Garden Patch: October To-Do List
OCTOBER
Most likely your last major planting of the season is happening now. Get those garlic, shallots, and flower bulbs in the ground. You may even be able to fit in one more round of loose leaf lettuce if you practice some season extension! Keep an eye on the weather. Finish up your harvests, store your crops, and save your seeds!
- Plant garlic, shallots, walking onions, and potato onions.
- Plant spring-flowering bulbs.
- Drain the hoses and empty the bird baths before a hard frost.
- Potted perennials can be buried in an empty part of the vegetable garden or surrounded with a thick layer of straw to get them through the winter.
- Collect soil samples now for testing to prepare for next year’s fertilization of the lawn, vegetable garden, shrub border, and flower beds. Submit separate samples for distinct areas used to grow different types of plants and where growing conditions are different for the same plants. A shady lawn area on a slope should be a different sample than a sunny lawn area.
- Dig and divide spring-and-summer-flowering perennials now. Plants that flower in late summer and fall can be done in the spring. Cut foliage back, replant, and water well. Wait until winter is in full swing to add new mulch for protection during their first winter.
- Keep an eye on the weather and harvest any remaining summer produce like beans, eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes before a hard frost rolls in. You can also dig up sweet potatoes at this time if you haven’t already.
- Cut and dry or freeze remaining herbs.
- Save seeds from favorite self-pollinating, non-hybrid flowers such as marigolds by allowing the flower heads to mature. Lay seeds on newspaper and turn them often to dry. Store the dry seeds in glass jars or envelopes in a cool, dry, dark place.
- Make a note of any particularly productive or unsatisfactory varieties of vegetables that you planted this year. Such information can be very useful when planning next year’s garden.
- Leave seed heads on asters, sunflowers, and cosmos for the birds to eat throughout winter.
- Cover broccoli and cauliflower on frosty nights.
All credit and special thanks to Angie Lavezzo at Sowtrueseed.com
Check out the full guide by using the link below.