12 Ways to Boost Your Property This Fall
We often think of fall as a time when the land starts to go to sleep. But did you know you can also boost your property this fall? By taking the right actions in the fall, you can help ensure the next year is more productive than the last, and filled with even greater abundance of life. Here are 12 ways you can boost your property this fall.
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The 12 ways you can boost your property this fall can be broken up into 4 basic categories:
- Building Soil
- Preparing the Land for Planting
- Planting Perennial Plants
- Creating Space to Connect with Your Land
When you implement these practices, you can really boost your property. Planting edible perennial plants is one of the best ways to make a difference, and fall is the best time to do it. Make sure to grab your cheat-sheet that tells you why fall is the time to get your perennials in the ground.
So are you ready to have your most productive year yet? Grab your cheat-sheet and keep reading to learn how.
Boost Your Property This Fall by Building Soil
Mulch is my go-to method for building soil on my property. (Well, that and planting perennial plants.) I really can’t have enough mulch!
Building healthy soil is at the core of creating a space alive with abundance. Without good, rich soil that is filled with life, you will struggle to cultivate abundance.
Luckily, you can boost your property this fall by taking some simple steps to start building your soil.
Boost Your Property This Fall by Building Soil
- 1Use chop-and-drop to return organic material back to the soil. Instead of removing all the old plants from your garden and sticks from the trees and shrubs you’ve pruned, you can just chop and drop it onto the soil. All that plant material will break down and help build soil for next year’s plants.
- 2Add mulch over your soil. Chop-and-drop is an excellent, free mulching source, but you can also add wood chips, straw, or fall leaves gathered from elsewhere to help build and protect your soil.
- 3Place woody debris such as logs and large branches on your soil. Woody debris such as logs provide shelter for beneficial soil life like fungi. Soil does not build without the presence of soil life. Logs provide shelter for this life, and are, in turn, slowly broken down into rich dark soil.
Boost Your Property This Fall by Preparing the Land for Planting
Preparing the land before planting will help make sure your planting efforts are successful. Sheet-mulching is my favorite way to prepare my land for future planting
When spring comes after the long dark winter, you’ll be excited to start planting again. But if the land is not ready to plant into, you can easily run out of time to get everything in the ground. Plus, you are missing out on getting some help from nature with building soil over the fall and winter. Here are some ways to boost your property this fall by preparing your land for planting, so that you and your land will be ready for spring planting.
Boost Your Property This Fall by Preparing the Land for Planting
- 4Use sheet-mulching to turn grassy areas into great future planting areas. By placing cardboard, burlap bags, or other biodegradable material over grass and then adding wood chips on top of it, you can turn an old lawn into a rich area ready to plant in the spring.
- 5Before you start sheet-mulching everything, make sure to plan out your new garden. By planning your garden ahead of time, you can make sure it’s in the best place possible and that it will meet your food-growing needs.
- 6The fall is also a great time to build hugelkultur beds. These beds mimic what happens naturally in a forest when a tree falls and returns to the soil. The result is garden beds filled with nutrients for your plants that also require very little-to-no watering.
- 7There are other ways to prepare land for planting. From using chickens to one-time tilling, make sure to check out this post to learn all about these 6 great ways to prepare land for planting.
Boost Your Property This Fall by Planting Perennial Plants
Every fall I make sure to plant a bunch of perennial plants. These plants are the core of my food growing systems. Even my vegetable garden has perennial plants like this kosmic kale!
When fall arrives, it doesn’t have to mean the end of planting for the year. With the return of the rains—and before the chill of winter arrives—the world often wakes up from the summer heat. Plants will put on a last push of new growth, and some seedlings will even start to germinate.
Boost Your Property This Fall by Planting Perennial Plants
- 8You can mimic this final push of growth before the dark of winter by planting perennial plants in the fall. The timing will be different in each area, but often when the rains start to return at the end of summer, you can do one last planting until the ground starts to freeze. This will let you boost your property this fall and get an early start come spring.
- 9Perennial plants aren’t just fruit trees and shrubs. Planting perennial vegetables is a great way to boost your property this fall.
- 10And don’t forget to plant native plants while you’re at it. These plants will support picky insects that rely on them, (think monarchs and milkweed,) which in turn will support birds and other wildlife that will help keep your property in balance with nature.
Boost Your Property This Fall by Creating Space to Connect with Your Land
Every time I get a new area ready to plant, I make sure to add trails and outdoor sit spots to it. These features help me to connect with my land, and they help my family and I build a natural life.
Don’t just prepare your land for planting food. When you get out the shovel, you’ll also want to be sure to prepare some spaces just for you—places that will help you connect with the land around you. Creating space for yourself on your property will help you build a natural life—to enjoy the abundant life around you and soak up the benefits of spending time in nature each day.
Your property is not just for plants and wild critters. People are a part of nature. Perhaps the best way to boost your property this fall is to find ways to make space for yourself amidst the living world around you.
Boost Your Property This Fall by Creating Space to Connect with Your Land
- 11Build nature trails on your land. Nature trails will help you easily explore, observe, and experience your land. You deserve to enjoy the wild abundance you’ve created. Plus, the observations you’ll make on your nature walks will help make you a better property in years to come.
- 12As you walk your nature trails, you’ll want to stop, sit, and just be present with the land around you. Creating outdoor sit spots along your trails will give you the space to do so. These can also be places for you, your family, and friends to spend time together in nature.
How to Get Started this Fall
Towards the end of summer I always start to think about what I want to do come fall on my property. Which of these 12 methods are you going to do this fall? One hint is don't waste those fall leaves!
Don’t worry about trying to implement all 12 of these ways to boost your property this fall. Some of these methods might not even fit your property.
The best way to get started is to pick one of these 12 methods and start there. If you’re planning to rake up the leaves that fall on your lawn, how about adding them as mulch to your shrubs and trees?
This would be a quick and easy way to boost your property this fall.
Then try planting a new fruit tree, plus a berry bush and a few perennial vegetables in a grassy area. Just make sure to get some cardboard and wood chips so you can sheet-mulch the grass around your new plants.
Come spring, your new tree, berries, and perennial vegetables will start growing. And soon, they will provide you with an abundance of low-maintenance food.
If you have some old logs, or if you know a place to get them, you can add them around that area to create a border, and a simple outdoor sit spot for your family and friends to enjoy the new plants.
Just imagine sitting under that fruit tree on those logs in a few years.
Fall really is a great time to boost your property, and these 12 methods will help you do so. Before you go, I would love to hear from you in the comments about what other methods you use to boost your property.
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