Expert Gardener Barb Hegman Offers Fall Gardening Tips

Just because summer is over doesn’t mean it is time to let your garden go. There are still many great things you can do in your garden throughout Fall. Expert gardener and founder of PlantJotter.com Barb Hegman offers some tips and tricks for keeping your garden beautiful and thriving when the weather starts to cool.



Being no stranger to gardening. After 25 years of gardening and a master’s degree in agriculture, Hegman knows that keeping a log and journaling your efforts will only improve your garden year by year.

Here are some of Hegman’s expert ideas for Fall gardening:

• Early Fall is a good time to rearrange your gardens. Take advantage of plant sales, and divide and transplant overgrown and underperforming perennials. Make sure they receive ample moisture while their roots are getting established. Wait to divide those perennials that flower in early and mid-Spring until after they bloom.


• Still have some empty spaces? Fill them with Spring flowering bulbs such as tulips, daffodils and alliums.Take time to sketch or map your gardens so you have a visual reference later when everything is dormant. This is helpful to have in the Winter when you are mulling over changes you might want to make and in the Spring when you need help remembering what is planted where.


• Have your soil tested. University Extension services often provide a resource for soil testing. They'll provide a nutrient analysis and recommendations based on what you are trying to grow (vegetables, perennials, turf, etc).


• Fall is a good time to meet with garden designers or coaches. Plans can be developed and discussed over the Winter and schedule installers by early Spring before everyone is booked up.


• In mid-to-late Fall, once cold weather deteriorates foliage, selectively cut back perennials so it’s not so overwhelming. Leave plants that provide Winter interest such as ornamental grasses, sedum, echinacea and Joe-pye weed. Also leave newly planted or divided plants where their foliage can provide added winter protection.

PlantJotter.com is the perfect tool for both novice and expert gardeners alike. Similar to a journal, but completely web-based, you can plan and track everything you want to do with your garden, along with ideas, inspirations, trials and tribulations along the way. If you make a mistake, you can make a note of it so you won’t do it again, and if you have a major success, you’ll know what to do to duplicate the effort.

The site includes a maintenance calendar so you can remember what plants to tend to and when, the ability to enter lists of every plant in your garden and upload photos of your plants.

Green thumbs and non-gardeners alike will love PlantJotter.com. Don’t let the end of summer mean the end of your garden as well. Log on to PlantJotter.com, learn from the experts, and watch your garden grow.

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