Fall Vegetable Garden Jobs to Prepare for Winter

What to do in the garden from September to November and a printable fall vegetable garden checklist. This piece includes ideas for growing fall vegetables, garden bed care, DIY projects, and winter garden preparation. What we do now is the first step to growing a bountiful garden next year, but it’s also about making our garden a special place year-round. So, pull on a warm hat and boots, and let’s dig in!

Summer days have drawn to a close, and you might think the gardening season is over for the year. Before you hang up your tools, remember that what you do now will prepare your growing space for spring. It will also help you create a beautiful and even productive space through the winter months. You can plant flowers that bloom in winter, bulbs for spring, and cold-hardy crops. Most importantly, we should consider what to do now to protect and nurture our gardens over the winter—everything from the soil to the trees to the wild animals who call it home.

My garden is on a small island in the Irish Sea, and yours may be halfway across the world. However, if you have a cold winter, the tips I’ll share should apply to both of us. The details and timings may change, but the principles remain the same. Plants go dormant or need protection in winter. Cold rain, snow, ice, and wind can devastate them. The elements can also cause erosion, break pots, and damage garden features. So, let’s use these last golden days to prepare our gardens for the months ahead.

Grow Fall Vegetables

Quite a few gardeners sow seeds in spring, harvest their crops in summer, and finish. It could be by choice, but some might not know you can sow and grow crops nearly all year round. No matter how cold your winters get, it’s possible to start them off while it’s warmer and then overwinter the plants using protective spaces and covers. Some gardeners trudge through the snow to their gardens to return with fresh leafy greens and baby potatoes for Christmas dinner!

Growing winter crops can be advanced vegetable gardening, but growing fall vegetables is not. That’s because autumn is like spring in many ways. Temperatures are cooler, rain is more likely, and there’s an opportunity for quick-growing cool-season vegetables. Many leafy greens, brassicas, and even root crops thrive in autumn. Some varieties are even bred to be fall crops! Here are some you can sow in mid to late summer to harvest in autumn:

• Beets (for small roots or leaves)
• Green onions
• Kohlrabi
• Leaf lettuce
• Mustard greens
• Radishes (winter and salad types)
• Spinach
• Swiss chard
• Turnips
• More fall vegetables and growing tips

Extend the Season by Growing Undercover

Many fall vegetables and herbs can grow outdoors unprotected with mild autumn temperatures. However, we use tactics that extend the season and protect against cold snaps in cooler regions and seasons. Most involve growing plants with some protection. That could be under fleece tunnels and cloches or inside a greenhouse or polytunnel. If you can use some barrier that allows light through but keeps the cold out, you can be far more successful growing fall vegetable crops and overwintering seedlings. They also have the added benefit of keeping pests off crops.

A cold frame is one of the most common and affordable tools gardeners use for this. They are low-lying structures with a slanted clear top to allow light in and (usually) solid sides that give height and protection to the plants you grow inside. Traditionally, they’re made with brick walls with a clear glass lid (such as an old window) that opens and closes. The sides can be wood or another material, though, and the top plastic. Though you can buy cold frames, it’s often better and less expensive to make one yourself. Here’s how you make a DIY cold frame. It’s a great fall garden project!

Plant Spring Crops

The secret to growing garlic and early crops of onions, broad beans, cabbages, and cauliflower is to sow them in the fall. Not all varieties of each are suitable for overwintering, but sow types that are relevant to your region, and you’ll have a head start! Each autumn, I sow garlic cloves (both softneck and hardneck), autumn onion sets (Senshyu and Electric), elephant garlic, broad beans (Aquadulce Claudia), broccoli (Marathon), and cauliflower (All The Year Round).

I grow the hardiest of these crops directly in the ground, while others overwinter in the greenhouse. Then, when it warms in spring, I plant them out. My greenhouse is frost-free, so this works, but if your winters are much colder, you may want to wait until a little closer to spring and start them off under grow lights.

Autumn Soil Care

As we learn more about how nature works, one thing has become clear: soil health is key to our future. Where there is healthy soil, healthy trees and plants grow, which support animals, air, water quality, and human civilization. Degraded soil struggles to support life and, in agriculture, relies on chemical fertilizers to produce a crop. It’s expensive, reliant on big industry, and unsustainable. The same goes for commercial farmland as it does for our gardens. That’s why taking care of our soil is so important.

We can do several things in autumn to improve and protect it. The main one is adding nutrient-rich organic material—compost and aged manure—when beds are empty. Traditional gardeners dig it in, and no-dig (no-till) gardeners spread it as a mulch on top of the soil. Either way, it adds nutrients and moisture-retaining properties. I tend to spread about an inch of compost over my beds in the autumn or winter. Worms bring it down into the soil over time, and as a mulch, it protects the soil surface from winter weather.

Mulching with other materials, such as straw, can also help protect the soil and plants. Scandinavian gardeners cover their strawberry beds with a thick layer to protect them from deep freezes. Others use straw to protect root vegetables or keep soil from eroding. Other things we can do for our soil in autumn include:

• Collecting fallen leaves to make leaf mulch and leaf mold
• Continue making compost piles using garden waste. It breaks down slower in winter but still works.
• Use bokashi bins or Reencles to compost food waste indoors.
• Check soil pH and amend it if necessary. In autumn, garden lime can be sprinkled on soil to make it more alkaline. To reduce alkalinity, you can add compost and aged manure.

Sow Over-Wintering Green Manures

Applying compost, straw, or another mulch is one way to protect your garden soil from eroding over winter. It also helps prevent it from eroding with spring melts. The other way to lock soil in place is to keep the beds full of plants – either overwintering vegetables or green manures.

Green manures are cover crops grown to protect and improve the soil. You broadcast sow the seeds over your beds, and they grow into a thick covering of plants. You then leave them there to stop erosion and weeds from growing. Then, you dig them into the soil a month before you plant spring crops. While they live, they hold onto the soil and protect it. They add organic matter and nutrients to the soil when they die and break down. Some green manures are only for spring and summer sowing. Some over-wintering green manures can be sown in autumn and include grazing rye, winter field beans, and winter tares (vetch).

Protect Container Plants & Pots

While plant roots under the ground will be cold during a deep freeze, plant roots in pots can be the same temperature as the air outside – frozen! To help protect container plants that might not survive winter, we can wrap them in insulation (bubble wrap or thick fleece) or move them somewhere sheltered for the winter. This is important for tender plants like citrus trees and Mediterranean herbs like rosemary.

In mild places (The British Isles and zones 8+), the heat from external walls is often enough to keep some plants from freezing and dying—especially if you huddle pots up against them. For more frost-tender plants and if you live in a colder place, move containers inside unheated greenhouses, sheds, basements, and garages. Plants with leaves will need light, though.

If you use terracotta pots and leave them outside, setting them on pot feet or bricks is also a good idea. It keeps them above the cold, wet ground and helps stop the pot from freezing and breaking. Terracotta, especially unglazed terracotta, is prone to that, and I lost a nice pot last year thanks to being complacent. This is why we should also lift and store ollas in the fall.

Divide Herbs & Clump-Forming Perennials

To reinvigorate clump-forming perennials, we can dig them up, chop the plant’s root ball into pieces, and replant each. The bonus of this is getting plants for free! Spring is a good time to divide plants, but early autumn can be even better. There’s less on the gardening task list, and the plants will quickly establish after a few mild weeks. They’ll be ready to spring back into life come spring!

Clump-forming herbs you can divide in autumn include mint, catnip, chives, garlic chives, Welsh onions, and lemon balm. Dig the root ball out of the soil or remove it from its pot. Then, cut it into two to four sections and replant each piece. If you have enough of the plant and want to reinvigorate it, you can give the other plants away in spring. A seed swap event is perfect for that!

If you have ornamental plants that are clump-forming perennials, you can divide them now, too. If they are early bloomers, it helps them to recover and put on a good show next year.

Clean Garden Tools, Stores, and Pots

Before winter storms and the cold sets in, it’s a good idea to tuck your tools away for the winter. That includes hand tools, bamboo canes, plant labels, wheelbarrows, and anything that will degrade outdoors. Having a shed or garage is so important for this! If your shed leaks or if a window is blown out, then take the time to repair these before you store things inside for the winter.

While you’re at it, you might as well clean the space completely and get your tools cleaned and ready for next year. Rodents tend to come inside looking for cozy places to nest in winter, so remove any soft fleece, fabric, or netting you don’t want to be chewed up.

As part of your fall vegetable garden regime, you can tidy up the greenhouse, your polytunnel, and the garden in general. Any containers or pots that aren’t in use should be emptied and cleaned for storage now, too. Doing that now rather than later means you’ll be organized for spring, reduce pests, and protect your valuable gardening tools.

Autumn Wildlife Gardening

Many vegetable gardeners believe wildlife should be kept out of the garden. However, more and more are welcoming wildlife, myself included. I don’t want them to take all my crops, but I don’t mind sharing excess berries with birds or the odd veg with some other creature. Some animals, like wasps, ladybirds, and hedgehogs, help rid the garden of pests. Aside from that, I also recognize that humans have taken much of the habitat that wild animals need to live. We must be more tolerant of their plight and even go out of our way to help.

Things that we can do in the fall to help wildlife include sowing wildflower plantings and setting up bird boxes and bird feeders. We can also leave some untidy places in the garden. Heaps of leaves under hedges, seed heads in place rather than cutting them down, and logs, sticks, and twigs piled together. All of these provide cover and food for animals in winter.

You can also plant bare-root trees and hedgerows in autumn and winter, as I’ve done in my garden. They create beautiful living fences and windbreaks and are as good for wildlife as they are a source of wild food for us!

More Wildlife Garden Tasks for Autumn

• Place a net over garden ponds to prevent leaves from falling in and affecting the water quality. Keep the net off the ground and pull it tight to avoid catching birds or other wildlife. Remove it once all the trees have lost their leaves.
• Thoroughly wash all bird feeders, birdbaths, and other wildlife feeders.
• Make sure that animals have access to liquid water. Break the ice each morning if need be.
• Hang birdhouses in positions out of the prevailing wind, direct sun, and elements. They can provide shelter in winter and be used for nesting in spring.
• If you’re in Britain or Europe, create winter hibernation areas for hedgehogs. You can build or buy hedgehog houses or just leave parts of the garden untidy. They love a dry heap of leaves tucked under shrubs or hedges.

Plant Spring Bulbs

One of the other most enjoyable autumn garden jobs is planting spring bulbs. Tulips, daffodils, irises, hyacinths, and more! Most aren’t edible, and some may argue they aren’t relevant to a vegetable garden. However, after a long, cold, and dark winter, we need some color and cheer, and that’s exactly what spring flowering bulbs do. Plant them deep enough, and you can plant crops right over them in summer. Planting deep also helps protect bulbs from penetrating frost in colder regions. So, go ahead and edge the outline of beds with your favorite spring flowers!

One of my favorite ways to plant spring bulbs isn’t in open beds but in containers, and I never miss out on planting a bulb lasagne. It involves planting two or more varieties of spring flowering bulbs together in a pot. Last year, I planted FIVE different types that bloomed at different times from January to June. They were beautiful, blooming outside my window, and brought much-needed cheer!

Fall Vegetable Garden Checklist

To help you keep track of garden jobs and ideas for fall, I’ve made a printable list for you to follow. It includes the items below as a convenient single-page to-do list. You don’t have to do them all, but it will give you inspiration for what to do in the garden in autumn. Get the Fall Gardening Checklist.

Sowing and Planting

• Plant garlic cloves – October is the best month.
• Plant autumn onion sets (mild winter areas only).
• Sow quick-growing fall crops such as lettuce, arugula, radishes, and spinach.
• Sow seeds for spring crops that can overwinter as seedlings: cabbage, cauliflower, etc. They’ll be welcome transplants in your spring garden.
• Some broad bean varieties grow best if sown in early autumn. Sow now in small pots to overwinter in the greenhouse or plant directly in the garden if your winters are mild.
• Sow green manure seeds on vegetable beds that will be empty over the winter.
• Plant strawberry plants created by runners in their final place or in pots to overwinter.
• Sow sweet pea seeds to overwinter undercover.
• Grow a new lawn or grassy garden path from seed. The best time to sow grass seed is early to mid-autumn when weeds are less competitive, and rainfall is more reliable.

Harvesting

• Pick autumn-fruiting raspberries.
• Pick green tomatoes to ripen indoors or to make into chutney, pickles, or relish.
• Harvest pumpkins and winter squashes.
• You can either store root vegetables in the ground or lift them to store undercover.
• Dig yacon and New Zealand yam harvests up after the first light frost.
• Harvest sweet potatoes and cure them before storing them.
• Hardy brassicas like kale, collards, and winter cabbage can be picked all winter long in mild climates.
• Pick and dry herbs such as oregano, mint, basil, and parsley. They’ll be a welcome addition to winter soups and stews.

Plant Care

• Protect crops with fleece-covered hoops and cloches, or grow them undercover to extend the season.
• If leaving root crops like carrots and beets in situ, mulch them with straw to protect them from frost and snow.
• Propagate frost-tender perennials such as lavenders, tomatoes, physalis, verbena, lemon verbena, scented geraniums, and anything else that won’t survive the winter outside. Overwintered inside or in a frost-free greenhouse, they’ll ensure you have plants again the following spring.
• Prune summer-fruiting raspberry canes. These raspberries only fruit on second-year wood, and after a cane produces fruit, it withers. Cut these dead-looking canes about an inch from the ground, leaving the best of this year’s canes to grow on.
• Remove flowers and lower foliage from tomato plants to encourage ripening.
• Support trees and plants that may break in winter storms.
• Bring houseplants back inside for the winter.
• Birds such as pigeons may target your crops over the winter. Use safer netting and practices to ensure your cabbages, brussels sprouts, and purple sprouting broccoli are protected.

Projects

• Build a DIY cold frame.
• Save tomato seeds and any other remaining vegetable seeds. A book with everything you need to know is Back Garden Seed Saving.

Soil, Compost, and Beds

• Empty and/or turn compost bins.
• Keep making compost
• Collect fallen leaves to make leaf mulch and leaf mold. For leaf mold, gather leaves fallen from deciduous trees and place them in a compost bin or other open container. By spring, they’ll have broken down to a compost that’s great for making your seedling compost. Alternatively, shred the leaves and scatter them on the ground as a protective mulch.
• Apply compost and/or aged manure to vegetable beds. I tend to add about an inch over all my beds.
• Test your soil’s pH.
• Winterize containers and pots. Move them, insulate them, and/or set them on pot feet/bricks.
• Empty summer annuals from their pots, containers, and window boxes. Compost the plants, use the potting mix as a mulch, and rinse and scrub out the pots. Leave them to dry before storing them away for the year.

Structures and Tools

• Clean out the garden shed and remove materials that rodents might nest in.
• Make repairs to shed roofs, windows, and doors.
• Clean all garden tools of dirt, muck, and rust. An incredibly useful tool for cleaning garden tools is a Japanese rust eraser. It works wonders!
• Thoroughly wash the greenhouse, polytunnel, or other growing spaces to remove pests and grime.
• Clean out rain barrels of any bottom muck.
• Bring hoses, garden furniture, BBQs, wheelbarrows, plant supports, bamboo canes, and garden tools back undercover.

Wildlife Gardening

• Leave seedheads, piles of leaves, and other ‘untidy’ areas for wildlife. Don’t worry too much about garden clean-up until spring.
• Begin feeding garden birds from feeders.
• Hang birdboxes – birds shelter in them in winter and nest in them in spring.
• Brits and Europeans can make or buy hedgehog houses for hedgies to overwinter in.