October Garden Calendar

This is a great month to plant. The daytime temperatures are still nice while the night time temperatures begin to cool. This is one of the best months to plant shrubs, trees, and perennials. The ground doesn't dry out as quickly because of cooler evenings and the roots of the plants have a chance to spread out and get established before the winter months.

Are you thinking about renovating or installing a new lawn? This is a great time to either reseed existing lawn, plant a new lawn from seed, or lay sod.

Begin fertilizing your fruit trees and flowering shrubs with Master Bloom (0-10-10) and F.S.T. (a product that contains Iron, Sulfur, Maganese, and Zinc) starting in mid October to early November. You should apply these two products once a month until the middle of February.

The Master Bloom enhances root development and flower development because of the phosphorus and potash. The F.S.T., which contains essential trace minerals, strengthens the trees and generally makes the fruit sweeter. Both of these products are applied through the winter months to make these elements available to the plants as they emerge from dormancy.

Summer vegetables may be getting a little tired. Now is the time to prepare your vegetable beds for your winter crops and begin planting fall and winter vegetables. You can plant lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, mustard, collards, celery, carrots, onions(however, stockton onions won't be available until November), garlic(all types), radishes, and more.

If you are interested in finding the tree with the best fall color, then fall is the time to visit the nursery to see which tree has the best fall color for you. Usually late October to early November, many of the trees begin to change color.Remember that trees in containers usually start changing color up to several weeks before well established trees in the ground. So don't wait too long or you'll miss the colors.

Amaryllis bulbs are available beginning in October. Tulips, daffodils, paperwhites, freesias, hyacinth, and other spring blooming bulbs are still available. Tulips and hyacinth benefit from being refrigertated for 4 to 6 weeks before planting.