Easy Fall Garden To-Dos You Should Be Doing

Fall is one of the best times to get into the garden, and today I’m sharing my easy fall garden to-dos that will set you up for success next spring. Join me as I pull out tired summer annuals, trim back perennials, and plant cheerful pansies that will bring color all winter long. I’ll also walk you through how I analyze each garden space to plan improvements for next year. Whether you’re cleaning up, planting for fall, or prepping for winter, these practical tips will help you keep your garden thriving season after season.

Hello friends and welcome to Garden Creekside. 
Today is a beautiful, very crisp October morning here in North Carolina. It finally feels like 
fall. We were like at 40° this morning. It is glorious. So, Miss Brena and I are going to spend 
some time here in the Emperor One bed. It is time to go ahead and transition this bed from its 
summer plantings and prep it for fall. So, there’s some basic things that we’re going to 
do today. So, as I always say, if that’s doing it in my garden, I figure you probably need to do 
it in your garden as well. So, if you have those beds that maybe still have their summer plantings 
and they just need to have a little bit of love, hopefully you will find this uh informative and 
helpful and inspirational and just a lot of fun as we spend a beautiful, glorious October morning 
here in the garden. So, let me show you what we’re going to do. It is uh rather simple and thankfully 
this bed is rather small. So we’re going to be working in this area. I call it the Emperor One 
bed because we have an Emperor One Japanese maple. So all the way up to the arch, the rose arbor 
and then we’re going to stop. Everything else is another day. So what we’re going to do is number 
one, we’re going to go ahead and come in and pull out the summer annuals. Basically what I have in 
here is this as far as the summer annuals will be um I’ve got caladiums. So caladiums stop growing 
and do not grow over 50 if it gets below 50°. We were 40° this morning so their time is done and 
I’m going to go ahead and pull them out. They will not be perennials for me um if I leave 
them in the ground. I also have areas of some sun patients. So, the sun patients, they don’t 
like it cold. Although, they’re they’re looking pretty perky this morning, but I’m going to 
be here in this bed. So, we’re going to take those out as well. So, really here on the front, 
it is the caladiums and then the sun patients. And then back behind Emperor One, we have got some 
angelonia, some salvia, and then you can’t see it, but over here are the um annual agistakis. 
So, we’re going to take those out as well. So, number one, get all the annuals out. Number 
two, as you find them, take out the weeds. Yeah, y’all. I don’t care where you live. Um, unless 
you’re in like complete total desert that you get no moisture whatsoever, and maybe even then 
you get them. But everybody has weeds. It is a part of gardening. So, we’re going to pull them 
as we see them. If you see a weed, pull a weed. We’re going to go ahead and clean up some of 
our perennials. So, like my serendipity alium, you can see where we have the old stalks. And I 
would suspect if I just give Yep. I give them a little pull and they literally just come right 
out. I have beautiful foliage down there. So, we’re just going to clean all these up. 
Um I see more weeds down in here. So, we’re going to get those all cleaned up. And then 
also, [Music] you know, gardening is always fun, right? So, uh, back in it was late winter. I mean, 
it was still winter, so none of the perennials had popped up yet. Jerry and I were in here. We 
planted the puffer fish, and then we planted some, uh, three of the Sunjoy, um, barberries, the 
bright shirt ones. Right. So, when we did that, um, one, you really can’t see them because the 
annuals are kind of taking over here, but do you see this this, uh, barberry coming up in the 
middle of the the baptisia? Yeah. Well, let’s take a little a little journey over here, shall we? 
So, when we come over here, um, you will see that the barberry is basically planted right beside 
of the baptisia. Well, you may go, Jimmy, that was about the dumbest thing ever. Why did you do 
that? Well, like I said, it was um wintertime and the baptisia was showing no signs of life because 
they’ll die completely back to the ground. I did not know that the baptisia was right there because 
as my husband says, sometimes I have the memory of a gnat. I knew that there was a baptisia around 
there somewhere. Uh, praise the Lord, we didn’t try to put the shrub right on top of the baptisia. 
So, we’re going to move that. We’re going to fix that today. And that’s when we take out the um 
the sun patients right here. That will really open up this area and the and the caladiums. And 
so, I can adjust that accordingly. And then again, sometimes I just make my husband shake his head. 
Bless his heart. He um he’s a great man who who who puts up with me really really well. Um we’re 
going to plant some pansies. And I got them out of the greenhouse this morning and he was in 
there watering and he was like, “What what happened to not planting any fall color?” And I 
was like, “I know. I just cannot help myself.” So, we have got some beautiful blue pansies that 
we’re going to plant around in this bed. So, it’s just going to be a great crisp crispy fun 
morning here in the garden. Um, and then we’re going to do this and then I’m going to tell you 
what else needs to be done in this area. But, and the reason that I am not doing it yet. So, what 
I’m going to do is just have some fun. I’m going to pull uh Johnny the John Deere around so that 
way I can dump all of my material in the back of it. But I’m going to pull out the annuals and the 
weeds. After that, I’ll meet you right back here. [Music] All right, my friends. So, I don’t know about 
you, but it is so satisfying to me to get a bed like cleaned up. clean, neat, and tidy is 
a hund times better um than like overcrowding, just like tired looking, right? I would rather be 
there be no plants in there and it’s neat and tidy than it filled with too much stuff and it just 
looks messy. Does that make any sense? Especially this time of year. In this time of this time of 
year, Ruthless Jenny comes out and I’m just like, you know what? You’ve had your time and now you’re 
going to go to bed and somebody else is going to come through and we’re going to go into a season 
of rest. I love that the Lord gives us these seasons in the garden and in life. And I find it 
very, very relatable. Fall and winter, seasons of rest, rest for the garden, rest for the gardener. 
And so pulling out those annuals just makes me it just makes me feel good. And so it looks so much 
neater and tidier already. And the garden is much more open. Uh Brena is is enjoying herself. 
She loves this cold weather. German Shepherd, she would rather have it um -10 than 90, right? 
I mean, she loves it cold. She is quite frisky these days, but getting um cutting back some of 
the perennials, right? Getting all the caladiums and then the sun patients, get them pulled out. 
Um, it was super super easy to pu uh clean up these serendipity aliums. All I had to do was 
simply just pull out those dead stems, right? So, it was really easy to do and makes a world of 
difference as far as how it looks. Sometimes, and for a long period of time, the green foliage 
of the serendipity alium will stay green for me. And so it’s not until like January, February 
that even this will start to to die back. So it’s a kind of a semi evergreen I would say 
here in the garden. And then back in the back throughout I have a ribbon of uh flocks that 
is there. And so all I did was come in and just trim it to the ground. And it kind of runs 
through through the bed in this direction. Now, I also came along, right, and just got all of 
this cleaned up. As I saw a weed, I pulled a weed, right? And just get it all neat, all nice 
and tidy. So, what in the sun, of course, is now not going to cooperate with us uh very 
much. So, what is on the list of things to do now? So, we’ve got a couple of things. One, we’re 
going to uh move this barberry. So, this is the SunJoy citrus. And honestly, y’all, that is some 
bright sun. So, you can see it better now that the uh the annuals are out. So, we’ve got two here. 
And then you can see this guy back here. I’m going to dig him up. And I’m going to go ahead and put 
him here in the front. So, we’re going to have a trio. And I can bring this forward because we have 
the lemon coral sedum, which is magnificent and lovely. And so it will be just fine to bring that 
citrus and put it right here in the center. Um I will not thinking okay so let me get let me get 
my train of thoughts together so I’m not mumbling here. Um as I am going through my fall garden and 
I am looking at things and I am evaluating. So, one like with those annuals, um the reason that 
we had like those annuals kind of jam-packed in here was it was like probably like less than two 
weeks before we had the signature experience. And I was walking through this bed and I was 
like, it just looks like it needs an oomph, right? It needs something extra because with the 
signature experience, this is where our guests came through and it was high visibility. And so 
Mimi and I came through, we added the caladiums, we added the sun patients to really kind of give 
color and texture to this bed. Next year, I will not do that to that level because um let me come 
through this way because my hydrangeas, these are all puffer fishes in here. Um and my other shrubs 
were kind of taking a hit. So you can see maybe if the sun will cooperate how um all the sun patients 
were in here and I want my puffer fish to really kind of fill out and be thick and beautiful. So 
if I do annuals in here next year um it will be something low. So allow the hydrangeas to really 
uh shine in all their glory. Also thinking so I have got two Apache rose uh grasses. So, I’ve got 
one here, and I’ve got one there. This one is not so horribly bad as far as the placement, but even 
it is kind of interfering with the puffer fish right here. And honestly, I want the puffer fish 
to be um quote the star of the show in the garden. I want them to take precedence over the grass. 
And so this one over here is quote the worst one because it is between two of these puffer fishes. 
And y’all look at this. Do you see that? Yep. It is pulmonaria. I did not plant pulmonia there. 
This is a full sun bed and I have pulmonaria in the forest pansy bed to the left of me and 
obviously some seed blew through and it took. So, I have got this huge pulmonaria growing right here 
in the middle of a grass. Now, I will take care of this. Not now. If I wanted to take out the grasses 
and I didn’t care about saving them or dividing them or anything like that, like I was going to 
take them and I was going to chunk them, then this would be a fine time. Go ahead, take them out, 
dispose of them, compost them. Not a problem. However, I don’t want to do that. I do want to 
save these grasses and I will divide them because they’re getting so big. Now is not really the 
best time to do that with your perennial grasses because we’re going into winter and your perennial 
grasses love the heat. That’s when they have their massive root growth is more in the heat. So I will 
do that um late winter, early spring. So the kind of the typical time when you are going to go ahead 
and trim your grasses because we always trim these perennial grasses. when I trim it, that is the 
time to go ahead and divide and to move it. So, for me, uh that could be anywhere from like 
late February into mid-March, right? So, we want to try to do it before we get too much 
of the new growth. You can have some new growth, um but we don’t want to have it like a fullsize 
grass because then it just makes it harder to move. So, I am already thinking this fall of what 
I’m going to do differently next year. Same thing with the flockes. probably going to move the 
flockes um next spring as well. Again, if you want to eliminate them, now’s a perfect time to 
do it. All right, so what we’re going to do is I’m simply going to use my shovel, dig up Sunjoy 
citrus, use my Power Planter augur to drill a hole in front of the other two. So, we’re going to have 
a little trio right there. I’m not going to prune them right now. We’ll wait and do that later on 
in the season, like late winter going into spring. Um, and then I’ve got the pansies I want to show 
you. These are so cute and they’re a beautiful blue. So, look at this. Are they not just the 
happiest little things you ever did see? So, this these are pansies. They are not violas. This 
is the matrix light blue. So, a beautiful nice big fat face on them. That is that lovely blue. Of 
course, again, we’re going to have pink tulips back here in the spring. So, the uh pink and the 
blue will go really well together. I have 18 of them. Honestly, I don’t know exactly where they’re 
going to go. I may dot them through here and then I’m going to put some way back here. So, let’s go 
look at this. Uh Jackson was out and was helping me because if you remember these two unique stone 
um pieces were what used to be on uh at our front porch right right in front of the steps. Well, 
when we redid the steps, it didn’t make sense to have them here. So, we just kind of stuck them up 
here to the side. This is a temporary replacement and so just go with it. It’s temporary placement. 
And I had Jackson stand on the other side of the in the pathway for me and look back. So from over 
there, they’re evenly spaced between the maple. On this side, maybe not so much. Do I care? No. 
We’re going into winter, people. It is fine. So I am going to put lemon love ukura in here. Lemon 
love is one of my absolute favorites. It is such a great great plant. Um and I thought the chartreuse 
would be perfect. I did want them to quote match. So that’s why I have both lemon loves um in here. 
And ukaras do really really well in containers for me. So if you have a problem with ukaras in your 
garden, try putting them in containers. So I am going to take all that soil out, put new soil 
in, biotone and then plant them. Uh ucas like to have really well draining soil and especially 
in the winter in my typically native clay soil, they don’t do so well. So in containers though, 
they do really well. So, what I am going to do, move the barberry, plant the pansies, plant 
the ukas, and then we will be done for the day. And then I’m going to show you why I am 
not touching the other two beds in this area. All right, my friends. So today’s project is complete. 
I’m trying to keep an eye on Furball over here. She’s trying to chase the yellow jackets and um 
trying to keep her from going into the flower bed and destroying what I just worked so hard on 
doing. Feels good, right? It’s cleaned up. It is neat. It is tidy. I got two planters done. I got 
a flat of violas in the ground. There you go. So, uh just a little bit of a transformation. Now, 
by no means is this flower bed uh quote done. No garden is ever done, my friends. Uh for the 
the fall, right? So, I am going to wait until all the leaves off of this red bud fall off. We’re 
almost there, but not quite. So, I’m going to wait for really And then I’ve got all my hardwoods. 
They are still got tons of leaves on them. So, it’ll be probably I don’t know mid late November 
before I can quote really put this bed to guard uh this this garden to bed. It’s almost lunchtime. 
Can you tell? Um this garden to bed for the fall uh winter because I want to wait for all the 
leaves to fall and then I will come back and either compost or mulch both of them, whatever h 
whatever you know it may be. So, the little violas are in now y’all. I had a flat of 18 violas and by 
no means was I trying to make a huge display of, you know, a flower power with the violas. All I 
was trying to do was to add a little pop of color to this bed for the fall and the winter. Also, 
little little known fact, maybe you do know this, blue is one of the number one colors for 
your honeybees and so your pollinators. I’ve already had little uh butterflies on here 
and some the honeybees were coming around me. So, if you can plant if your climate allows that 
you can plant some, you know, some fall color, um then go for it because you still have honeybees 
coming out on warm days. So, there you go. So, they are in the ground and nothing has been 
watered yet. I’m going to do that after we get off. I said that I was not going to trim the 
barberries and I didn’t touch the other two, but the one that I did move because it, bless its 
little heart, it had been growing up underneath the baptisia and it was really stretching for the 
sun and growing up through the baptisia. There was a couple of stems that were really long and like 
they were coming out onto the pathway. So, all I did was trim them back. So again, next year I’m 
not going to go in here and plant tall annuals. If I plant annuals, they will be low. This way 
the sun can get to the barberries and turn them that beautiful citrus color um that they are known 
for, that this variety is known for. And planting them this close together will give them like the 
illusion of one. You do can prune your barberries, which I will prune those. Um, but it will be 
coming out of winter going into spring. I don’t think that it really will hurt the barberry to to 
prune it. Now, they’re pretty indestructible. Um, but that’s optimally is when you would do it. And 
then over here, got the lemon loves in the ground with the violas underneath. Uh, I put what, five 
there. Right there. And so then there are also some behind here. Now remember, uh, the violas 
and the pansies, both of them love the full sun, right? So, lots of good sun with them. And so, 
this one right here is currently in the shade, but I’m thinking long term because very soon, this 
baptisia will go away and this hydrangeanger will be nothing but sticks and then it will get 
that full sun. So, I just stuck it there and it will be just fine. Now, what am why am I not 
touching these other beds? Well, that’s a great question. Uh, it is kind of driving me crazy, 
especially the forest pansy bed. But again, I am going to wait for all of those leaves to fall 
before I come in here and really kind of get in there to clean up. And as I wait, the temperatures 
will fall and more of these perennials will begin to go dormant. And then I can come in here and cut 
things back. Um because right now in in my eyes it looks a little jungly, right? There are tons and 
tons and tons and tons of leaves in here. There will be tons of perennials to cut back because 
you know once we get cold weather like my ferns, then they’ll just they get fried. So they need 
to be cut back. And so we’re going to hold off on this bed um until a couple more weeks and 
let all of those leaves fall. And then finally, uh, the bed that is here at the fountain. Um, oh 
my, y’all. So, part of me just wants to come in here and rip everything out because it’s driving 
me nuts. But the salvia, this is unplugged, so blue. And there are flowers in here that look 
absolutely amazing. And I do have pollinators that are still, you know, coming and munching to their 
little hearts content. There’s a little I don’t know if you can see that sweet little bumblebee 
right there. So, there’s lots of bumblebees and honeybees that are coming to the salvia and 
feeding on the salvia. And then the uh the dalas. Yeah. So, the dalas too, they are feeding 
pollinators because I’ve got pollinators galore right now flying everywhere. This is of course 
the virtuoso pinkrific. And y’all, they’re finally actually showing some some good signs. Now, I just 
blew the leaves off the pathway, but look at that. Aren’t they gorgeous? The Dalia do the best in 
these cooler temperatures of the fall. The summer, uh-uh, they looked awful. But now, my gosh, they 
are stunning. Other than I just put some leaves on them, but the pollinators love them. Like, I’ve 
got a a bumblebee down here feasting on one. And then, of course, you can cut them, right? They 
make great cut flowers. So, they will stay for a little bit longer until I just can’t handle it any 
longer and then I will go ahead and excavate them uh for the season. So, uh if you can get out in 
your garden, whether you got 5 minutes or 5 hours, get out there, get some beautiful sunshine, the 
vitamin D is so good for you and the fresh air mentally, it makes you feel so much better. It 
feels so good to get this one portion done. And remember, set realistic goals for yourself. If 
you have the five minutes, maybe if you’re like, I am going to take this one little section and 
I’m going to pull the weeds or I am going to um go ahead and pull out the annuals. Sorry, there 
was a bird on the bird bath. I’m going to pull out the annuals or I’m going to trim this. Right? So, 
set realistic goals. I am the world’s worst of my brain saying, “Oh, you can do duh duh duh duh duh 
duh duh duh duh.” And then time in my body says, “Yeah, not so much.” So, set realistic goals. 
Get out there. You will feel so much better uh knowing that your garden is being tended to on 
whatever level that you’re able to do that. So, I’m going to hop off of here. I’m going 
to get these babies watered and it’s going to be a great day. As always, if you have 
found this fun, informative, inspirational, we would love it if you would like and subscribe 
to Gardening with Creekide. That way, you don’t miss those five videos that we do each and every 
week. Um, the sun in the wintertime and the fall is so much fun to film with because it’s lower 
in the sky and it can be quite challenging. So, y’all bear with me for the next couple of months. 
We’ll see y’all on the next video. Bye, friends.