Learn Everything You Need To Know About Keeping Your Garden Clean

Every gardener knows that keeping the garden clean is an important disease-fighting technique. Gardeners who practice good garden sanitation not only have fewer problems with diseases, they'll also cut down on pest and weed problems as well. And while keeping a garden clean is a great deal easier than keeping a house clean, it does require some of the same attention to detail.

Do an annual cleanup. Inside the house, it's traditional for the major cleaning effort to come in the spring. Out in the vegetable garden, you should plan to concentrate your cleanup efforts in the fall. At the end of the growing season, routinely remove and compost all plant stalks. Lift plastic mulches and either dispose of them or save them for the following year. Even if you don't plan to use them for plants in the same family next season, form the habit of dipping plastic mulches in a 10% bleach solution (1 part bleach to 9 parts water) and letting them air-dry before rolling and storing.


In the orchard, the time for the annual cleanup is late fall to early winter. You'll want to make an end-of-season inspection tour and pick up all fallen fruit, which may harbor diseases over the winter. Also, shake down any stray fruit and rake up fallen leaves for composting. Check your trees for damaged or dead limbs and prune them out.

In the flower garden, rake mulch back from plant crowns in fall so they won't be exposed to the cold, damp conditions that promote crown rot. If you've had previous problems with diseases, it's a good idea to remove the mulch completely. Once the ground has frozen for winter, you can add new mulch to protect plants from frost heaving, but be sure to keep it away from the crowns of the plants. You may want to wait until late winter to cut back annuals, perennials, and ornamental grasses, because they can add ornamental interest throughout the winter.

Don't leave diseased plant foliage in the garden. Remove and destroy it in fall. Be sure to cut back healthy ornamental foliage well before growth starts in spring. Sterilize stakes and other supports by dipping them into the bleach solution as well. Give all tools a final cleaning by rinsing them in the bleach solution. After they're dry, wipe the metal parts with a cloth soaked in machinery oil to protect them from rusting over the winter.

Keep in mind that soil on shoes, tools, clothes, and hands can carry disease organisms from plant to plant or area to area. For this reason, it's a good idea to wait until the end of your gardening day to work in diseased portions of the garden. This way, you won't inadvertently carry pathogens from one place to another.

Change clothes before moving from a diseased plant or area to a healthy one, and sterilize your tools in a 10% bleach solution after working on diseased plants, or you could end up transmitting diseases from one part of the garden to another. Cleaning your shoes can be tricky, but there are ways to manage. Rubber soles and tops or even rubber soles with quick-drying canvas tops are the easiest to sterilize.