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Gardening
Tips for October - The cooling weather can make October the most pleasant month of the year to garden. It's also the perfect time to plant nearly anything. The cooler air temperatures, coupled with warm soil temperatures, are ideal conditions to promote excellent root growth. Plants established in the fall suffer less stress, are more deeply rooted, and get off to a faster start than their spring planted sisters, who often require a whole year just to get established. Fall planting is also the lazy gardener's method - nature keeps them watered through the fall and winter, making less work for us! PLANT: Now's the time to plant trees, shrubs, perennials, ground covers, cool-season lawns, winter annuals, winter vegetables and native plants. A big exception, however, is sub-tropical plants. Don't plant anything that is even borderline frost-tender in the fall. This includes citrus, palms, potato plants, bird of paradise, potato bush, etc. Anything that froze last winter needs to wait until spring to be planted. Good winter annuals from 6-packs are snapdragons, pansies, delphinium, calendua, stock and Iceland poppies. Sow seeds of larkspur, clarkia, sweet peas, and California poppy for an early spring show. In the vegetable garden, plant carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, snow peas and turnips from seeds. Look for 6-packs of cauliflower and broccoli to plant now. Over-seed warm-season lawns with annual rye. Seed bare patches in cool-season lawns and keep them moist. WATER: Reduce watering to about twice a week. Plan to shut off your water system when the rains arrive. Make sure all trees are watered deeply going into dormancy. Place a hose at the base of each tree and let it trickle for several hours. FERTILIZE: Cool-season lawns, roses, flowering annuals and perennials to promote fall growth. Don't fertilize frost tender plants like citrus or palms. The new growth is much more susceptible to frost damage. It is also a little too late to fertilize bermuda lawns for continued fall color. Fertilizing now promotes Spring Dead Spot Disease, which shows up as large holes in the lawn in spring. PRUNE: Deadhead and shape roses for a final flush of bloom. WEED: Keep pulling those weeds. Remember one year's seeding is seven years weeding! Even difficult weeds like spurge and nutsedge can be kept in check by faithful weeding. Try to pull weeds when the soil is moist from watering to remove most of the roots and nutlets. Spray unwanted bermudagrass with Roundup early in the month. As temperatures cool off bermudagrass becomes less active and Roundup is less effective on it. Be extremely careful when using general herbicides like Roundup or broadleaf weed killers containing dicamba or triclopyr in the fall. Roots of trees and shrubs are very active this time of year. A careless spraying near the surface roots of a prized plant could lead to a disastrous loss. If necessary, apply a preemergence herbicide to lawns to protect
against winter annual weeds, especially annual bluegrass and broadleaf
weeds in bermuda lawns MAINTAIN: Consider aerating your lawn to boost its health and vigor. Aeration removes small plugs of soil from the lawn to reduce compaction and water run-off. It also improves rooting, allows better water uptake, enhances fertilizer use and speeds up thatch breakdown. Lawn aerators are available for rental; many lawn care companies also offer this service at a reasonable cost. COMPOST: Layer brown and green materials and keep them moist to create wonderful compost. Clear your gardens of fallen fruit, leaf litter, dead annuals and summer vegetables. Layer with grass clippings and green garden waste and you're cooking. Don't add dirt, rose clippings, or diseased plants to the pile. Unless you're willing to swear your weeds are seed-free, don't add them to the compost pile, either. Think twice about putting in any plant that has gone to seed, unless you'd like to see it sprouting up all over your garden. LAST but Not Least: Halloween's around the corner. Welcome
the season with an autumn arrangement of dried cornstalks, gourds,
pumpkins, and Indian corn to perk up your front porch, mailbox
or light post. October 2, 2003 |