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On a fresh fall day, take advantage of the weather to do outdoor maintenance and a second round of planting. Now is a great time to get flower bulbs and fall flowers in the ground. Read on for more on fall gardening, and how to transition to your fall lawn and garden.

Fertilize or Patch Your Lawn
Patch up bald spots on your lawn by learning how to seed a lawn in the fall. Cooler weather is a great time to fill in dead, brown, or bare places in your yard. However, you should try to keep leaves off freshly seeded areas. New grass seed needs air, water, and sun to grow, and leaf litter can block out the air and sunlight it needs to germinate.

If your lawn is in good shape, make sure it stays that way by applying lawn fertilizer if you have cool-season grass. Aerate your lawn before fertilizing to get the most bang for your buck. Water your cool-season lawn regularly and tend to any pesky weeds that show up. Warm-season varieties, like those in the southern states, are winding down their growth for the year. It's better not to fertilize it now, as you don't want fresh grass growing right before it goes dormant. Taper down watering on warm-season lawns.

Plant Flower Bulbs
If you've got your eye on springtime tulips and daffodils, get those planted soon. Although their roots look different because they sprout from bulbs and not just below the stem, they still need time to grow downward. Check your plant hardiness zone before planting. In colder climates, certain bulb flowers, like freesias, should be planted in spring instead. Find ideas for spring flowering bulbs and plan your tulip, daffodil, and iris displays now. Onions and garlic can go in, too, for next year's harvest, but they won't need soil additives.

Skip the soil amendments when planting garlic or onion bulbs instead of flower bulbs. Simply plant them now, pointy-side up like a teardrop shape, and you'll have a fresh harvest by next summer. These plants will spread though, so be careful not to let them flower, dry out, and go to seed when they mature. Snip off the dried flowers to avoid planting a patch of volunteer onion and garlic plants.

Cut and Cover Perennials
In climates where you might have a cold snap but then warm up above freezing again, cover your plants. Protect your garden from frost and freeze damage to extend their season. You can get extra life out of your garden by covering your plants with tarps, buckets, or even painting drop cloths. It'll warm your plants like a greenhouse or blanket, and they'll survive a frost. Read other fall-planted perennial tips, too.

This works well early on, until you're fully into the colder parts of the season. Uncover the plants when it warms up again and let them enjoy that autumn sun. Once the temperatures regularly dip below freezing, bid a fond farewell to the garden for now.

Put the Garden to Bed
When the sun angle changes and your annuals start looking rougher, dig up the plants. Northern climates may be putting the garden to bed for the season in October or November, while warmer climates might wait until November or December. After your vegetables and annuals are done for the year, dig them up, then chop and dispose of the detritus, or dead plant debris. Feel free to let them decay to enrich the soil unless you had one of two exceptions: if your plants dealt with disease or if you had a snail problem.

If your garden is prone to snails, move the departed plants from the garden to another part of your lawn to decay, or put the plant remains in a yard waste bag. Although slugs and snails are often considered garden pests, they're still part of the ecosystem, so relocate them elsewhere if you can. As for the exception of your plants struggling with blight or disease, simply pack up those dead plants in the yard waste bag to avoid passing any issues on to next year's crop.

After you've removed the old plants, you've got a clean slate. Prepare your garden bed for the spring by rotating the soil with a rototiller or shovel. You want to send the topsoil down, bring up the deeper soil, and loosen the earth. It helps nutrients penetrate and lets the soil rest. It's also an excellent opportunity to test the soil and see what, if any, soil amendments you need. Different crops and plants use different nutrients. Test your soil to see if it's balanced or if you should replenish certain nutrients that have been depleted.

Indoor Gardening
Gardeners with potted plants can extend their growing season by bringing delicate plants indoors to a sunny window. Indoor gardening allows both outdoor plants to live longer and indoor plants to bring joy into your home. Just rotate them regularly to give all the leaves equal sunlight for photosynthesis, and make sure they get enough water now that they won't benefit from rainfall. Be sure to add dishes beneath the pots to catch any extra water if they don't have built-in overflow dishes.

Warm the Outdoors with an Outdoor Fireplace
Stretch out your fall evenings with a patio heater, fire pit, or outdoor fireplace to take off the chill. No matter if you're looking to heat a small patio, a cozy back porch, or a spacious deck, we've got options. All you have to do is find the one that matches your decor style.

We've got fire bowls and fire pit tables ready to warm your outdoor space. Check out stylish propane fire pits and natural gas fire pits in a variety of shapes. We've also got woodburning fire pits and the firewood to stoke them. You can even build your own with fire pit kits or make it completely custom and learn how to build an in-ground fire pit to fit your vision. Find the best fire pits for your backyard or stop by your closest garden center to see what's in stock.

Ease Into Fall
This fall, tidy up your flowers and plants with us. We have the supplies you need for putting the garden to bed, leaf cleanup, and restoring nutrients to your soil so it's ready for next spring. Shop our wide variety of fall garden care and outdoor living products online, in your local store, or in our mobile app.