Fall is here in my part of the world. The days are growing increasingly shorter. The nights are cool.
The leaves are falling from the trees faster than we can fully enjoy their colors.

What can you do now to prepare your yard for the impending winter? Here are four simple things that you can do.

1) Don’t let the leaves sit in the yard. The leaves will smother the grass under the snow. Come Spring thaw you will find large bare patches on your lawn. Who wants that? Not me, I have a hard enough time growing grass, except for my flower beds. The grass and weeds flourish there. Go figure.

2) Clean out your garden and do your final weeding. Think of it as a jump start on Spring.

3) Plant your Spring bulbs. I know most of us are thinking of closing up shop for the long winter. But this is the perfect time to be thinking of your flower beds.

4) Pick up all of your tools, shovels, and things that you don’t want lost under the never ending snow. What? You don’t live in the frozen tundra like I do? One year my kids took the snow shovels out to play before a major snowstorm. They were none too pleased when I made them go out the next morning and walk around the yard shoulder to shoulder until they found them.

According to a recent article in the Washington Post, fall clean-up is the prime time for accidents in the yard.

According to the the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, raking leaves is vigorous exercise, and you need to warm up for at least 10 minutes with some stretching and light exercise.

I know that shouldn’t make me giggle, but the mental image of people outside in their yards doing stretching exercises with their rakes is funny.

When the hot days of summer are upon you, how do you tend to your garden to make sure that it thrives and that all of your hard work has paid off.

1) Fertilize container plants each time you water them. I really need to do this more regularly. My container plants always end up dying half way through the summer. It really is very sad.

2) Don’t over water your plants: The soil becomes waterlogged and plpants can’t survive in waterlogged soil because they can’t get oxygen. Stick to a watering schedule which might be something like every like every four days. In your container plants use water holding crystals or buy self watering containers. These will help you achieve the balance between under and over watering your plants.

3) Measure the amount of water you are actually giving to your plants. If you are using a sprinkler system, set out a small container to catch water. After the watering cycle use a ruler to measure the depth. You want about 1″ each time.

4) Stop pruning, increases new growth and stresses the plants which is not good in heat when your plants are already stressed. I have a hard time with this one because once everything blooms and has leaves out, that is when I really can see where the pruning needs to occur.

5) Stop planting: The survival rate of new plantings drops dramatically as temperatures increase.

6) My children’s favorite: Cut back on mowing the lawn. When you do cut the lawn, set the blades high to prevent stress on grass. Remember the taller grass will survive the sun’s scorching rays better.

7) Keep gardens well mulched. The mulch helps hold the moisture in the soil.

Following these seven tips will hopefully lead you to a more successful garden this summer.