Getting Your Garden Ready for Winter and Beyond
A fall checklist to prepare for next season’s success
Diana Wisen
By Diana Wisen, Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardener
It’s been a lovely summer for gardening and your landscape may still be going strong, but the soggy, overcast days will soon be here. One late October morning you will wake up and your glorious dahlias are a black slimy mess, signaling our first frost occurred overnight. In our area, the first frost usually occurs around Halloween. With this, our dry summer and fall weather will come to a close, opening the door to November, often the rainiest month of the year here.
With the first frost most likely less than a month away, there is much you can and should do in your garden this time of year.
1. Assess Your Entire Landscape and Make Notes
Take a cup of coffee or tea and your camera and walk around your yard. (This is not the time for wine.) Ask yourself what is doing well? What do I like? What is not doing well? What don’t I like? What’s okay but could be better? What am I tired of? Is there anything I want more of such as color, shade, flowers, or that I want less of? What needs significant maintenance, pruning or removing? Think about rejuvenation, renovation, or no changes. Just seasonal maintenance? Don’t put them off. Now is the time to start dealing with your ideas.
2. Fall is a Good Time to Plant
Plant more flowering spring bulbs. Next spring you will be so glad you did. And most will naturalize and multiply over the years. If you have a deer or squirrel problem you will want to take precautions to protect some kinds of bulbs. This is the best time of year to plant perennials, shrubs, and trees. The ground is still warm enough for the roots to begin to grow. It may take at least a year or two for the roots of shrubs and trees to become fully established, which means they are able to take up enough water and nutrients to sustain the shrub or tree. When planting, dig a wide shallow hole. Set the plant in at the same level as the soil around the trunk (or a little higher). Refill the hole with the same soil you dug out. Water well to settle it in. Water regularly for the next year or two. Mulch with arborist chips about three-inches deep but not touching the stem or trunk.
3. Weed. Weed. Weed!
Pacific Northwest weeds are super survivors. That’s one reason they are weeds. Many tend to grow year around and set thousands of seeds that can last for years. The cool season weeds such as shot weed (aka hairy bittercress) are beginning to germinate and the summer weeds are still going strong. Dig out weeds while they are small, before they flower, and especially before they set seed. This is particularly true for the vegetable and annual flower beds. If not tended, weeds can overpower next year’s crops before they can get established.
4. Mulch
There are several reasons to mulch. It helps keep soil moisture stable, and prevent erosion and soil compaction. It thwarts weed seeds already in the soil from germinating. Using a plant-based mulch such as arborist chips or compost slowly adds organic matter and nutrients to the soil and can make the landscape look attractive. Wait until there have been some thorough rains before putting down the chips. Save your homemade compost to put around your perennials and roses to slowly feed them over the winter. Some bagged or commercial compost may have very little nutrient content (read the labels!) and is best used as soil cover or conditioner.
5. Help Your Soil
A wide variety of soil types and conditions can be found throughout Skagit County. Before amending your soil, have your soil tested. Without knowing what your soil needs, additives could be wasteful, harmful, and expensive, as well as just not needed. Local native soil tends to be on the acidic side with sufficient levels of phosphorus. Too much phosphorus actually causes problems. Adding organic matter such as homemade compost is a good way to enrich the soil. You do not need to add a lot—2-5% compost by volume is sufficient. Rain will leach out the nitrogen, so wait until spring to put it on your vegetable area.
Place interesting wire towers throughout your garden to make easy disposal of leaves for composting over winter. © Skagit County Master Gardeners
6. “Leave the Leaves”
As you cut back plants at the end of the season, leave the stems and leaves in place on the ground. By doing so, you are providing food for soil microorganisms, which is the beginning of the food web. They in turn provide food for insects that become food for birds and other small creatures.
As you clean up the garden, you may find diseased plant materials. Do not leave this in the garden or put it in your compost bin or pile. Put diseased plant stems and leaves in your garbage or commercial yard waste bin. Disease spores and microorganisms will overwinter in the soil or in a home compost pile. Pick up dropped and rotting fruit from under trees and handle the same way.
If you have an abundance of leaves in the yard, you can pack the slightly damp deciduous leaves into large black plastic bags and let them sit for a year or two. They make leaf mold, often called “black gold” by gardeners because of its excellent compost quality. For more info on improving your soil’s health see > Master Gardener Soil Health Tips
Know & Grow: Conifers in the Home Landscape
Free, no registration required
Listen to Master Gardener Alison Hitchcock speak on caring for conifers in the home garden. Alison Hitchcock has been a Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardener since 2001. Prior to retirement, she worked for the Department of Natural Resources as the Northwest Regional Silviculturist.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 - 1 pm - 2:30 pm
NWREC Sakuma Auditorium 16650 State Highway 536, Mount Vernon
7. Pruning
Generally fall is not a good time to prune except for the 4 D’s--Prune out the dead, the diseased, the damaged, and the dys-functional (or deranged?) anytime of the year. However, pruning healthy plant material in the fall tends to encourage new growth, which you do not want during the colder months ahead. Tender new growth is much more susceptible to cold and wind damage. Pruning now might also cut off the flower buds of next spring’s flowering shrubs. If in doubt about when to prune flowering shrubs, a good rule is to prune right after a plant has bloomed, and not yet set next year’s flower buds. Roses are best pruned in late March, though you can cut back a bit the tall floppy canes of grandifloras now.
8. Lawn Care
Fall is also the best time to fertilize a lawn. Always read and follow the directions on the bag. Don’t use a Weed ’n Feed until absolutely needed. A few weeds in a lawn are fine and can be dug out with a kitchen or Hori Hori garden knife if they bother you. Some people even plant crocus in their lawn for spring blooming.
9. Winter is Knocking
Water. Before you unhook your hoses make sure those big shrubs under eaves or large trees are well-watered. Rain may not reach their roots. Shallow rooted big rhododendrons can get quite thirsty in the fall.
Bring in tender plants and containers. Plants in containers could freeze and die because their roots are above ground.
Dig and store summer blooming bulbs, or take your chances on their survival.
Wrap arborvitae hedges with plastic deer fencing if you expect to get heavy snow. If you think a shrub or tree may have died during the winter, wait until June to dig it out. It may come back, just slower. Scrape and test for green tissue to see if it is still alive lower down.
10. Take Care of Your Tools and Equipment
Good, high-quality tools make gardening easier and more productive. We often have more than one pair of shears or shovel, using different sizes for different tasks and users. Take the time to clean and sharpen them. A freshly sharpened shovel or hoe is so much easier to use. Sharp pruning shears and loppers make it fun to prune. Do not use bleach as it corrodes the metal. Read our blog post on Tool Care and Maintenance
11. Refresh a Container for Seasonal Interest.
Stick some branch greens in a bucket or vase and put in a container. Add some seasonal plant material such as berries, pansies, leaves, colorful branches, pumpkins, or whatever you have in your yard. Do one for your front door and your back door. You deserve to look at nature’s beauty every day.
Have more fall plant or gardening questions? WSU Skagit County Master Gardeners are here for you. Plant clinics in Burlington and Anacortes are staffed through October. Check the dates and info here > Master Gardener Plant Clinic Hours Throughout the year you can submit a plant problem online > Submit a plant clinic question, leave a phone message at 360-395-2368, or send an email to askamastergardener@skagitmg.org
RESOURCES AND REFERENCES :
Pacific Northwest Gardener’s Handbook: Growing for the Future. Washington State University Extension, Pullman, Washington. (Rev. 2025) Available for download at > https://pubs.extension.wsu.edu/product/pacific-northwest-gardeners-handbook-growing-for-the-future/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Diana Wisen has been a Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardener since 1991 and is the coordinator of the Hardy Fuchsia Garden at the Discovery Garden on SR 536 in Mount Vernon. Diana is a member of the master gardener training team each year, teaching on a variety of topics including tool maintenance, managing slugs and snails, and weed identification.
Questions about home gardening or becoming a master gardener may be directed to Skagit County WSU Extension Office, 11768 Westar Lane, Suite A, Burlington, WA 98233; by phone: 360-428-4270; or via the website: www.skagit.wsu.edu/mg
Washington State University Extension helps people develop leadership skills and use research-based knowledge to improve economic status and quality of life. Cooperating agencies: Washington State University, US Department of Agriculture, and Skagit County. Extension programs and policies are available to all without discrimination. To request disability accommodations contact us at least ten days in advance.
A great and timely article Diana! Thank you.
Thank you, Diana! I am motivated to get outside and get to work, especially on those weeds!
So helpful to have the checklist. I feel after 16 years with Master Gardeners, very satisfied that I was well on my way to assessing, planting, weeding, mulching before reading your article. Now for the rest on the list!
Thank you for the timely list. I am grateful to have experts like you in our valley.
“Black, slimy mess” our boots were made for! Your first advice for assessing our landscape was spot on & funny. I do this year round which serves as the basis of my many long lists. If I put everything on one document I would give myself a raise. I always enjoy these articles. Packed with many links is a valley bonus!!