LET’S TALK GARDENING – October Gardening Chores

FALL IS FOR PLANTING AND OCTOBER IS A VERY ACTIVE GARDENING MONTH

HERE ARE SOME GARDENING TIPS

Before I get into sharing some October gardening chores, let me do a re-cap of September. The first day of September started with a bang. Tropical Storm Ida passed by us giving us some rain but, thankfully, nothing damaging. Then a cool front came through that dropped our temperatures and humidity. What a relief after being so scorching hot at the end of August. Most of September has been hot, humid, and on the dry side. Fall officially arrived on Wednesday, September 22, with clouds and rain that continued the next day. But, it was this cold front that was such a relief. Our temperatures fell below normal and stayed this way for the rest of the month. GO FALL IS FOR PLANTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ALERT

Everyone needs to be getting ready to move all tropical houseplants inside. While they are outside now is the time to clean off the leaves in order to rid any insects that may have taken up residency on the plants. Also, it is ok to do some judicious pruning if needed. Another tip is to totally submerge the pot into a bucket with a solution of Ivory Soap and water. Let this solution thoroughly saturate the soil for a while. This practice will help rid of any insects living in the soil.

LAWN CARE

October represents the “O” in the S.O.D. lawn care program. You want to apply your second lawn feeding. Keep in mind that your third and final feeding will want to be done the first of “D” December.

PERENNIALS

Now is the time to dig and divide crowded perennials.

PANSIES

October is a great month to plant the “winter hardy” pansies. The sooner you plant the pansies the stronger and more deeply rooted they will become before the colder winter days.

BULBS

1. Now is a great month to get out and plant those daffodils, crocus, hyacinths, etc. But, hold off on planting tulip bulbs until around Thanksgiving when our soil temperature will be much cooler.
2. If you like container gardening then think about planting bulbs in the containers first. Then, come next spring, SURPRISE!!! You’ll have added color appearing in your containers.
3. Soon, you will want to dig and store those tender tubers and bulbs such as caladiums, gladiolas, dahlias, and elephant ears. Store in a cardboard box or paper bag (nothing plastic) that you filled with peat moss.

LEAVES

Tree leaves will be falling this month. Think about mowing over the leaves and chopping them up instead of bagging. These chopped-up leaves will quickly break down adding organic matter to your turf soil. Most everyone’s turf needs more organic matter in the soil for turf to thrive.

PINE NEEDLES

Our pine trees will be giving us some “free” mulch when the brown needles drop. Pine needles make excellent mulch especially around azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, etc. Pine needles break down quickly adding much-needed organic matter into our soil.

PRUNING

Fall is not the season to be doing random pruning on our evergreen shrubs and trees. You could be doing more harm than good. You need to be patient with pruning and hold off on any pruning until closer to winter when our evergreen plants are dormant.

FALL IS FOR PLANTING!!!! PLANT A LITTLE HAPPINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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