Late Fall Garden Tasks You Need To Do 🍂 | Fall Garden Tips Before Winter 🥶 | The Fairytale House

🪴 Before winter sets in, Linda shares the late fall garden tasks you need to do to keep your garden healthy, beautiful, and ready for spring. 🌿 From planting leftover bulbs and tidying up window boxes to composting annuals and protecting seedlings, this episode is filled with essential fall garden tips for every home gardener.

In this cozy Wednesday Walkabout, Linda preps her Oklahoma garden for Thanksgiving, reflects on the beauty of leaf drop season, and shows how fallen leaves can be nature’s mulch. You’ll see how to reuse soil, overwinter Larkspur and Columbine, and prepare perennials for colder days ahead — all while enjoying the last bits of autumn color. 🍁

What you’ll learn in this episode:
🌸 How to plant bulbs before winter (they’ll bloom beautifully in spring!)

🍂 Why fallen leaves make the best mulch for protecting seedlings

🪴 How to compost old annuals and reuse potting soil

🌿 The right way to overwinter pansies, boxwood, and hellebores

💡 Simple end-of-season garden cleanup tips you can do today
Linda also shares her gratitude for the garden and the season — reminding us that even as we say goodbye to fall, new life is already quietly beginning beneath the soil.
✨ From our grateful home to yours — Happy Thanksgiving!

🕒 Chapters
00:00 Last-minute garden prep before Thanksgiving
00:35 Tidying urns and hellebores
01:10 Leaf cleanup & natural mulching
02:10 Fall nostalgia & childhood memories
03:00 Protecting seedlings for winter
04:15 Rearranging boxwoods & fall structure
05:20 Cutting greenery for winter decor
06:10 Composting and reusing soil
08:20 End-of-season tidy-up & planning for spring
09:50 Salvaging mums & replanting perennials
11:25 Larkspur seedlings & overwintering tips
11:55 Thanksgiving reflections & gratitude

SIGNATURE STYLE SATURDAY PLAYLIST 🌿

THE GARDEN LIFE: Season 1 PLAYLIST 🌿

WEDNESDAY WALKABOUT PLAYLIST 🌿

GARDEN TOUR PLAYLIST 🌿

GARDEN HOME INTERIOR PLAYLIST 🌿

Premiumbeat YouTube ID
SSP9YNQ8ARLEUCAX
MPT7H7R16WXKW1RY
PZVVHDRMLKRZWSK7
B1DHHRI0NZVMXFGN
RXRI0UIS5V7UPYWX
CLUVGVFATIQWTBNJ

Join this channel to get access to perks
@lindavater

SHOP MY AMAZON FAVORITES HERE: https://amzn.to/3NLPpqs

🌳 WAYS TO FIND LINDA 🌳

BOOKS
A Year Of Garden Inspired Living: https://a.co/d/4AAxr4k
The Elegant and Edible Garden Book: https://amzn.to/3kz6eIf
Order Your Garden Journal: https://amzn.to/3JMeMHk

MY RECOMMENDED/AFFILIATE PRODUCTS:
Shop Linda’s Amazon Favorites: https://amzn.to/3NLPpqs
For the Garden: https://amzn.to/3PPDrgH
Linda’s Favorite Pest Controls & Fertilizers: https://amzn.to/4hOE9aj

🍯 Some videos sponsored by our friends at Manukora Honey. Try some of our favorite manuka honey full of antioxidants, pre-biotics, and superpowers. Head to https://manukora.com/linda to get $25 off your Starter Kit.

SOUTHERN LIVING PLANT COLLECTION: https://southernlivingplants.com

Join this channel to get access to perks: https://bit.ly/3ipscuo

✅ HOW TO JOIN MY YOUTUBE Channel on your phone or iPad: https://bit.ly/2W3oijz

🔛Instagram: / potagerblog

🔛Facebook: / lindavatergardens

🔛Pinterest: / lindapotager

My USDA Gardening Zone: 7a
Linda Merch: https://lindavatershop.com
Zazzle Seed Packets: https://www.zazzle.com/linda_vater_seed_packet_envelope-256860347131992223

Well, Stuart, it is the eve before Thanksgiving and I am trying to get my last few oh kind of leftover bulbs into the ground. I still haven’t planted this window box and I saved some of my French rose blend from color blends to plant in here. So, I’m just removing some of the dirt. And by the way, I’m This is going to have to have a lot more layers to it. So, first of all, let me show you how pretty my urns look and how happy these hellaore have adjusted to being in these urns. Uh I don’t even think that they’ve been bothered too much by squirrels. So, they’re pretty happy. And we’re supposed to get a good rain tomorrow. So, that’s that or not not tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow, Stuart. So, this is good because we need all the moisture we can get. I am also after I make a mess with a window box, I’m going to clean up with my handy dandy works blower that I love so much, I can clean up all of the leaves so that they’re not tracked in and more importantly in Oklahoma usually blown in whenever anybody opens the door. So, I I will do that. But I here’s my question of the day. I don’t think there’s any time of year that is more nostalgic to me and reminds me of my childhood more than leaf drop season because it reminds me of playing with my brothers and sisters in Knoxville, Tennessee when I was growing up playing outside and it was just so beautiful kicking the leaves, the sound of the leaves, the smell of the leaves. And here’s my question of the day. when it gets to the point that I finally have to clean them up and either compost them or kind of remove them in some way. Are you like me? And does it sometimes break your heart to have to do that? I find that the ones that are especially beautiful, particularly the ones that fall off of my gorgeous cat maple tree, which by the way is indigenous, it’s a sugar maple, but indigenous to Oklahoma. And even though it’s been storm battered, it is still beautiful. And the golden foliage just makes me so happy. But I have a hard time when the leaves fall just discarding them because they’re so beautiful. Now, I think I mentioned that this is what I do. But this uh in practice, this is what we will be doing for the next couple of weeks. And look at how happy these pansies are, Stuart, because we got some rain. And with some fertilizer in the spring, these are really going to just be spectacular. They’ll grow together and almost be solid. But there are also because we were so mindful of it. We were very mindful of a lot of the seedlings and where they were coming up when we planted the pansies so that I will have them next year. So I’ve got all sorts of larks and coline. And when we blow those leaves, it will just gently cover them and it will protect them through what might be a harsh winter. And it will also help to keep them moist. And then next year when we uncover all of the leafy debris and expose them to the sunlight and air, they will be very happy having put down a pretty good strong root system. even from those little those tiny little seedlings. And before I do that, I might even come out here and scatter a few more seeds. A few just a few more feverwe, a few more fox glove, those that I’m not seeing a lot of seedlings of. And even though I may have lost some of the things in the garden, I I guess it it’s so crowded that I had the luxury to lose some things. I’m even going to be moving, I think, more boxwood balls and some thing things in in the coming season. I see some use that are kind of suffering and I’ll just I’ll just kind of rethink that. But for right now, I’m just happy with the way things look and I will have a little bit of color here from these pansies. I’ll cut back a little bit some of the sedum autumn joy and some things like that, but mostly it’s pretty much done. But Stuart, if you don’t mind just actually stepping back a little bit and kind of pointing to the house. I think it looks lovely even for winter time. Don’t you? And again, I don’t mind all of the leaf litter that will be on top of the garden. I think that’s just fine. It serves its purpose and it’s mother’s mother nature’s way to mulch, is it not? Okay. Okay. So, now let’s come back up here, Stuart, because even in the front yard, there will be a few things that I’ll be able to cut for when I start doing winter arrangements. Um, there’s some obviously some nandina. I’ve got some boxwood, some holly, the foster holly over here have lots of red berries on them. And this uh though it doesn’t have a lot of berries right now. This Nelly Stevens will make really good really good just evergreen foliage. So, and I’m also looking because I can see some more hellaore here that if I want to share with anyone, I can see that I have plenty. So, I can be generous. So, let’s come back up here because I want to show you one more thing. And I’m I’m a little bit self-satisfied here because you guys may recall that I transplanted this boxwood that was misshapen and overgrown from the back and I limmed it up. And I I love the way it looks in this pot. I think it looks great and I love the fact that you can kind of see through it. So, after I get these bulbs in, and let me see if I can demonstrate a little bit how far my spacing will be. And by the way, if I didn’t mention it last time, and I’ve got my I’ve got my trusty Cool Job gloves on. These are now my go-to gloves of choice. Not only because they do great and they keep my hands clean and warm when I’m outside, but because they wash beautifully, much better than some other types that I’ve used. These are Think Green. These are some of the eco-friendly ones, but these would make a great stocking stuffer because gardeners never have never have enough garden gloves. Okay. So, I’m I want to demonstrate this DT just so in case people want to know how I plant them. I’ll plant them about oh, an inch apart. And by the way, I used to think and I was told that bulbs had to be planted pointy side up to bloom, but they really don’t. They know which which they’re smarter than we are. they know which way is up. So, this is about this is about how deeply I’ll plant them. And then there’ll be more space left in the foreground and a little bit along the sides and in front of the boxwood where I will invariably next spring want to plant some cabbages, maybe some golden fever few and definitely some more vias and pansies if I don’t go ahead and do that this year. This Japanese maple still looks pretty, doesn’t it? So, back here, it’s just last minute tidy. Um, I’ll be cleaning off the table. I don’t think it’s going to be nice enough tomorrow to sit outside, but I’ll clean off of off the table. Hubs has been sitting outside in his Yeti chair. I will just kind of spruce this up, make it look nice, but it doesn’t look so bad for being completely barren, does it, Steuart? That’s the value of having these strategically placed boxwood. And then next week after the mayhem of Thanksgiving is over, the dishes are done. I will put up my Christmas wreaths and things, I will take this this poor mun that’s still here, Stuart, that you’re sad every time you look at it. I will plant that in the ground along with and these are so unsightly now, but I did not want to put them up until I showed you how they will be dealt with. So, these were those gorgeous baskets that we did, Stuart, the hanging baskets. I put a layer of burlap. You can see that they look pretty horrific now. But it also shows you just how free form I could be when I planted them because the plant material was so profuse it just cascaded over and you couldn’t even see it. So here’s how I I I will dispense with them. There are some mums in here and I will take the mums out and I will plant them in the back border of the piggier. I will also take this sedum out. In other words, the perennials will come out and I will look at this. Look at that pretty mum. I love that color of mum. So, I want to make sure that I salvage this. And I’ll plant the mums back in the back bed. I’ll do that with both of them. Some of the solosia will dry and go to seed and I’ll scatter some of that seed. But the remainder of the annuals, the colus that was in here, uh I can’t remember what other annuals I had in here. I took cutings of it, but I will just put all of that in the compost tumbler or in the composter along with most of the dirt. And then I will clean these up, tidy them up, and I will put them in storage in anticipation of probably some spring planting ne for uh next year. So, always when I’m in one season, I’m thinking about the next season. And then look back here, Stuart. Look at all look at all of the larks that’s come up. This is going to be lark spur heaven next spring. Um, and as I told you, a lot of the stuff I I am not going to cut back on some of the flocks and things. I’m not going to cut back the perennials this year because I want them to have that additional insulation from the from the the foliage and the growth to protect the root zone. So, that’s kind of that’s kind of it. Not a lot going on back here, Stuart, but we’re putting it to bed. And pretty soon, I guess we’re just going to wait for a snowfall so you can come and take some more pictures when it looks absolutely gorgeous. Likewise, back here, I’ll end on this note. It’s also looking too crowded and overgrown, and so I’m eyeing some things that will be will be moved, transplanted, and in some fashion just relocated. So, that is your Wednesday walkabout. And from my uh very very grateful home to yours, happy Thanksgiving. [Music]