The crisp, white frost that we’ve seen on our lawns a couple of times is a sure sign that the planting season is waning. If you have the energy, you don’t have to put away your wheelbarrow, rakes and shovels yet. There are lots of important tasks to accomplish in the garden before we’re done for the year.

Fall cleanup in the perennial border may not be on everyone’s list of chores, but it should be. Don’t drive yourself crazy though. Instead of trying to get the entire garden spotlessly clean, concentrate on the plants and areas that had problems this season. Cut down and remove the stems and leaves of any plant that had powdery mildew or fungal leaf spot. Powdery mildew is one of the oldest plant diseases on record, and gardeners of every era have been battling this ubiquitous problem. Theophrastis, who wrote of the medicinal uses of plants, described powdery mildew on roses in 300 B.C. Perennials that were infected should be cut right down to the ground and the debris hauled out of the garden. Leaves and fruits from infected woody trees and shrubs should be raked up completely. And please don’t put this debris into your compost piles as fungal spores are tough, and can over winter on fallen leaves and old stems.  Home compost piles rarely get hot enough to destroy them. And be sure to make a note in your gardening journal to treat those plants with a biologic fungicide next spring.

A lot of us just aren’t very good at identifying the exact problem a particular plant is having. But you can trust yourself to know that a plant just didn’t look healthy during the growing season. Maybe the color was off or the foliage was thin or the leaves seemed distorted in some way. These signs can be clues that something was going wrong and it’s those plants that you should pay attention to now. As you do your fall cleanup, remember this axiom:  If it didn’t look right, clean it up and remove the debris.

Let’s quickly talk about bark predators. Mice, voles and rabbits love the tender, tasty bark of young trees. We see so many disappointed gardeners every spring who are surprised by this damage. And though it’s usually seen as a good thing, that lovely garden insulating snow acts as a ladder. Wrap the trunks of young trees with tree wrap. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to protect your plants. Not only will it act as a deterrent to rodents, it also helps to prevent frost cracking. Are deer your problem? Bucks rubbing the velvet from their antlers will cause as much harm as those pesky rodents. We recommend using the plastic spirals to prevent damage from deer.

All of these tasks may seem like they add up to a great deal of labor at a time when you thought that you were done with gardening. Remember though, doing this work now gets you a jump on spring. Protecting vulnerable plants means that your favorites won’t need to be replaced next year. And basic garden hygiene now translates into fewer disease problems later.

Wait though, we have one more job for you to do. This last chore may not fall into the category of putting your garden to bed, but planting spring-flowering bulbs is a necessity for us every single autumn. This year the soil stayed warm for longer than usual and planting was delayed. Bulbs like to be planted when the soil has cooled from the summer’s heat. Planting too early will cause premature sprouting, so wise gardeners know to wait to plant. As the soil temperatures cool, the bulb’s roots will start to grow. It’s a miraculous phenomenon that we marvel at every spring as the crocus, snowdrops and winter aconites emerge through the snow. Don’t skip planting bulbs. You can plant bulbs until the soil is too frozen to dig or it’s too cold to manipulate your hands. The next couple weeks are perfect for this essential fall task. This is a lesson in delayed gratification that doesn’t hurt anyone and brings so much joy after a long Wisconsin winter!