Let's work together and make an ultimate list of gardening chores to be done by season.
*A different thread is available for each season- please post appropriately!*
Every gardener is different (vegetable, seed starter, zone pusher), but together, we have all the ideas
I'll get us started:

Fall


Gather (purchase, collect, or swap) seeds for fall planting and winter sowing
Plant trees and native plants
Don't forget to continue weeding before those weeds set seed.
Rake the yard and utilize the leaves in pathways, as mulch, or in the compost
Plant spring blooming bulbs
Plant garlic
Protect veggies from early frosts
Set up coldframes, greenhouses, etc
Plant winter vegetables
Dig tender bulbs and perennials and store
Take cuttings for next year
Divide perennials
Protect trees from varmits and pests for the winter
Save seeds from your favorite annuals, perennials, and vegetables
Amend your gardens for next year
Apply mulch- both to flower and vegetable beds (even if they are currently empty!)
Empty, clean and store birbaths and annual containers
Store garden hoses, winterize outside spiquits and irrigation
Harvest fruits, vegetables and herbs
Clean and fertilize houseplants

Be kind to your neighbors, friends, family & offer them some of the wealth of what you've been successful at maintaining. pinenuts4

Offer bread, seeds and nuts to the deer, birds, squirrels, raccoons and opossums! We have an old wrought iron table just for such offerings in our yard. They need help this time of year!

Keep up with the falling leaves. If you wait, it can be a huge, overwhelming job instead of a lot of little jobs. Plus clearing leaves regularly will help keep street gutters and rain gutters free and clear, keeps snakes from burrowing for warmth, and keep winter from looking like fall.

Cut back plants before they die back and get mushy with frost. It's so much easier! Same goes for those perennial vines. They are tender and soft while green instead of stiff and brown when they die back.

Prepare and "clean" outdoor plants that you plan to move indoors for winter. They might need a good hosing off to get bugs off before bringing them into the house.

* Winterize irrigation
* Leave native plants intact for beneficial insects and birds over winter
* Cover vegetable beds with planting a cover crop or cover with mulch/compost/leaves etc...
* Can your harvest
* Start making Bio-char and saving wood ash
* Install a bat house
* Cutback shrubs and chop up for mulch
* Empty terracotta planters and store upside down, same with the terracotta plant saucers.
* Clean buckets, tomato cages, tomato stakes etc... and store.
* Clean and winterize pond, pull non hardy plants, fertilize hardy plants, dont feed fish (I consider this part of my garden because I do aquaponic peppers in my pond)

Refresh plant labels and garden markers- before you forget what and where everything is, and lose all aboveground leaves of some perennials.

I rake all of our leaves onto beds, bring in potted tropicals, check borders for grass encroachment into beds, trim head-bumping branches off of trees & evergreen shrubs for shape, pull baby tree sprouts, whatever it was too hot to do for the past 6-7 months.

Clean out the garage and make room for the greenhouse overflow.

Bring in garden supports
Clean and store yard art out of weather (or leave it out depending on what it's made of)
Mark perennials with sticks or labels
Cut old raspberry stalks to ground, cut new stalks to eye height, mulch
Weed and tidy blueberries, mulch with peat
Cut messy perennials down to ground level, leave those standing that will provide seeds for birds
Cut a clean edge to all beds to get a jump on spring
Clean out birdhouses, bring in for refurbishing
Clean birdfeeders, keep them filled during the winter

Remove hoses, timers and other irrigation items off the faucets. In the South we wrap /cover our faucets in preparation for freeze. Insulate exposed faucet pipes. Mulch leaves and put them in deep in the flower beds for winter protection.

This is so up my ally, I have a spring and fall list that I keep in a text file on my PC to check off each season.

I like to trim my evergreens and other shrubs that you need to keep a certain size or shape in late fall after any chance of new growth. This gets them started with new growth much earlier in the spring instead of waiting for the ground to be dry enough for me to do it then.

Bring in or cover any outdoor furniture. In Zone 5, I bring in a few pieces and store in my basement, to keep critters from making themselves at home with it in the garage, but can get away with covering a glider on the front porch that has a full roof over it.

Again depending on your zone, bring in any gardening tools and liquids (fertilizers, fungus sprays, etc). I store all of mine in the basement during the winter, keeps the tools in better shape without any chance of condensation starting to pit or rust them from changing weather, and keeps any liquids from freezing so they don't become useless for the next season.

Fall is here in N.E. without a doubt. I'm glad that I was able to remember a few nuggets of gardening wisdom I learned a long time ago [& was reminded of when you gave us a glimpse of your journal] from my Aunt Charlotte. I was told, 'Fall is a time to plant', trying to aid me in remembering to dig up my bulbs, separate the developed ones & spread them around my property or share them w/neighbors .

For a N.E. gardener, working from my own sketches, made annually while things are in bloom and I can still remember who's rooted where, is who I plan and plant. I work in ever more contained areas and reduced spaces. Holly