great garden takes maintenance all year long.

One fall garden task that Joe does each year is to amend his raised bed soil with nutrient-rich materials like compost and broken-down wood chips.
But the decisions you’re making in the garden as the growing season winds down are already affecting next season’s success! And getting your spring garden started off right has everything to do with how you put your garden to bed the fall before.
Fall Garden Chores at the GardenFarm
Even with all the TLC Joe gives to the health of his soil throughout the year, he knows that if the chemical makeup isn’t ideal, it can affect next year’s plants. So one important step to take before putting the garden to bed is to test the soil to see what nutrients it might be lacking.

Testing the soil in the fall will help you determine if there is a nutrient imbalance that needs to be corrected before next spring.
Joe invites viewers to tag along as he puts the GardenFarm to bed in the fall and demonstrates the simple steps you can take now that will pay off with bigger, better results when next spring’s planting season rolls around!
This is an encore episode from Season 4. View the show notes and resources from the original airing here.
Links and Resources:
Growing a Greener World YouTube Episode 1204: Fall Garden Chores
Growing a Greener World Newsletter sign-up
The joe gardener Amazon Storefront
The joe gardener Show podcast episode 019-GardenFarm Audio Journal – First Day of Fall
The joe gardener Blog – How to Turn Fall Garden Cleanup into Compost to Enrich Your Soil
Putting the Garden to Bed – Fall To-Do List
For our fall over-seeding of grass seed, we use Pennington Smart Seed, Fescue Blend.
Episode 302: The Dirt on Healthy Soil
*Disclosure: Some product links in this guide are affiliate links, which means we would get a commission if you purchase. However, none of the prices of these resources have been increased to compensate us. None of the items included in this list have any bearing on any compensation being an influencing factor on their inclusion here. The selection of all items featured in this post and podcast were based solely on merit and in no way influenced by any affiliate or financial incentive, or contractual relationship. At the time of this writing, Joe Lamp’l has professional relationships with the following companies who may have products included in this post and podcast: Rain Bird, Corona Tools, Milorganite, Soil3, Exmark, and Wild Alaskan Seafood Box. These companies are either Brand Partners of joegardener.com and/or advertise on our website. However, we receive no additional compensation from the sales or promotion of their product through this guide. The inclusion of any products mentioned within this post is entirely independent and exclusive of any relationship.