Fall Garden Cleanup Checklist

CUT & CLEAR What to cut back and clean up

Sanitation is the real job of fall cleanup — most garden diseases overwinter in dead plant material.

1. Pull spent vegetable plantsTomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and beans come out entirely once frost finishes them — roots and all. Plants with any disease signs go in the municipal green bin, never your compost pile, which won’t get hot enough to kill pathogens.
2. Cut back diseased perennialsPerennials that suffered mildew, rust, or blight (peonies, bee balm, phlox are the usual suspects) get cut to the ground and the foliage binned — this genuinely reduces next year’s disease pressure.
3. Cut the floppersPlants that collapse into a soggy mat (hostas after frost are the classic) can be cleared once they’ve died back, so the mat doesn’t shelter slugs against the crown.
4. Empty and store containersTerracotta and ceramic pots crack when wet soil freezes in them. Empty, dry, and store them under cover; plastic pots can stay out if emptied.

LEAVE IT What to leave standing until spring

If it’s healthy and standing, it’s probably doing a job. Leave these until spring cleanup.

1. Seed heads and ornamental grassesConeflowers, sedums, rudbeckia, and grasses feed birds all winter and look good doing it. Cut them down in spring when new growth starts.
2. Perennial stemsMany native bees nest in hollow and pithy stems. Leaving stems standing (and cutting them to varied heights in spring) gives them the winter housing they need.
3. Leaves in the bedsA layer of leaves raked into flower beds (not left in a thick mat on the lawn) is free insulation and mulch. Shred thick oak leaves if they mat down; in beds, whole leaves are fine.
4. Evergreen boughs and tender crownsUse cut evergreen boughs or a loose leaf mound to insulate crowns of marginally hardy perennials — after the ground cools, so you’re insulating cold soil, not trapping warmth.

PLANT & PREP Garlic, bulbs, and the lawn

Fall is a planting season too — for the patient crops.

1. Plant garlic in OctoberBreak bulbs into cloves and plant each 10–15 cm apart, pointy end up, about 5 cm deep, in your best-drained soil. Aim for a few weeks before the ground freezes so roots set but tops don’t sprout much. Mulch 8–10 cm with straw after planting.
2. Get spring bulbs in before freeze-upTulips, daffodils, and alliums can go in any time in October (and tulips even into November). Pointy end up, roughly three times as deep as the bulb is tall.
3. Give the lawn its winter send-offKeep mowing until growth stops, finishing around 6 cm (2.5 in) — long grass mats under snow and invites snow mould. Rake leaves off the lawn (into the beds) so turf isn’t smothered, and if you fertilize in fall, the late-October application replaces mowing-season feeding, not adds to a July one.
4. Drain and disconnect hosesShut off exterior taps from inside, drain the lines, and disconnect and drain hoses before hard freeze — a burst pipe in January costs more than every plant on this page.

WATCH OUT Common mistakes

1. Cutting everything to the ground in OctoberYou evict overwintering pollinators, strip winter bird food, and expose perennial crowns to freeze-thaw heaving. Neat is not the same as healthy.
2. Leaving diseased tomato vines ‘for the compost’Home compost doesn’t reliably kill blight and wilt pathogens. Bag diseased material for municipal pickup.
3. Planting garlic in springGarlic needs winter cold to bulb properly. Spring-planted cloves give you one small round bulb — plant in October.
4. Leaving a thick leaf mat on the lawnLeaves in beds: yes. Leaves suffocating turf all winter: dead patches by April. Move them six feet and they turn from problem to mulch.

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