BDN interviews Garland about fall gardening

Kate Garland, a horticulturist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, spoke with the Bangor Daily News for an article about fall gardening tasks. “The to-do list in the fall, it’s actually surprisingly big,” Garland said. “The more you can do in the fall, the better off you are going to be in the spring and the more prepared you are going to be.” Even though the bulk of growing has subsided, home gardeners shouldn’t slack on weeding their garden in the fall, according to the article. If weeding by hand seems overwhelming, Garland said mowing through the rows with a lawnmower that has a bag attachment will help reduce the number of weeds that are able to seed in your garden. The more weeds you can remove from the seed bank in your soil now, the less you will have to tackle in the spring, the article states. Garland also suggested gardeners start building a new compost pile, test their soil and plant a cover crop.