As fall settles in on California’s North Coast, gardeners are presented with a unique opportunity—not to wind down, but to set the stage for success in the seasons ahead. Autumn is the perfect time to enrich your soil, outsmart pests, and plan for a more productive spring garden.

Whether you're putting your garden to rest or stretching the season with winter crops, here are 7 essential fall garden tasks you won’t want to skip.

1. Remove Spent Annuals From Veggie Beds

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If you’re having a hard time saying goodbye to your summer vegetables (although probably by now they’ve stopped producing and are mostly just surviving) this is the time to pull the plug! Not only does this tidy up your space, but it also helps prevent pests and diseases from overwintering in dead plant material. 

• Clean up your spent annuals or any other diseased plants from your veggie beds. Cut at soil level and leave healthy roots in place to feed soil microbes.
• Don’t compost diseased or pest-ridden plants—dispose of them to avoid spreading issues next year.

2. Increase your Chances of Weed Control

Fall is the perfect time to manage weeds, particularly perennials and certain annuals, as plants are actively transporting energy to their roots.  Broadleaf perennial weeds (like Dandelion, Creeping Charlie/Ground Ivy, Thistle etc.) and winter annual weeds (like Hairy Bittercress, Horseweed/Marestail etc.) are great examples of weeds that are best managed in fall.

• Remove smaller weeds by hand, ensuring you extract the entire root system to prevent regrowth. Don’t let them go to seed! Remove weeds as soon as they emerge while they’re young.
• Use sheet compost (a layer of cardboard topped with a thick layer of compost and/or mulch) to suppress growth and germination.
• Use weed killer as a last resort! Try the least toxic type, read the label carefully and don’t ignore the label instructions!  See Pesticides: Safe and Effective Use in the Home and Landscape

Learn more about weed management from the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources article: “Weeds & Invasive Plants” (see Resources below). 

3. Tidy Up the Garden (But Don’t Overdo It)

Clean your perennials and the rest of your garden and lawn from dead and diseased materials but be mindful of how you can support wildlife during the colder months of the year.

• Trim perennials (but not all): Research the ones you have in the garden. Some can be trimmed or pruned in fall ( i.e. Peonies, Hostas, Irises) and others in spring or when dormant (i.e., Lavender, Lilacs, Azaleas). Leave ornamental grasses, coneflowers, and black-eyed Susans intact—they provide winter interest and food for birds!
• Remove old fruiting canes from raspberries, blackberries and boysenberries.
• Rake around disease-prone plants (roses, brassicas) to reduce fungal residue.
• Leave patches of bare soil, leaf litter, or hollow stems as habitat for beneficial insects (native bees, lacewings, and ladybugs overwinter in undisturbed areas).
• Unless you live in a fire-prone zone where leaf and debris removal is a must, leaving a light leaf layer helps prevent erosion and nourishes soil life (rake excess leaves and either compost or use as mulch in your garden).
• Mow grass and leaves together and leave on the surface for lawn compost.
• Remove broken limbs and dead wood from shrubs and trees (prune in spring).
• Clean fallen fruits and any other dead/diseased plant material.

4. Protect and Build Soil in Your Garden

Take care of your soil in fall to have a fertile garden in spring! Fall is the perfect time to incorporate organic materials that will not only nourish the soil but also improve drainage and soil structure.

• Test your soil to make the right decisions about the kind of amendments you may want to add (for example adding lime to raise the pH of your soil should be done in fall). If you don’t know how to take a soil sample or where to send it, check this article from UC ANR: “Getting the Dirt on Soil Testing”
• Loosen topsoil with a garden fork—no deep tilling—to maintain soil structure and aeration.
• Add amendments like compost, seasoned animal manure or worm castings and gently work it into the soil.
• Mulch 3–6″ with leaves, grass clippings or straw for vegetable beds or wood chips around trees, shrubs and ornamental plants (keep mulch a few inches away from trunks).
• Plant a fall cover crop instead of mulching: sow multiple crops together like cereal rye, crimson clover, vetch, or fava beans by late October, let them grow over winter, then chop down before flowering in spring.

5. Protect Tender Plants

Frost sensitive plants (light frost 32°-29° / medium frost 28°-25° / heavy frost 24° and below for 4+ hours) and bulbs that don’t tolerate wet soil should be protected during the winter months.

• Cover young citrus or tropical ornamentals with frost cloth if frost is forecasted. If temperatures fall below 50°, cover outdoor seedlings.
• Herbs can winter in place, but mint and basil should be dug up and brought indoors.
• Summer-blooming bulbs and fall-blooming bulbs that do not tolerate winter cold or heavy, wet soil must be dug up in late fall before rains and cold temperatures occur.

6. Tools & System Maintenance

Do your future self a favor and clean and organize your garden tools, sheds, pots and everything else you’ve been planning to take care of all summer! Not only will everything be ready and clean to use in spring, but you can reduce the risk of spreading pest and disease microbes that can overwinter on tools.

• Scrub tools with a bleach- or alcohol-based solution, dry and oil metal parts (pruners, hoes).
• Disinfect trellises, stakes, containers, and watering lines to disrupt insect and disease cycles.
• Drain irrigation hoses and shut down irrigation systems as rain begins - this protects against freeze damage even in mild winters.
• Take inventory of bottle sprays and pesticides; take outdated or unneeded chemicals to a hazardous waste center.

7. Reflect and Plan Ahead

Organize your garden on paper! What worked well this year? What flopped? Snap photos and jot down notes now while it’s fresh in your mind.

• Start a garden journal! See article  “Garden Journals–A Powerful Tool for Success” from NC State Extension for inspiration on how to create one.
• Take a stroll through your garden. Which crops thrived? What pests appeared? Note your challenges and problem areas to help you plan your next season’s beds.
• Get out your planting calendar and plan for spring sowing of cool season crops or adding shrubs, bulbs, or natives.

Resources:

UC ANR, Fall Garden Cleanup Checklist, https://ucanr.edu/sites/default/files/2020-11/338804.pdf

UC ANR, UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County, Fall Garden & Landscape Checklist, https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-master-gardener-program-contra-costa-county/fall-garden-landscape-checklist

Oregon State University, Fall Garden Maintenance, https://extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/extd8/files/documents/12281/2014fallgardenmaintenance.pdf?

UC ANR, Weeds & Invasive Plants, https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-marin-master-gardeners/weeds-invasive-plants

UC ANR, Getting the Dirt on Soil Testing, https://ucanr.edu/blog/over-fence-alameda-county/article/getting-dirt-soil-testing

UC ANR, California Cover Crops Resources, https://ucanr.edu/site/california-cover-crops-resources

UC ANR, Bulbs for Sonoma County

https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-master-gardener-program-sonoma-county/bulbs-sonoma-county

NC State Extension, Garden Journals–A Powerful Tool for Success https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/appendix-a-garden-journaling

Article written by Izabela Pakbaz, First Year Master Gardener