Fall is a great time to make new beds, too.

Mow the grass short, then cover with cardboard. Then pile on compost, grass clippings, leaves, mulch, etc. By springtime you'll have a beautiful bed ready for planting.

on both counts.

Also, it's the time of year to collect leaves, as many as you can store. I sometimes mulch my beds with them. Leaves are also a favorite carbon component for making compost. Hoarding them now gives me carbon well into the next summer when browns can be so scarce.

Karen

I have friends that mow over the leaves and place them back in the beds. It makes nice looking mulch. I never get around to that. Good reminder to top dress with compost.

The leaves get raked onto flower beds.
On slopes, I place shovel loads of sheep manure at the top,
and the manure tea slowly runs down the slope with
the winter rains and snow melts.
Peat moss gets spread too,---- especially where the Blue poppies need acidic soil.
This will be going on top of snow this week! I didn't get it all done yet!

Fortunate that most of the leaves on my yard are one-inchers, so they can just be piled up as is.

Snow? Oh, gosh! Don't know why it always surprises me to hear about snow in October. Maybe being in Texas heat for so many years has cooked off that part of the brain.