I really want to hear what all of you feel about fertilizing in the fall. I'm zone 4 with what I call black sand for soil. I have no bug problems, and there is never any standing water in my gardens. When we arrived here, there wasn't a worm to be found anywhere so I think the oak leaves are doing the trick as we have lots of worms now. I learned about the alfalfa pellets from all of you late this spring, and used it when planting new or moving plants. I felt it made a big difference in how they bloomed, and now I would like to put some around each of my established plants before the oak leaves go into the gardens.

At the end of September, I cut all the foliage back to 12" to make it easier to add the oak leaves to the gardens. It would be a miserable job to add the leaves without doing this. COULD I PUT THE ALFALFA PELLETS AROUND EACH PLANT BEFORE THE LEAVES GO ON??? If I wait until spring, the pellets would be laying on top of the leaves.

I put milorganite in the gardens in the spring as fertilizer but mainly to keep the deer and rabbits out of the flowers.
I really want to hear all your thoughts on this, and what you think would be best.
Thanks
Karen

I think your idea is great. The alfalfa will get into the soil much easier under the leaves. I fertilize in the fall almost up until I quit watering and I think it makes a world of difference in the spring.

Thanks James. Apprx. what time do you stop watering? That was going to be another of my questions, lol.

I have never fertilized in the fall in my zone. I use milorganite and a slow release fertilizer in the spring and because of using the slow release, I have no need to add any more fertilizer in the fall.

Usually I have to stop in early november when it's just too much hassle to disconnect the hose all the time for low temps.