Fall is more than just pumpkin spice season — it’s prime time to set your garden (and houseplants) up for success. Kathy Barger, owner of Alice’s Garden, and Laura Johns, co-owner of Snakeroot Botanicals, shared their best fall gardening tips with everything from planting bulbs to rethinking your approach to fallen leaves. Here is how to make the most of the season.
1. Spice up your garden with some color
“Fall is a great time to take inventory of your garden and decide what areas need fall color,” Barger said.
Plants like Hardy Chrysanthemums, Asters, Blue Mist Flower, Ironweed, and Fall Blooming Anemone all shine this time of year. Not only will these plants add a nice pop of color to your fall garden, but they also tend to last longer into the fall season and can even last until the first frost.
2. Check yourself before you wreck yourself
In order to see what type of weather your plants can survive in, Johns recommended using the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. This tool goes beyond just the weather; it helps gardeners determine which perennial plants are likely to survive winter weather conditions in their geographic location. Check your growing zone (determined by your zip code) to discover what plants can and can not handle winter weather in your area.
3. Start your cool-weather crops now!
Imagine getting to make Thanksgiving Dinner with some of your own garden vegetables. If you want a fall harvest, your veggie preparation needs to start now. Think carrots, leafy greens, potatoes, peas, and broccoli.
“If you’re looking to do a fall vegetable garden, you need to be prepping for that now,” Johns said. “You want to get that started so that it’s all ready and growing by the fall time, so that you’re able to enjoy your harvest. If you start stuff too late, you may end up not getting an actual crop in the fall at all.”
4. More Plants = Fewer Weeds
Bare ground is an invitation for weeds. Filling space with spring bulbs, perennials, ground cover, or grasses naturally reduces the need for constant weeding. In addition to that, fall is the time to tuck in tulips, daffodils, and Virginia bluebells for a stunning spring display. Some seeds need winter’s chill to sprout.
“Fall is the time to plant milkweed seeds, which need cold stratification to germinate,” Barger said. Alice’s Garden offers Common Milkweed and Showy Milkweed seeds to get you started.
5. Or… consider switching to a clover lawn
Fall is also the prime time to seed clover. Clover lawns are overall easier to maintain and healthier for the environment.
“Before home-use herbicides became the norm, everyone had clover lawns,” Barger said. “Clover lawns offer a biodiverse environment, conserve water, and provide a food source for bees and other wildlife. Clover sends down deep roots, which help prevent runoff, keeping our waterways cleaner and healthier. Clover lawns need no fertilizer or chemicals and are far less maintenance than turf.”
6. Add more native grasses
Barger also recommended considering adding new beds devoted to native plants.
“Native grasses are particularly important for supporting wildlife and native insects,” Barger said.
Not only are native plants important to local ecosystems, but they also tend to be more self-sustaining and require less maintenance. Two native grasses that Barger recommended include Cheyenne Sky Switchgrass and Blackhawks Bluestem. She said that Prairie Dropseed makes a great border grass.
7. Plant trees and shrubs while it’s cool
Cooling temperatures reduce stress on plants, giving them time to root before summer heat. Kathy is especially passionate about oaks because they are also extremely important in supporting native wildlife and insects.
8. Get your garlic in the ground!
If you want to have a garlic harvest in the spring of 2025, you need to plant them in early to mid-October. Garlic needs a cold period to produce bulbs.
“You have to play a long game with garlic if you want to actually harvest your crop. It’s a fun and easy plant; you just have to think ahead of time,” Johns said. “I grow so much garlic, it’s kind of absurd. Sometimes my husband asks why we have so much garlic, and then he uses it like all year long. It’s kind of nice.”
9. Put your garden to bed
Your gardens need to hibernate just like animals do. Make sure it is prepared for a long winter’s rest by following Barger’s tips: “After harvest, put your vegetable garden to bed. Cut back and remove all expired plants. Don’t pull; leave those roots to decompose in the soil. Add a crop cover like Peas & Oats to fix nitrogen levels, or cover with fallen leaves.”
Speaking of…
10. Rethink Leaf Cleanup
Both experts urge gardeners to challenge the “bag and trash” habit when leaves start to cover your yard. These leaves are important for many reasons, mainly that native insects overwinter in fallen leaves and are often killed in the bagging and trashing process.
“Society has taught everyone, or kind of forced everyone, into thinking that you have to clean up all your leaves in the fall and throw all the debris away. I guess I challenge people to consider the opposite of that. Leaves on the ground eventually break down into soil and new nutrients for the times and the nature around it. You’re taking all of that away from them.”
Additionally, trashing leaves contributes to landfill methane production, while decomposing leaves can provide a very rich compost. Johns calls fallen leaves “compost gold” and even collects bagged leaves from neighbors for her bins.
“Make a plan for dealing with fallen leaves,” Barger said. “Consider spreading your leaves like mulch in your flower beds and vegetable gardens. In spring, when temperatures reach 55 degrees, it’s safe to remove any leaves that haven’t broken down and add them to your compost pile. Or chop up leaves with the mower and leave them to decompose in the yard. Please never bag and trash leaves.”
11. Grub Control
Barger recommended this organic solution to the common pest problem: “Beneficial nematodes are microscopic roundworms that hunt down and kill grubs — and they’re harmless to birds and other creatures,” she said.
12. Transition Houseplants for Winter
“You have to consider making some changes to your approach to your house plants, so you know, if they’re outside, you don’t want to forget about them, because you live in Indiana, and we’re known to have early frosts,” Johns said. “So you want to make sure you’re paying attention to the weather and you don’t accidentally leave your tropical citrus or whatever outside that can’t handle a cross. You want to make sure that you brought them in before that could possibly happen, because a lot of those plants will not survive in Indiana frost and will die.”
For indoor/hybrid plants, you do have to consider that cooler months bring less sunshine and your house is less humid. Laura suggests bringing tender plants inside before frost, cleaning their leaves for maximum photosynthesis, and adjusting watering schedules to prevent root rot. Monitor humidity, and watch for pests like spider mites, which thrive in your dry home air.
“It’s advantageous to spend some time really cleaning off your foliage,” Johns said. “They collect a lot of dust in our homes, and with the sun lessening, if you have a bunch of dust on your leaves, it’s going to struggle even more to photosynthesize, and you don’t want to give it another reason to struggle.”
Spraying off and cleaning your plants can also protect them from indoor plant pests like spider mites. She also recommends trimming off dead foliage to give your plants the best opportunity to grow.
13. Clean and Organize Your Gardening Space
Winter is the time for planning, but fall is the time for prepping. Clean tools, sweep the greenhouse, and clear out plant debris to avoid overwintering pests and diseases. In the meantime, you can also start to plan what seeds to buy.
“You’ve just kind of given yourself a nice clean slate, and just like that, your garden is ready for spring,” Johns said. With a little planning and a shift in mindset, fall can be one of the most rewarding seasons in the garden.
Elle Rotter is an intern and contributing writer at Indy Maven who loves to cover all things books. Elle is currently a student at Butler University studying journalism and strategic communications. She is also a freelance writer and photographer. You may also see her frequently covering events happening throughout Indianapolis.
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