It's October. We are slowly winding this gardening season down. As we do, there are several things you can do now that will benefit your gardens and landscape for next spring.

Fall is the best time of the year to add compost to the soil. Compost will help add essential nutrients and also help improve the structure of the soil. Soil amended with compost will also be more inviting for earthworms and other beneficial organisms.

Falling material from plants, such as leaves, stems and flowers that are left on the soil will all eventually add compost to the soil as they break down. If you are already composting yard waste at home, you most likely have the compost you need, but if composting is something you might like to do but haven't begun, you do not have time to start and have usable compost this fall.

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Compost can be purchased at garden stores. You can add it to your flower beds and vegetable gardens after you have pulled out the plants. You should cultivate the compost into the top 2-3 inches of soil. You can also add compost around existing plants, also cultivating it into the soil.

Fall is also a great time of the year to feed trees and shrubs with granular fertilizer. The trees and shrubs are hungry at the end of the growing season. They also naturally take in nutrients at a faster rate as they prepare for winter. Many garden centers will sell a fertilizer formulated for trees and shrubs. You can also use a balanced fertilizer like 12-12-12 since you are feeding different types of plants.

It is also not too late to control and eliminate weeds. There are weeds that drive you nuts in the spring that will be germinating this fall. We refer to them as "cool season weeds." Chickweed and Bittercress are two of the most common. The seeds they left behind where they were growing in the spring will be germinating during fall. Applying another round of pre-emergent weed control will keep many of these seeds from germinating.

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Pre-emergent weed control can also be used on the lawn to control annual bluegrass and rye grass. These are the light green grasses that grow much faster than your turf grasses in the spring. Once it is growing, there is not any way to eliminate it. These weeds/grasses left seeds behind in the spring when they were growing. Apply pre-emergent now to keep these weed seeds from germinating.

For weed prevention in the beds and the lawn, you can use a product containing the herbicide Dimension. It is in a product called Hi-Yield Turf and Ornamental Weed Preventer.

If you have broadleaf weeds growing in the lawn, you still have time to control these too. This is one of the most effective times for weed control. I mentioned earlier that plants take in nutrients at a faster pace as the season winds down. Weeds are plants, so they are also taking in nutrients this time of year. As such, herbicide use can be more effective at this time of the year.

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Most of the broadleaf weeds are perennials. This means they will come back again next season from the roots in the soil. You can safely eliminate them with Fertilome’s Weed Free Zone. This is a great, selective herbicide that can be used in temperatures as low as 45 degrees.