Review September’s Tips for information you can still use. There are some very useful tips for your perennial garden!
Planting and transplanting can be accomplished now. Shrubs and perennials can always be shaded out by larger plants and begin performing less well. This is a good time to move them.
No pruning should be done on trees and shrubs now. It’s okay to remove any branch with disease or damage, but anything else should wait until late winter or early spring. As plants ready themselves for dormancy, they want to concentrate on root health, not pushing out new growth.
Plant Spring flowering bulbs now if you haven’t already! Faddegon’s has a great selection! It’s time to dig up your tender bulbs and store them. Bulbs such as cannas, gladiolus, dahlias and caladium can’t survive our winter temps in the ground.
Lawns will be going into dormancy later this month. There’s no harm in fertilizing now, but to truly be winterizing your lawn, you’ll need to wait until grass plants are mostly brown. The only difference in lawn fertilizers at this time of year has to do with temperature, not the product itself. Any fertilizer you use now will be feeding top growth. Any fertilizer you use after the lawn has browned will go into root growth and nutrient storage. If you regularly irrigate your lawn and want it to remain as green as it can be, then fertilizing now is fine.
Re-seed the lawn this month. Use straw to keep the seed from blowing away. Water the lawn so it gets 1 inch of water a week including rainfall.
After the first hard frost it’ll be obvious which perennials need to be cut back. Read more on instructions for specific plants.
Clean, clean, clean! The more you do this fall, the further ahead you’ll be next spring and the less chance of pests and diseases taking cover in your garden through the winter. Remove all dead vines, stalks and leaves to the compost pile.
Pull those weeds!
Pick up and remove all fruit that has fallen to the ground from fruit trees.
Remove all leaves and debris from under your rosebushes.
Remove all of your garden ornaments now. Ceramics should be stored so that the freeze/thaw process doesn’t crack them. Fountains should be moved indoors or completely covered for the same reason. Take out your stakes and plant markers so you don’t lose them.