October Ideas, Tips & Guides

If October starts warm it can provide a nice breathing space, to catch up late harvesting, saving seeds and generally getting the garden ready for the winter. It’s also the time to cover any bare soil, with mulches if necessary, to protect your soil structure from bad weather, and to ensure any tall plants (mainly brassicas) are staked against ‘wind rock’, which can lift their roots out of the soil. You may also need to net brassicas to stop them being munched by marauding pigeons.

September is almost over, and autumn finally arrived. The weather gets moody, and there aren’t many sunny days to enjoy in the garden. However, this doesn’t mean there aren’t any October gardening jobs. If you are done with all of theessential gardening jobs for September, check out our suggestions about what to do in the garden in October.

Now that October is here, you must be busy with theessential gardening jobs for this autumn month. For most people, this time of the year is especially pleasing because of the cooler nights, warm sunny days, and pretty autumn foliage.

Plant foliage provides color, texture, and interest to the landscape.

A Fall Walk Around Crooked Trail Farm

Fall-flowering Salvias Add Beauty to the Autumn Landscape

Come for a fall stroll in the beautiful South Carolina Botanical Gardens and see what’s blooming this week.

Life in the Meadow Part 1

Justin Ballew reports, “We had beautiful sunny weather last week that really helped dry things out. Strawberry transplants are due in this week and growers will start getting them in the ground as soon as they can. We have heard some reports of anthracnose coming from nurseries, so be sure to closely examine your plants and do not plant any that look weak. Since we are planting a little late, proper planting is all the more important. Be sue crews are planting transplants at the proper depth. Supervise them closely. Using row covers to push growing degree days may also be helpful this fall since most folks are planting a week or more late. There is a good article in this month’s NC Strawberry Association newsletter (pages 6-8) about using row covers in the fall.”

Meet Your Clemson Extension Horticulture Agent Team

Rob Last reports, “We are progressing well with preparations for strawberry planting. Some plants are due to be delivered this week. Remember, if fumigants have been used, check to ensure the products have dissipated to prevent damage to the transplants. The same is true to make sure planting restrictions on any pre-emergence herbicides applications are observed. Always refer to the label. Finally, remember to check your plants carefully for pest and disease inoculum from the nursery. Planting any disease or pest-infected plants will lead to a more challenging growing season. If you require any help, please reach to Extension Agents.”

An October Ramble around Crooked Trail Farm

Zack Snipes reports, “We had a nice week of weather last week and are getting some rain this morning (10/25). Strawberry plants are arriving, and growers will be busy putting in plants this week. I’ve gotten several calls about doing plant dips to prevent disease for the upcoming season. Most growers are using Zivion, but it has been somewhat hard to come by, so others are using Switch. We are dipping plants to prevent crown rot diseases from wiping out our crop. Speaking of wiping out our crop…DEER. Get your fences up now BEFORE you plant. For more information on deer fencing, see HGIC 2902, Deer Management Using a Two-Tiered Fence System. We see black rot on brassicas every season, but it seems particularly bad this season.  Cultural practices such as crop rotation, using clean seed and transplants, and spacing plants out can help with the disease. Unfortunately, there are no products that will help with this disease.  We had a great fall watermelon crop that will be wrapping up here shortly.

Life in the Meadow Part 2

The French Style of Flower Arranging by Laura Dowling, Chief Floral Designer at the White House 2009-2015.

A Recent Visit to the Afton Villa Gardens in St. Francisville, Louisiana. The plantation house was destroyed by a kitchen fire in 1963.

Zack Snipes reports, “What a wild week we had with the hurricane, rain, and storm prep. Overall, the Lowcountry dodged most of the wind and water.  While we still had wind gusts exceeding 45 mph and several inches of rain, most of the crops pulled through. It seems that the amount of rain depended on what band of the hurricane passed. Downtown Charleston and James Island received 10+ inches of rain, while the Coastal REC, just a few miles away, received half of that. Some crops got beat up a bit, but I have heard no reports yet of a total crop loss. Before the storm, I went out and about and found lots of lepidopteran pests (diamondback moth larvae, cutworms, melonworms, pickleworms, imported cabbage worms, and an assortment of armyworms…I feel like Bubba Gump here).  I also saw a good bit of black rot on brassicas and plenty of downy mildew. I suspect with the wind and rain that, these diseases will really pick up this week and next. Many growers are putting the finishing touches on strawberry plastic and seeding fall carrots, turnips, beans, arugula, radish, etc.”

“The end of summer is not the end of the world. Here’s to October…” ~A.A. Milne~

October is a wonderful gardening month in the Lowcountry. As the days get shorter and cooler, the garden centers begin to fill with favorite annuals, perennials, herbs, shrubs, and trees. “Fall is for planting.”

Check out the new rainfall calculator on the Clemson Weather website. This feature calculates the amount of rainfall received in a particular location over a specified time.

Check out the new rainfall calculator on the Clemson Weather website. This feature calculates the amount of rainfall received in a particular location over a specified time.

Come for a fall stroll at the South Carolina Botanical Gardens this week.

“October is the opal month of the year. It is the month of glory, of ripeness. It is the picture-month.” ~Henry Ward Beecher~

Zack Snipes reports, “It’s been a very cloudy and humid week in the Lowcountry. The temperatures are perfect, but the lack of sunshine has plants in a holding pattern. It has been very great strawberry planting weather. Most farms are finished up or are about to finish up this week. Overall, plants are clean with no insect or disease issues, but they are very small. If you have small plants, I recommend covering them here in a few weeks with a lightweight row cover to encourage fall growth before winter. Make sure you go behind your planting crews to make sure they are planting properly. I have seen “J-rooted” bare root plants and plugs planted too deep. Even the most experienced crews should be monitored carefully while planting. Our yield drag begins at planting if planted incorrectly.”

THE NEW SEASON IS HEATING UP, at least visually, even as temperatures trend downward. Cleanup is (hopefully) under way in earnest, with time out to cook up the last bits from the vegetable garden into a batch of ‘Tomato Junk’ or soup, or local/homegrown apples into easy applesauce, checking on the kettles between rounds of raking and cutbacks outdoors. With such delicious reminders of summer and fall in the freezer, and the right plants in the garden, there’s no “end” to fear. Some of us even feel happy about the coming riches: berries and other fruits, bark, new birds. PEAK PLANTING TIME for bulbs and for many woody things continues through month’s end or so; make that work include some focus on the addition of fall and winter plants to the landscape.GARDEN CLEANUP, though, is the primary order of the day—and don’t forget: quickly stash your tender things as frost threatens or just after, depending on the plant, to carry them through the winter. Here we go:TREES & SHRUBSCLEAR TURF OR WEEDS fro

Peak planting time for bulbs and for many woody things continues through month’s end or so; make that work include some focus on the addition of fall and winter plants to the landscape.Garden cleanup, though, is the primary order of the day—and don’t forget: quickly stash your tender things as frost threatens or just after, depending on the plant, to carry them through the winter. Here we go:TREES & SHRUBSCLEAR TURF OR WEEDS from the area right around the trunks of fruit trees and ornamentals to reduce winter damage by rodents. Hardware cloth collars should be in place year-round as well.BE EXTRA-VIGILANT cleaning up under fruit trees, as fallen fruit and foliage allowed to overwinter

THE NEW SEASON IS HEATING UP, at least visually, even as temperatures trend downward. I’ll be interested to see what the fall foliage season amounts to after what seems like a record wet year. I wonder if it will come close to last year (which was dry). I will say the fruiting plants here have produced abundant crops (like hollies, viburnums, and crabapples).TIME TO COOK UP the last bits from the vegetable garden into a batch of ‘Tomato Junk’ or soup, or local/homegrown apples into easy applesauce, checking on the kettles between rounds of raking and cutbacks outdoors. All my harvest-stashing tips are recapped here. With such delicious reminders of summer and fall in the freezer, and the right plants in the garden, there’s no “end” to fear. Some of us even feel happy about the coming riches: berries and other fruits, bark, a new season of birds.PEAK PLANTING TIME for bulbs

THE TALLY IS COMPLETE, though I avoided facing it for nearly two weeks. My dear neighbor, Herb, with the smaller of his trusty chainsaws, did the deed: took down the disfigured or otherwise devastated woody plants that the freakish October 2011 snowstorm maimed. I walked around with him the other day, once I had gotten past the initial shock, and pointed: Take the left side of this; this one goes completely; remove the three broken stems from that one. And then I went out for the afternoon, returning only after all evidence was erased. (Wimpy, I know.) The body count:

In my Zone 5B, if we made it through September without a frost (we did!) we’re unlikely to escape another month. Wherever you are, it’s probably tick, tick, tick. So first things first: As temperatures trend downward, and weather gets more unsettled, tender things that are still outdoors or otherwise unprotected need your attention at once, in order of just how tender they are. How to overwinter tropicals and other non-hardy plants.I’m picking away already at garden cleanup, which by mid-month or so will involve a lot of raking well into November. Leaves can be precious, and make great leaf mold when composted. Maybe start a leaves-only compost pile this year? Running over dry leaves (and other dry non-woody material) with the mower to shred will reduce the area needed for such piles.Don’t clean up too soon, though. If a perennial

I MEAN, REALLY. At 6:14 PM last night–pre-Halloween, mind you, pre-EDT clock change–it was already dark with 3/4 inch of snow on everything outside.

WHERE TO BEGIN with the massive job called fall cleanup? Top on our chores list this month: a 7-point program to help us all focus—along with some critical note-taking on the 2014 garden, as we’re teasing it apart.fall cleanup: the short versionLeave especially ornamental or wildlife-friendly plants standing. Don’t act as if you’re vacuuming the living room; clean up beds tactically for maximum enjoyment by you and the birds.Remove sickly things first. Destroy the debris to minimize next year’s issues with squash bugs, cabbage worms, voles, and other pests and diseases.

IFEEL LIKE I’M BACK IN GIRL SCOUTS, earning merit badges for proficiency in new tasks. This weekend I mastered Generator 101, and though it’s no picnic, I did manage to make a tea party, with my electric kettle operating al fresco—or at least I made a cup of hot tea or two to fuel me on into rounds of snow removal of various kinds. A slideshow of the storm from hell, the second big October snow of my years here.

YES, I KNOW: IT’S GETTING LATE. But among the parting glances of the fall garden, there are still some pretty spectacular moments to enjoy…if you hurry, and widen your gaze to include everything from a whole shrub border (below) to a self-sown, extra-dark kale (above) that nobody planted, but everyone got to enjoy.

In September’s chores I suggested a survey of the garden—noting what worked and didn’t, and making a plan for possible changes. While I tease the garden apart, I’m making my next-year garden resolutions—remember my 2013 resolution list, made around this time? So helpful.Are you ready for “feeder season”? Put out the welcome mat for the birds, like this.Despite those nippy nights, September came and went again this year without a frost, but I’m unlikely to escape another month. (In 2011 it snowed 18 inches one October night, so I’m on alert!) Wherever you are, it’s probably tick, tick, tick, so first things first:overwintering tender plantsI GOT SOME GREAT ADVICE for stashing tropicals from Dennis Sc

EVEN I—SHE OF THE MONTHLY CHORES LISTS—get overwhelmed at the thought of it: fall cleanup. As the month begins, I wait in a sort of suspended animation—for frost, and for leaf drop, the two accelerators that manufacture literal heaps of to-do’s faster than I can keep up.

Looking Good in the Garden at the End of October Rose Graham Stuart Thomas always seems to send up a few perfect blooms in October and November The ever gorgeou acer has deepened in colour for a final flourish before the leaves fall Cosmos flowers keep on coming – they are remarkable plants – they are about to enter their 6th month of flowering Flowers for a friend – it is amazing what can be found for a posy even in a garden that is largely drained of colour