10 Leaf And Plant Tips for Fall

Warm soil, sufficient rain, and cool weather help make for the best root growth conditions. Fall is the best time to plant trees and prepare your garden for successful winter, and even spring, sprouts.

1. Rake and Compost Leaves
   Fall leaves make the best plant fertilizer, compost, mulch, and soil conditioner there is for your garden! Leaves need to be shredded with a mower or a leaf vacuum and compost them all together to make leaf mold. Leaf compost also makes a beautiful organic mulch for your veggies and your flower beds.

2. Plant Garlic
   Now is the time to plant garlic. You just plant it and forget it all winter and most of the spring. Plant each clove of the garlic separately. Each clove has a chance to root in before the cold temperatures of winter set in. In the springtime, each clove sends up a lovely green shoot and grows into a whole bulb of garlic by the summertime.

3. Plant Winter Veggie Crops
   Winter crops such as lettuce, kale, and spinach are all wonderful choices for some cool-weather greens. Radishes grow best when planted in cool weather and taste best when harvested young. Read the label to determine the variety you can harvest by Thanksgiving. Winter sowing can be done for certain seeds that need a cold period before blooming. Overwintering onion sets (and even some hardy peas and broad beans) are also an excellent addition.

4. Schedule Your Last Lawn Mowing
   Grass stops growing in the fall. Cut the lawn for a final time before snow covers it for the winter. This is a good time to clean and sharpen your powered yard equipment and empty any unused gasoline equipment. Stop using fertilizer on your lawn.

5. Take Care of the 4 D’s
   Fall is a prime time to remove any branches that are dead, damaged, diseased, or deranged (the 4 D’s) from your trees and shrubs. “Deranged” refers to branches growing into the center of the tree or crossing and rubbing other branches.

6. Plant Spring-Blooming Bulbs
   The fall is the perfect time to plant spring-blooming bulbs like tulips, allium, daffodils, hyacinth, and crocus. Plant them now, and you’ll be glad you did when you see them blooming after a chilly winter.

7. Plant Cover Crops on Bare Soil
   Bare soil will attract weeds, so cover that bare soil. You can use cover crops such as crimson clover or winter rye and let them take up the space. In spring, turn the cover crop back into the soil to nourish and improve the ground and help feed your spring and summer crops and flowers.

8. Cut Back Some Herbaceous Perennials
   The fall is time to cut back some herbaceous perennials that do not provide much winter interest or other benefits in the upcoming colder months. Leaves that can become soggy should be cut back. If you have native grasses like switchgrass or little bluestem, leave them standing to provide food and habitat over the cold months. You can cut the old growth in spring when the new growth begins to come up. Leafcutter bees, mason bees, and yellow-faced bees will nest in the hollow stems of many native plants. Leave your native plants standing over winter, and in the spring, instead of cutting them down. Leave 12 – 15 inches of stalk stubble standing for pollinator nesting sites.

9. Clear Up the Garden
   The fall is the time to compost, cover, and clean the vegetable gardens, flower beds, and patios. Cover outdoor furniture and bring terra cotta pots undercover. Compost and clear out dead plants from the vegetable and ornamental garden. Yard waste composts most quickly if it is shredded or mulched before composting. Leaves with signs of disease should be otherwise discarded (do not add them to the compost pile).

10. Apply Winter Mulch
    Mulch empty vegetable and ornamental beds with shredded leaves or mulch to insulate the soil from extreme temperature swings. You can use shredded leaves to keep the planting ground stable against too many freeze/thaw cycles. Apply mulch after the ground has frozen.

Anupama Mahajan Has Her Students Lead the Way

Anupama Mahajan’s enthusiasm for her job and students is contagious. She has a masters degree in both physics and education, and is currently teaching international baccalaureate (B) environmental science and biogeochemical science at Central High School. She loves the sciences because they are hands-on. She takes her students for frequent outdoor excursions. The best way to learn about the environment, after all, is immersing yourself. Anupama also heads up Central High School’s Green Team to great success. In 2018, Central High School was awarded the State of Maryland Green School Certification. 

In 2019, Anupama received the Unsung Hero Award for her commitment to environmental literacy.

Anupama takes Central High’s mantra of “students lead the way” to heart. When it comes to her green program, she’s along for the ride. The students plan and execute the programs. When she discusses the work her students have done, she’s full of pride. Her Green Team is conscious of the world around them and determined to make a difference. What starts in the classroom spirals through the community. She fondly recalls one student lobbying the manager at his after-school job to properly recycle. His success at the popular fast food chain likely kept thousands of pounds of recyclable material out of the landfill. 

The State of Maryland Green School Certification, photo courtesy of Anupama Mahajan

One of Central High’s student gardens, photo courtesy of Anupama Mahajan

This story is one of many success stories of Anupama’s program. Her philosophy revolves around instilling confidence in her students. In her words, “I don’t give advice. I advise them to find solutions.” And they do. On the precipice of adulthood, many teens are full of ideas about how to change the world, but wary to speak up. They just need someone to give them a push. Anupama gives them the freedom to explore their own solutions outside a rigid curriculum. (That’s not to say she doesn’t suggest programs. She frequently experiments with things at home, like plant cuttings and compost, and then shares her results with her students.) “Student’s are full of amazing solutions,” says Anupama. “I just listen.” 

A squash growing in Central High’s compost system, photo courtesy of Anupama Mahajan

photo courtesy of Anupama Mahajan

Anupama’s students have enacted many programs at the school with her support, and the support of local organizations like the Alice Ferguson Foundation: 

• Gardens: Anupama’s students took to gardening like fish to water. They planted large beds of flowers and vegetables for harvest, and to attract and foster important pollinators like bees and butterflies. Anupama’s students even voluntarily kept the garden running, even during the summer and COVID-19.

• Composting: The Department of the Environment selected Central High’s application to be a composting pilot program, and Central High began composting their food scraps.

• Community cleanups: Working with the Alice Ferguson Foundation, students organized a cleanup of school grounds and the surrounding community and natural area. They picked up a combined 13 bags of recyclable material, 6 bags of trash, and 4 tires.

• Legislative action: When Anupama brought in photos from areas in the County with severe litter problems, her students organized a letter-writing campaign to the local legislature. Another student, bothered by a lack of recycling bins around the playground, approached a local councilwoman and made a change.

• Trash audit: Working with the Alice Ferguson Foundation, students examined Central High’s trash and made a plan to reduce the amount of trash produced by the school.

• Cafeteria recycling: Anupama’s Green Team distributed recycling bins to classrooms and the cafeteria. 

• Teaching: While COVID-19 interrupted her plans, Anupama says that once they are able, her students will visit the local elementary schools to teach them about trash reduction, recycling, and organizing community clean-ups.

At the core of Anupama’s philosophy is taking ownership. By providing her students with the knowledge and resources they need, she can watch them go out and make a real difference in the world. They take ownership of their land, local issues, and the education of those around them. 

Interested in enacting programs like these at your school? Let us know what we can do to help!