Healthy plants start with healthy soil, making fall the ideal time to amend your flower beds. Loosen the soil and mix in compost, leaf mold, or aged manure. This helps stabilize the soil and improve drainage. Then add a dose of your favorite plant food. Fertilizer gives soil an extra boost of nutrients that will promote strong roots. This is especially important before they face the challenges of bitter winter weather. In short, the healthier roots are before they hunker down for winter, the more efficiently they will perform in the spring. Time your feeding close to the first frost. Unlike spring feeding, the goal here is not to promote new blooms. You don’t want to encourage young shoots that a sudden cold snap will damage. Instead, you want to support the plant as it naturally transitions from focusing on blooms to preparing for winter dormancy with strong root growth. STEP 3: GIVE THE SOIL EXTRA TLC
STEP 4: PLANT FOR SPRING BLOOMS
Now’s the time to tuck in the seeds and bulbs that will deliver color and crops months down the road. To know when to plant in your area, look up your Planting Zone at https://planthardiness. ars.usda.gov/. For example, Zones 4-7 can be planted when the nighttime temperatures are consistently down to 40 or 50 degrees, about six weeks before the first freeze. You want the ground to be workable, but cool. This could land anytime between September and December. For warmer regions in Planting Zones 8-10, it will likely be December or January before the conditions are right for planting. Tip : If you have your bulbs but it’s not yet time to plant them, store them in an aerated bag in the refrigerator. Be sure to avoid storing them alongside fruits, like apples, that release a gas that is toxic to bulbs.
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