Yesterday, September 22nd, was the Fall Equinox—the first day of astronomical fall. For meteorologists, the first day of fall is the first of September. On this day, the days and nights are equal in length, like they are on the Spring Equinox in March. From here on out, the nights will be longer than the days until the Winter Solstice (in December). At that point, the days start being longer than the nights. With the Fall Equinox, the sun’s rays pass over the equator and hit directly on the Southern Hemisphere, so they are now entering spring.
Fall Gardening Jobs Now
Many gardening jobs can be done now, such as aerating and overseeding your lawn. However, one of the jobs I love best is planting spring-blooming bulbs. Daffodils, hyacinths, crocus, etc., should be planted now so they can grow a few roots before the winter freeze.
Tulips can be planted in mid-November because they are native to the mountains of Turkey and Russia and need our soil temperatures to be a little cooler.
How to Plant Your Spring Bulbs
Whichever bulbs you plant, be sure to plant them at the correct depth—small bulbs like crocus and grape hyacinths (muscari) can go about 4 inches deep; bulbs like hyacinths, daffodils, and alliums should go about 6 inches deep. Tulips should go about 10 inches deep.
The advantage to planting tulips deep is that squirrels don’t dig that far down, and voles don’t tunnel that deep, so they’re often not bothered by critters.
If you are concerned about deer, when you plant your tulips 10 inches deep, at the 6-inch depth, tuck in some daffodils or hyacinths. Deer tend to avoid those. The tulips will have a beautiful backdrop of hyacinths or daffodils when they bloom in the spring, but the deer will smell them and keep on going!
Topdress With a Commercial Bulb Food
You can topdress with a commercial bulb food and, otherwise, forget about them over the winter while they are growing roots underground. All you need to do in the spring is enjoy their beauty and, if you want, remove the old bulb foliage AFTER it has turned brown in early summer.
Be Sharp and Sharpen Your Garden Tools Now
Another thing you can do this fall is get your garden tools sharpened before you put them away. Bring them to our Farmers’ Market on Thursdays so our Knife Sharpener can sharpen them while you wait. That way, they’re already sharp and ready to go when you pull them out in the spring.