Planting As the weather begins to cool, it’s the perfect time to plant any trees and shrubs you have had on your wish list. Think about adding trees and shrubs that will give you color and interest for all four seasons. Also, plant trees and bushes to provide fruits and nuts. Yes, it’s fall, but think spring bulbs. Start buying and planning. November and December are the best time for planting spring bulbs. Consider planting some fragrant ones in areas where you spend most of your time outdoors entertaining, relaxing, coming and going, so you can delight often in the fragrance as well as the beautiful blooms. You can start planting daffodil bulbs in October. On or around the first killing frost, plant garlic and shallots. Sow radish seed for a late crop. Sow spinach seed now to let overwinter. Cover it with straw to have an early harvest in the spring. Sow lettuce seeds or set transplants in a protected
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Validitymag.com October 2017
Maintenance The summer crops took up a lot of nutrients, so it is a good time to feed the soil if you have made some good rich compost this year. Your soil is hungry for it. As you are cleaning up for fall, there is the opportunity for adding to the compost pile or creating a new one. Remember, you can’t get too much compost. Don’t forget to moisten the compost pile regularly to prevent flies from breeding in it. Save seeds for planting in next spring's garden. Take cuttings from perennials.
If Japanese beetles were a problem for your gardens, they are returning to the soil now. Treat for grubs with milky spore. After a killing frost, as you clean up the asparagus bed and cut back the ferns, spread one-half inch layer of compost or well rotted manure. Mulch it to keep the bed neat and weed free over the winter. While you are in the asparagus bed, you might want to scatter a few daffodil bulbs randomly throughout to bring in some lovely spring joy before the asparagus arrives. Love those leaves. They are great for the garden. Tree roots reach deep into the subsoil and absorb trace minerals, which then appear in the leaves. It is best to shred or mow over the leaves making them much easier to use as mulch or incorporating into the soil. They will break down more quickly to enrich the soil. Leaf mold is created when leaves have fully decomposed over a long time. You can pile them in a sheltered spot and leave for two years. Or, speed up the process. 1. Run over leaf pile with a mower. 2. Make a 3 foot by 3 foot cage from stakes and chicken wire in which to put the shredded leaves. 3. Turn the pile occasionally. I have also put leaves in black plastic bags in an out-of-
Cassandra Warner
Cassandra Warner
area or in a container to make a beautiful, edible, fall salad bowl. Add some pansies or violas for your salad bowl also. Sow seeds of bachelor’s buttons, larkspurs and poppies for flowers next spring. Hardy perennials can be planted now, and most can be divided or moved now. Take out the summer annuals and put them in the compost and replace them with fall flowers, so their roots get established before really cold weather is here. Consider some violas, pansies, snap dragons, calendulas, dianthus, primrose stocks, chrysanthemums, diascia, asters, ornamental kale and cabbage, as most of these will give fall through spring color.