Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven.”
1.Plant bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, snowdrops, hyacinths and crocuses
now for beautiful blooms next spring.
2 Fertilize your lawn (fall’s the best time for fescues, bluegrass and ryes).
3.Plant hardy winter pansies in full sun for color all winter and spring.
4.Start a compost pile with the fall leaves you rake up. Your garden will
thank you.
5.If you don’t want a compost pile, skip raking or blowing your leaves this
fall. Chop them up with your lawn mower (mulching blade preferred) and put
them right back on your lawn with no adverse effects.
6.Sow a cover crop (green manure) such as winter rye over your garden bed.
7.Bring tender plants inside but wash their leaves with a water or a mild
soap solution first to remove any insects. Pots can also be soaked in a warm
tub of water for 15 minutes to force any unwanted bugs out.
8.Mulch around trees and shrubs to depth of 2″ being careful not to let
mulch touch trunk of trees.
9.Make sure newly planted shrubs, trees and perennials are well-watered going into winter.
10. Cut back perennials whose tops have been killed by frost.
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
thedailylily.com 
I’ve heard the Horticulturists advise us to chop up the leaves to serve as Mulch, etc. Why do they have to be cut up? Cannot the same fertilizing effect be attained with just leaving the leaves on the lawn just the way they are through the winter days? Just wondering and hoping for an answer.
Thank you.
This is a good question. Leaving whole leaves that are not chopped up can smother a lawn and cause decline. Current research from turfgrass specialists at Purdue University indicates that the lawn is not adversely affected by applying chopped up leaves back onto it as part of a regualr maintenance program. This solves the costly and time consuming process of leaf disposal and helps our landfills.
Thank you Debi for the answer. I would guess then, that when leaves are chopped up, this allows aereation which a BLANKET of leaves will NOT allow? Would that be a proper conclusion?
Thanks again for the explanation.
Seeing Sara on the front page of The Daily Lily posed with her fall trees (and Sara does LOVE her trees!)reminded me to let you know that fall is really the best time to plant a tree. It is at this time of year that the roots grow as the top growth is going into dormancy. So, as Sara taught me, ‘plant a tree until Jesus comes’. Thanks for sharing your trees with us, Sara, and for beautifying God’s earth and The Daily Lily!
Hey Debi, you are in big trouble now. You just gave me permission to plant another tree. I just am in from walking my dogs and looking at some of the most beautiful colors eyes can behold strewed all over my yard from the warm cool winds. Such beauty Autumn delivers for this time of the year in locales where leaves turn lush with golden red colors.
Autumn brings decor of freedom. Wind blown hair, wind blown leaves, wind blowing all our worries right into the breeze. We can take that freedom and yes look, yes Look, right unto the hills which will show us our help. Psalm 121:1 “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”
A Pilgrim Song from The Message, sing along with me:
Psalm121: 1 -2 “I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.”
Sara, how about a “Waterfall” Japanese maple for your sanctuary shade garden area. It has a delightful, cascading, billowing effect. And from Psalm 42:7 it will speak out “Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me. The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me – A prayer to the God of my life.”