- [Announcer] Growing a Greener World is made possible in part by.

- [Narrator] The Subaru Crosstrek.

Designed with adventure in mind, built in a zero-landfill plant.

So you can roam the earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru proud sponsor of Growing a Greener World.

- [Announcer] And the following Rain bird, Corona Tools and Milorganite.

(soft music) - I'm Joe Lamp'l.

When I create a Growing a Greener World, I had one goal to tell stories of everyday people, innovators, entrepreneurs, forward-thinking leaders who are all in ways both big and small dedicated to organic gardening and farming lightening our footprint, conserving vital resources, protecting natural habitats, making a tangible difference for us all.

They're real, they're passionate, they're all around us.

They're the game changers who are literally growing a greener world and inspiring the rest of us to do the same.

Growing a Greener World, it's more than a movement, it's our mission.

(soft music) - You know, without a doubt, one of the best seasons of all for preparing your garden and landscape for success is often overlooked and a major missed opportunity where a lot of people dread the fall weekends for all the raking and cleaning up they have to do, I see it as my cue for preparing the garden for next season.

While taking advantage of the fresh air and the crisp cool temperatures that only this time of year can bring.

It's true, there's so much that you can do now to prepare for next spring and beyond.

And this is the perfect time to do it.

The bugs are pretty much gone for the year, and it's a fantastic way to enjoy the season, get some exercise and fresh air all while knowing the work you're doing now will return huge dividends next season.

For gardeners, the sign of tomato plants and peppers yielding to the first frost of the season is a sure sign that winter's on the way and that frost hit us just the other night, but it's also an important reminder, it's time to clean up and clear out.

And where does all of this go?

Well, the compost pile, of course.

Now although it doesn't look that great, it's a great addition of organic matter.

As you remove spent plants, shake the soil off the roots to keep it in the beds and salvage what you can have any remaining fruit.

You'll be surprised at how much it's still usable.

Now on the subject of composting, it's always a good time for that but fall is particularly a good time.

The reason being so much is coming in from the garden and around the landscape.

But in addition to thinking about what you're bringing to the compost, you also need to think about what you don't bring here.

The main reason for that is there are diseases on certain plants that will not die in the composting process because in a lot of home processing systems, it doesn't get hot enough to kill the pathogens.

And the last thing you want to do is next spring or summer, taking that finished compost and putting it back into your garden only to find out that it has those same diseases in it.

So better to play it safe, three things that you can do, you can remove it from your property.

So throw it away and it goes away.

Number two, you could burn it.

Or number three, you can do what I do, and it's to cook it.

Cooking involves heating to extreme temperatures for several months to ensure that the heat kills any potential diseases.

And if you've ever wondered what to do with those plastic bags that holds your mulch or soil or grass seed?

Well, these are your ovens and I like making the most or reusing what you already have.

Simply stuff the bags with the questionable debris set it in a sunny spot.

And after a few months, you should have pest and disease free organic matter that's now safe for the compost pile.

Now for everything else, go ahead and add it to your compost pile, but keep in mind that during the winter months, that composting process tends to slow down a good bit, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep making deposits to your pile with the green waste and the brown waste along with water and air.

And the air is really important to help that process continue to happen.

And the best way to do that throughout the year is to turn your pile.

But what about in the winter time when it's covered with snow, or maybe it's just too cold to come out and turn it, then what do you do?

Well, a good substitute is to include sticks of various sizes into your pile.

Now that's good because it creates these pockets where that air and that water can get to.

So even as the softer green things are breaking down, the sticks are still there because they break down a lot more slowly, but that's good.

And in the springtime, you can come back out here and you can pull these sticks out, or you can continue to let them break down naturally, which they certainly will.

Removing spent plants from your raised beds and landscaped areas certainly has its own advantages, but there's another very important one because now you have a blank slate in which to amend the soil and that's very important because as your plants are growing throughout the season, you know, you only have so much soil here and those plants are taking up all those nutrients.

So you've got to find a way to improve the soil and add back those nutrients.

And for me as an organic gardener, there's a few things that I always use.

And the first is compost.

Now it's a good thing, a little bit goes a long way because you can never seem to make enough of this, but about an inch or two across the surface is good and I'll mix it all in.

And it has good nutrients and micronutrients that my plants need and it's really going to improve the soil.

And then there's another organic amendment that I like to use in the price is certainly right.

And that is arborist wood chips.

Now about a year ago, I had some trees taken down on this property and I asked the arborist to deposit the chips on the back pasture.

Now, at that point, it was a bunch of pieces of wood.

But over the course of the last year, that's all broken down, it's almost soil.

So I'll put this into the bed is a good carbon source and more organic matter and that'll continue to break down.

And then one more thing I do.

I add some organic nitrogen.

Now this is a granular form, but they come in a lot of different forms, but this is just easy to spread and about a cup is all I need for this area, but the nitrogen will help the carbon breakdown and nitrogen in general is good for the soil and your plants.

So collectively I'll mix all this together over the next few minutes, and then I'll have a bed that's totally restored and ready for planting.

(soft music) Now, once you've amended your soil, if you're not gonna come right back and plant a food crop, or maybe some ornamental plants, you might want to consider a cover crop and you can think of cover crops like a living blanket for your soil, where it helps prevent it from crusting over or eroding, but it does a lot to improve the soil as well.

Now some cover crops do better in the summer months while other cover crops do better in the cooler months.

But the intended purpose is all the same and that's to protect and improve the soil.

And you can find cover crops often sold as green manure from pretty much any company that sells seeds.

And if you have a question about which type to buy, they can help you with that too.

Now I use cover crops all the time.

These beds were planted a month ago.

They're cool season crops and are gonna protect my beds all through the winter, this bed right here, summer crops, and they're on their way out.

So it's time to cut them back and turn them in to improve this bed.

Common crops for fall and winter include Clover, vetch, peas, oats, barley, and rye.

Some popular summer crops are buckwheat, cowpeas and sorghum.

Okay, that looks pretty good, good exercise too.

Now what green on top that will quickly die back and go back into the soil as compost.

And I'm just gonna add a little bit of water at this point to help that decomposition process go a little bit faster, and then I can come back with a winter cool season cover crop, or I can put back maybe some spinach or carrots who knows, got lots of options here.

But one thing I do know, I really improved the soil just now (soft music) organic water is essential for building soil health, but there may be some things you need to do beyond just adding organic ingredients like compost or cover crops to create the ideal conditions.

For example, this is a bed of cover crops that I grew over the summer.

And about four weeks ago, I cut it all back and turn it into the soil.

Now I have some new growth here, but what I wanted to show you was the soil.

Now, all of that growth, I turned back in, look at that, it's already broken.

And this looks to be ideal soil structure.

And that's great but even with that, if the chemical balance is out of whack, meaning the pH is either too high or too low, your plants can't reach their full potential.

And you won't know what that chemical makeup is until you do a soil test.

A soil test will provide you with the information you need to get the chemical balance into the optimal range for what you're trying to grow.

And while I do my soil testing in the fall, so I can make necessary adjustments well before spring, there's never a bad time to see what's happening under your soil surface.

The most comprehensive results will come from a lab, either a private facility or your local university system extension agency.

You simply take a soil sample from the area you want tested and send it off.

Take several scoops of soil from around the bed, four to six inches deep and mix them together to create a good representative sample.

Fill the container that comes with a kit, complete any paperwork that's included and send it off.

The results should come back in an email within a few weeks.

But for quicker answers, there are kits you can do yourself.

So this first kit is a DIY kit, you've likely seen it at garden centers and nurseries all the time.

It's inexpensive, this kid is about $25 and it measures your pH and your primary three nutrients, your nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

The first test I'm doing is the pH test.

And it says that right here on this little container.

So I removed the top and I add some soil right up to the fill line.

And it's just this side of the container so there's not a lot of volume of soil and I found a little plant tag to add some of that soil seems to be a good fit.

That's right at it, right at the soil fill line.

My next step, this little green tablet that coincides with the green of this container and the green top.

I separate that and drop the powder into that side.

And now I have to add water, preferably distilled up to the fill line.

Okay now I put the top back on shake this really well and wait about a minute for the soil to settle and the color to adjust and then make my interpretation of what my pH is based on the template.

Now I want to test for the nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.

And the way that you do that here is you go one part soil to five parts water.

After the soil and water mixture settles for 30 minutes or longer, fill each vile to the fill line, then add the color coded tablet for each vile, pop on the color-coded cap and shake.

Okay the results are in from the DIY test.

All in all this probably took an hour to go through the process and let the soil settle and do what I need it to do, but it looks like my pH is somewhere between 6.5 and seven.

and I'm happy with that.

It looks like nitrogen is adequate now with the phosphorus, I can't tell, but it looks like it a little on the insufficient side or what they call deficient.

So we'll work on that and see what that says compared to the other test.

And then the potassium looks pretty good.

So all in all, I'll be excited to compare these to the lab test.

Depending on the time of year, some extension agency labs can receive thousands upon thousands of soil samples in a single day.

Once your sample is opened, it's typically dried overnight and then ground fine for analysis.

Lab testing can tell you your soil's pH and nutrient levels just like the DIY version, but they can also help you track the percentage of all important organic matter in your soil.

Plus a lab is able to go more in depth to determine elements like aluminum, boron, calcium, sulfur, iron, magnesium, manganese, sodium and zinc.

Now all of this information is really cool, but it can also be a little overwhelming if you don't know what to do with all those numbers as a gardener.

And that's where the added weight time of a lab report can really pay for itself because you'll get specific information on what you need to add to your soil based on what you're trying to grow, to bring it into the acceptable ranges and keep in mind that you will get organic results and synthetic results sometimes, but not all the times.

But if you ever want to convert the synthetic results to organic, we'll have some information on our website on how you can do that at growingagreenerworld.com.

When my extension office test results came back, they showed some interesting results.

According to the university of Georgia extension ag and environmental services lab, my soil's pH is 6.4.

That's awfully close to what I was interpreting with the colors on the DIY kit.

6.4 is right within the ideal range.

Now, interestingly many labs don't test for nitrogen because they say it's too much of a moving target.

The numbers change too frequently, or they're too inconsistent from one spot to the next.

So it's hard to reliably pin down that information.

So I'm really glad that I did the DIY kit because I have a rough idea of where my nitrogen stands.

Now regarding phosphorus and potassium.

The lab report says that I'm very high with both readings which is interesting because I only supplement my soil with compost.

And regarding the phosphorous, the DIY kit said that I was actually right on the money or slightly low.

So a report like this is invaluable to me because in this case, it prevented me from adding a lot of phosphorous, rich soil amendments to my beds.

And so it looks like I don't need to do anything at this point, and according to the report, I am all good with what's in my soil right now.

Now to be clear, there is a time and a place for a general DIY kit to get a rough idea of where your soil stands, but there is no substitute for detailed lab report like this, which is on my fall to do list every year.

Now you don't have to look around very far for any landscape or garden that I'm involved with to see that I'm a huge fan mulch.

And just recently, I created these beds and brought in a ton of mulch, literally.

In fact, for semi-tractor trailer loads.

Now they started out as huge mountains, but then I was able to systematically break them down and move them around the beds to distribute them evenly.

And then I started knocking them down and now I'm raking them smooth.

I'm still not done, but I love the look of mulch, not only for how it improves the look of the landscape, but what it does for the health of the plants and the soil, especially in the fall.

Mulch helps reduce our need for chemicals to keep weeds down and even water because it holds valuable moisture in the soil.

As it breaks down, it's adding back so much organic matter, making it one of the best and easiest ways to improve existing soil or add to what's there.

As for the type of mulch, any organic mulch works in my book because you want it to break down to make what's beneath it even better.

But I'm not talking about rubber mulch or stones in this case.

For my beds, I want it to break down, to continue to feed and improve the soil.

And we have another great opportunity each fall to add organic matter as we put our gardens and landscapes to bed.

I mean what would the season be without leaves, right?

Well, it's our free gift from mother nature, every year at this time.

Over the years, I've been using a winning combination of utilizing the leaves that fall from the trees followed by a generous layer of wood mulch that packs a powerful punch, in helping to put the garden to bed, protect many of the plants through winter and best of all helping to create ideal growing conditions in the soil when plants spring to life again.

So what's the process?

Well, first things first, we need to deal with the leaves.

Now you could leave the leaves in the beds, but I like to get the leaves out on the grass and then run over them a time or two with my mulching mower.

One or two passes will do a great job of breaking down the leaves into small pieces or simply mow them up with a bag attachment, and then spread the bag content into the beds either way, breaking down the leaves into small pieces will help them convert to compost more quickly.

Next break the mulch leaf debris into your beds.

You can wait until the end of the season and do it all at once, but I find it much easier to take a little time each weekend for the process.

The load is much lighter and the work goes quickly, plus it's great exercise.

So while you're relaxing inside the leaves and mulch are doing so much to protect and beautify your landscape while slowly adding lots of important organic matter to the soil that all plants need to thrive by the time spring rolls around again, your landscapes should be healthy and look fantastic.

And the soil will be in great shape too.

For me, putting the garden to bed also means taking advantage of this time of year to plant all your trees and shrubs, because if ever there was an ideal time for that fall is it.

You see the air is still crisp and cool, and the soil is still warm.

And that's the ideal combination for plants to establish with minimal inputs from us, certainly a lot less chemicals and a lot less water.

Than if you were trying to do this in the summertime.

(soft music) Dig holes, two to three times wider than the container, but never deeper.

To be safe, I always plant slightly higher than the existing grade.

Scratch your tees roots apart to loosen them up, especially if they've become pot bound.

Backfill with just the existing soil to help plants establish more quickly in their native environment and water to hydrate and eliminate air pockets in the soil.

One of the best advantages of putting your garden to bed is like putting money in the bank by shopping your yard for more plants.

So what do I mean by that?

Well, as you walk your yard, you're gonna find a lot of perennials that are going into dormancy, and it's the best time to dig them up and divide them and plant those divisions elsewhere in your yard to get a lot more plants, just like we did with these hostas right here.

That's how we got so many.

So what do you do?

Well, you simply dig them up at the base of the plant.

(soft music) Okay, so there's the hosta, came out very easily.

And now you just sort of pick through here and find some places to slice right through it.

And so that'll be the next step.

You can get a good sharp blade of your shovel or anything else you want to do and just go right down through it.

So now that one clump became two and you can continue to do this.

I'll look through here and find a place I want to cut.

Like maybe right there.

Okay, now I have three clumps, I can continue to do that and see that, that's the roots that I cut through, but that's gonna sprout new routes once I plant them and it's soil warms up.

Now, there are a lot of perennials that you can do this with.

And we'll have a list on our website of some of our favorites.

The website address is the same as our name, it's growingagreenerworld.com.

With winter on the way, high wind, snow loads and potential ice storms can wreak havoc on your trees.

The conditions are brutal, not only for your trees, but anything beneath them should a limb or branch break and fall.

Best to attack the problem head on and remove what you can of dead and disease limbs that might pose a risk to your home or objects below the work you do now will not only save you potential time and money this winter, but it will likely do wonders to improve the health of your trees by taking out the damaged limbs anyway.

There's never a wrong time for that, but now it's better than ever.

With all the cleaning up to do, take comfort, knowing it's good to leave some things alone that may appear to be dead, spent flowers from perennials like black-eyed Susan and coneflower can offer an important food source to birds in winter.

Other plants, such as astilbe and hydrangeas have incredible summer flowers that have lots of interest to the winter landscape too.

Now whether you're a fan of lawns or not, I happen to love a nice balance between landscape beds and grass because I think it adds one more dimension to the overall landscape and add some additional interest.

Now I realize I have a lot of work left to do with adding shrubs and trees, but first things first before it gets too cold and all the leaves fall from the trees, it's time to do an overall renovation to the lawn.

For me, that means sewing some cool season grass seed, and it's just starting to germinate right now.

For areas where I was simply overseeding my existing lawn and pasture, I used a core aerator whether you're using one that attaches to the back of a tractor or a walk-behind unit, that you can find at most rental stores, it's a valuable tool to help improve compacted ground by removing soil cores, which allows air and moisture to reach deeper into the ground and gives new grassroots more room to grow.

In areas where I was starting over, I used a tiller to remove all the existing vegetation and create a clean seedbed.

Once the soil was prepared, it was time to add the seed.

I chose a cool season, drought tolerant fescue for my project.

For the proper application rate, check the instructions on the equipment for the suggested setting.

For this property five pounds of seed per thousand square feet was about right.

Once all the seed was spread, I added some organic fertilizer to those areas and then a light top dressing of straw over the lawn areas to help keep the seed and soil moist combined with light irrigation until germination.

In about two weeks, give or take, you should start to see the fruits of your labor.

Now there's one fall project that's likely on everybody's to do list.

Even if you have just a small deck or patio, and that's getting your special plants inside and protecting them over the winter time.

Now placing them in front of a bright sunny window is ideal, but if you don't have that, maybe a garage or basement where they're out of the freezing temperatures and the wind, the plants will go dormant or semi-dormant, and they should be good to go next spring when it's warm again.

But what about the containers themselves?

Some of these can be so attractive and yet so expensive you'd hate to lose them to cracking.

And yet it's a common occurrence in the winter time.

Now, the reason for that is when they're full of soil and the soil gets wet and then it freezes, it expands.

So there's a lot of pressure on the inside of the container but since the container is rigid, it has no flex, it has nowhere to go and that's where the cracking comes in.

So it's best if you can get your containers inside, but sometimes the containers are so far away from the house, or they're just darn right heavy.

Or maybe you don't want to take on another project in the fall, I understand that.

So try this instead, when you empty the container of the soil next time before you add soil back in, use some of this shipping wrap that has the bubbles in it line the inside a couple of times, now what that's going to do, it's gonna provide the flex and the give that you need, that you don't get from your container.

So if it's full of soil and the soil gets wet and then the soil freezes and there's that outward pressure, this will absorb it and prevent your containers from cracking.

Perhaps one of the easiest and most productive things that you can do as you put your garden to bed or any time of the year for that matter is to make notes and take pictures because there's no better time to document the moment than when you're in it.

Plus these will serve as valuable tools to track your progress plus you can look at them to decide what worked and what didn't work or what you'd like to change.

And when you finally do put your garden to bed, you can pull those notes and pictures back out as you plan for the months and years ahead.

So I realized, I gave you a pretty long to do list of your fall gardening projects, but for what it's worth, that's not everything, but I can tell you, we covered most of the basics.

Plus we have that list waiting for you right on our website, under the show notes for this episode.

And if you really want to make it easy, just go back and watch this episode online.

The website address, it's the same as our name.

It's growingagreenerworld.com thanks for watching everybody.

I'm Joe Lamp'l and we'll see you back here next time for more Growing a Greener World.

- Growing a Greener World is made possible in part by.

- [Narrator] The Subaru Crosstrek, designed with adventure in mind, built in a zero landfill plant.

So you can roam the earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru, proud sponsor of Growing a Greener World.

And the following Rain Bird, Corona Tools and Milorganite.

- You know, in a previous episode, I talked about the killer compost affecting all my plants, and I said, I'd give you an update.

Well, here's an update, I had a chance to put in a second crop of tomato plants and they were really looking good right up until the last frost, but I am encouraged.

But again, it's all the work I was doing to the soil, I think it's working.

(soft music) - [Announcer] Continue the garden learning from Growing a Greener World, Joe Lamp'l's online gardening academy offers classes designed to teach gardeners of all levels from the fundamentals to master skills.

You can take each class on your own schedule from anywhere plus opportunities to ask Joe questions about your specific garden in real time.

Courses are available online to enroll, go to growingagreenerworld.com/learn.

(upbeat music)