5 THINGS YOU CAN DO IN LATE FALL

Seasonally-timed, ecological gardening advice for the Outer Piedmont of the Southeast

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and I’m not just saying that because the post-Halloween barrage of Christmas music has begun. Watching the sun come in sideways through crimson sourwood or golden hickory leaves among the aroma of falling leaves is an incredible way to fill the senses. The color change we see comes from changing nutrient profiles. As sunlight decreases, so do the green chloroplasts that are fed from photosynthesis. This allows other color spectrum nutrients to shine through as trees prepare for dormancy: red and purple anthocyanins, yellow and orange carotenoids. Dying leaves are a gorgeous spectacle. What a world we live in.

At the same time, really terrible things are happening all around us. Even though this newsletter focuses on ecology, food, obviously, is closely connected. Here are some really cool, life-saving things that people have been doing (that you can do too), beyond donating to food banks, to address food access issues. There are more localized food distributions popping up around town, including sites for APS families. People are posting to their neighborhood groups, offering free food or to take someone shopping for a month’s or week’s’ worth of groceries. As always, generosity sparks more generosity. We also live in a climate that, with the help of low tunnels or cover cloth over the winter, allows us to grow food year round. It’s not too late to start if you use seedlings if you have good sun exposure. Now is the ideal time to plant fruit trees and shrubs, too. I grow food in my front yard to share with whoever wants it and it’s been a really good experience. Feeding people can be easy and should be a nice, dignified, and safe experience for all involved. And, if there ever was a time ripe for reimagining our food and political systems, it’s now.

Get your hands in the dirt, share the beauty of this season with people you love, and stay hydrated.

5 THINGS YOU CAN DO THIS SEASON

Plant now • Transplant spring & early summer blooming perennials • Don’t cut back stems & seed heads • Make a brush pile • How to actually leave leaves (even in challenging spaces)

Plant now

Trees and shrubs planted in late fall tend to perform and look better than those planted in spring, and planting perennials now means more likely flowering next year. Lower light hours and cooler temperatures make plants focus on their roots and trunks. Stronger roots mean more resilience for spring’s flush of growth and summer’s blazing light and heat plus better drought tolerance. 

Our soil doesn’t tend to freeze, so we can plant through the winter. Exterior water supply lines are susceptible to frost damage, though, and the added task of remembering to turn them off as needed during establishment is not great. Thankfully, we rarely have dry winters, so planting now and watering well before winter kicks in is the ideal way to go. Here’s my watering guide, updated for this time of year.

How to water for plant establishment in late fall

Where: water soil deeply for roots to drink from and stretch into; don’t water foliage

When: morning - early afternoon, so roots and soil can absorb well before temps drop low at night

Frequency: (if you’re seeing less than 1” rain/week) twice/week in the first month after planting, then once/week through winter. Check a couple inches below the soil for moisture if you’re unsure. If that feels dry, water.

Volume:

• Hand watering: for 1st year plants, match their pot size in water volume, so gallon-sized plants get 1 gallon of water, 3-gallon plants get 3 gallons of water, etc. Groundcover plants need the surrounding ground to be thoroughly soaked.

• Irrigating: 1” of water for perennials and 1.5” for trees and shrubs per watering

• In a 3 week+ drought, water mature trees: run a hose gently a few feet from the trunk and move it every 20 minutes to cover the circumference

Transplant trees, shrubs, & spring/early summer blooming perennials

Gardening is more complex than decorating, but it still defines how we experience our outdoor spaces, and sometimes needs a reorg. If you’re looking to move plants around, now is the time. Not everything likes being moved, like plants with taproots (rattlesnake master, wild indigos, butterfly milkweed, and buckeyes) or sensitive root systems (magnolias). Use the watering guide above to establish transplants. For fall blooming perennials, wait til early spring to move them.

Don’t cut back stems and seed heads (of native plants)

Many stems are necessary habitat for insects that we depend on, like cute leafcutter bees, small bumblebees, beneficial wasps (most are actually not aggressive, and some kill garden pests), and even some moths (who are important, overlooked pollinators). Seeds are good bird food, too. Wait til late spring to cut these back.

I know that a lot of people have been socialized to believe that obsessively controlled landscapes look good. Negative space can be a powerful, beautiful component of design, but mowing perennials down to make a garden look like plants never existed is bizarre. Skeletal seed heads and stems provide interesting lines, structure, and texture while respecting the biodiverse life with whom we share the outdoors.

Make a brush pile

An intentional pile of debris that people traditionally clean out of their gardens can make a big ecological impact while avoiding the fossil fuel consequences of toting it away. A brush pile gives cover to cool toads, salamanders, and other creatures, nesting space for songbirds like wrens and nuthatches, and food for lightning bugs and other beetles (who can be good food for birds). 

Locate it away from buildings (we’re not attracting wildlife into your home or shed), like in a back corner of the yard, or along a canopied edge, if possible. Start with bigger logs on the bottom and pile on smaller twigs and brushy stuff. If you have a lot of space, make it big, like 10’ W x 5’ H. For smaller spaces, do what you can. Screen it with shrubs to keep it out of sight, or make a cool looking dead hedge or natural sculpture, or, if you have very little space, make a bug snug.

How to leave leaves (even in challenging spaces) — a repeat from early fall because it’s that important

Buckle up, this one’s long to counter bad/irrelevant advice.

Leaving the leaves provides vital nutrients to trees and soil, sinks carbon, creates habitat for biodiverse cuties like toads, bees, cool moths, and lightning bugs, and prevents erosion and compaction. Blowing and towing leaves away deprives trees and the soil of fundamental nutrients, causing poor tree and soil health, erosion, and compaction. It also releases carbon into the atmosphere while using fossil fuels, and it takes habitat away from creatures who die without a place to live. If that’s not bad enough, consider this: instead of hearing birds sing, leaves rustle in the wind, or the day-to-day bustle of other people’s lives, kids in and around Atlanta hear mowing and blowing.

If you can’t just leave leaves wherever they fall

• Move leaves as early as possible, before winter nesting. Any disturbance of the landscape can have wildlife consequences, but this is better than moving leaves in winter. After that, wait til late spring to move them.

• You must leave some leaves under their tree—trees need these nutrients, and we all need trees to be healthy. If the entire tree canopy is too wide for a leaf-mulched bed, make the bed smaller, a third of the canopy size, only 3-6” high, and with a 3” gap between trunk and mulch.

• Never make a leaf/pine straw/mulch volcano at your tree trunk—this suffocates your tree, causes roots to girdle the trunk, (both can slowly kill your tree,) and it looks bad. See image below. Spread the layer out flat and let all parts of the tree that are above the soil breathe freely.

• Don’t shred leaves: whole leaves are better habitat, and bugs will break them down for you anyway. Shredding will damage wildlife.

• Don’t smother ground-layer plants with a dense covering of leaves; plants need to breathe. Leave about 50% of the ground covered with leaves around the base of these plants and move the rest elsewhere to allow for seed germination and seedling emergence.

• Don’t worry about a few leaves on actively-used lawn or mown paths. Up to 20% coverage is fine. If you are not using your lawn, now is an ideal time to stop working on it and put in something prettier and lower maintenance in late fall. A mass of shrubs, enchanting woodland garden, or shade, ground cover planting are beautiful elements that coexist nicely with leaves.

• Use a rake instead of an electric blower wherever possible, and never use a gas-powered blower (they’re toxic and pollute more than SUVs).

• Don’t yell at lawncare workers. Most are barely surviving on tiny wages and have little autonomy, much less power. Direct your criticisms at people who actually profit from the lawn industry.

Where to put leaves that don’t fit under the tree:

• Other garden beds, as soil-enriching mulch, unless you’re dealing with a pecan, hickory, or black walnut* or a magnolia**

• Into compost (except magnolia leaves)

• Into brush piles (any kind of leaf can go in these)

*Black walnut, and to a lesser extent, pecan and hickory trees, naturally emit a chemical called juglone that inhibits the growth of some plants. This isn’t bad; it’s a natural complexity of evolution that still allows for understory biodiversity. Only mulch with these leaves around juglone-tolerant plants. Move any excess leaves into brush piles or compost (heat kills juglone).

**Magnolias have a different, growth-inhibiting chemical, especially Southern magnolia (grandiflora species). Due to this and their dense leaves, little will grow under a Southern magnolia. Leave those leaves and plant elsewhere. Sweetbay, bigleaf, and other native magnolias are much easier to plant under. Aster family plants (asters, sunflowers, goldenrods, yarrow) contain the same chemical and might make better companions. Move excess magnolia leaves into brush piles, not compost.

I hope this was helpful! I cover more practical ecological tips in my consults. Reach out to me if you’d like more site-specific, in-depth guidance on how you can make your land ecologically healthier, prettier, and lower maintenance.

Thank you for reading,

Alex Lampert

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