Here is a list of things that can/should be done in your gardens during October and just a reminder to enjoy the upcoming holiday.
Time for a soil test if it has been three years since your last test.
Time to set pocket gopher, mole, rat and mouse traps around your property. See how many rodents might want to move into and under your property.
Wait till the end of Oct. to trim back over grown landscape shrubs, so that they will not simply re-sprout new growth before first killing frost.
Time to pull out the last of summer annuals, replant with winter hardy annuals like pansy’s, mums Etc. Wait till after a killing freeze to trim back perennials that are still in bloom.
Still time to plant wildflower seeds, clover and rye grass cover crops. Winter Wheat and Oats can still be planted. Winter greens can be planted.
Stir up your organic mulch covers in all of your flower beds. These wood chips and bark nuggets get glued together with fungi, forming a water proof barrier. Check to be sure you have three inches of fresh organic mulches over flower/shrub beds before Thanksgiving.
Old garden vines/larger garden plants need to be stacked up to dry, then chopped up with lawn mowers or bush hog mowers. Do NOT reuse or compost these garden plants back into the garden. Use garden plants and old fruits around trees and shrubs. Use hardwood leaves back into the vegetable garden area. Pull up tomato, pepper, egg plants then look for nematodes in the root balls of these plants.
If the soils in flower beds and or garden soils are heavy, hard packed then mix in Gypsum and more organic matter. Gypsum helps break up packed soils, much better to till this in to mix it into the top 7 inches of the soils.
Chicken litter can be tilled into garden soils with the next fall tilling. Wait two weeks then till the soils again. Depends on the litter but one ton per acre of garden area works pretty well.
Last gasp to spray Round-up for Bermuda, Bahia and the Nut Grass Sedges.
Time to gather pecans, black wall nuts, begin to taste test persimmons for ripe fruit. There is a “huge” difference in the sugar content from tree to tree with persimmon fruit. More full sun on the trees means more sugar in the fruit. The Orient Pears are still ripe on some trees. Maybe a few Kieffer pears still on trees. Watch for a couple of species of Hickory Trees locally. We have several different species, the smallest nuts come off of the “Pig Nut” hickory. Hickory trees are closely related to Pecans. There maybe a few of the Carpathian Walnut trees still in this region. Or the Paper Shell walnut trees.
Watch for the Florida Dogwoods that might be loaded with red berries. They can be harvested in another month. We also have the Rough Leafed Dogwood or Drummundii dogwood native to this area. It will have clusters of white berries and this takes more full sun, is more disease resistant than the Florida Dogwood trees. The Drummond Dog wood is more common between White Oak Creek and the Sulfur River.
Gather any of the Burr oak or the other species of White Oak Acorns to spread in local woods. Acorns are falling now from all oak species.
Keith Kridler
Come Grow With Us
Cypress Basin Master Gardeners