432 - Why Fall Gardens Fail

The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy

Jill McSheehy

Gardening, Garden, How To, Education, Organicgardening, Home & Garden, Leisure, Homegardening, Beginninggardener, Vegetablegardening

4.4 • 734 Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You followed all the fall gardening advice… so why isn’t your garden thriving? In this episode, I’m breaking down 8 subtle but critical reasons fall gardens struggle—even when you’re doing “everything right.” From daylight changes to soil fatigue to surprising transplant pitfalls, these tips will help you troubleshoot and turn things around.

🌱 What You’ll Learn:
– Why planting too late is one of the most common mistakes
– How fall sun is different—and how it affects your crops
– The surprising issue of soil fatigue after summer crops
– Why cool-season crops can fail in hot soil
– Watering and transplant tips to help young plants thrive
– Why direct sowing doesn’t work for everything
– The pest pressure you might be ignoring
– A mindset shift that could make all the difference

💡 Mentioned in this episode:
– OrganicREV – Use code JILL10 to save 10%
– Beginner’s Guide to Fall Gardening Mini-Course – Now open for enrollment!

If you’ve struggled with fall gardening in the past—or you want to get it right this year—this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen now and get your fall garden on the right track!

My Products:
2025 Complete Garden Planner (plus several new editions!)
https://shop.journeywithjill.net/

Vegetable Gardening for Beginners Book: https://amzn.to/3TZeJux

Products I recommend:
Recommended Brands & Products page:
https://journeywithjill.net/recommended-brands-and-products/

https://www.amazon.com/shop/thebeginnersgarden

Connect with Jill:
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YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/JourneywithjillNet/videos

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Link to Beginner's Garden Podcast past episodes: https://journeywithjill.net/the-beginners-garden-podcast/

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Transcript

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0:29.0	Monday.com. Hey there and welcome back to the Beginners Garden podcast. Today we're going to be talking
0:34.2	about your fall garden. Many gardeners enter the fall season with really
0:39.5	good intentions and even good plans, but they find that their crops still struggle or their crops
0:46.5	don't even produce before the winter sets in. I've seen this time and time again, not only in my
0:53.0	own garden as I was trying to figure out how to grow
0:55.1	a fall garden, but I've seen it in my friend's gardens as well. We all start out with such high
1:01.0	hopes for our fall gardens, but then sometimes things don't turn out the way we expect them to.
1:06.6	So today I'm going to walk you through the reasons that I have seen personally and have
1:11.6	heard from others about why fall gardens are most likely to fail.
1:17.2	From not understanding the declining in daylight to misunderstanding soil conditions, there
1:23.6	are several subtle but critical factors that can make or break your fall garden. And of course,
1:30.4	as I'm sharing all of this, I'm hoping to share things that will help you set yourself up to succeed
1:36.6	when you get ready to start planting and growing your fall garden this year.
1:42.1	Welcome to the Beginners Garden podcast. I'm Jill and I'm so glad you're here.
1:46.8	In this podcast, you'll find easy to understand conversations about how to grow your own food.
1:52.8	As a first time gardener, myself 11 years ago, I remember what it's like to feel overwhelmed.
1:58.2	So I want to make gardening so doable for you that you'll find
	...

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