October in the Garden
Greetings from Birch Meadow,
Finally, some cool, crisp weather and fresh autumn air. We’ve hit our busy season and are soaring through countless designs, installations, and regular maintenance. We appreciate your patience as we try to work in all of your requests.
Already the bulbs are selling out, so be sure to place your order with your favorite supplier asap as you stretch comfortably into your outdoor spaces.
Enjoy the Fall, ya’ll!
THINGS TO DO IN YOUR GARDEN IN OCTOBER
• Here is a link for things that should have been done in September, just in case you are still catching up!
• Click here for Central NC Planting Calendar for Annual Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs.
• Do NOT fertilize shrubs in August, September, October, or November.
• Do NOT prune shrubs in October.
•Plant spring flowering bulbs like daffodil, tulip, crocus, and hyacinth.
• Plant or transplant peonies.
• Continue planting pansies & chrysanthemums.
• If you do not choose to plant a fall vegetable garden, plant cover crops like red clover, buckwheat, annual rye, barley, and wheat.
• You can start salad vegetables in a cold frame and enjoy them all winter. Plant lettuce, green onions, carrots, radishes, and most leafy greens inside the cold frame.
• Cut back herbaceous perennials after frost has killed the tops.
• Divide and transplant crowded clumps of spring and summer flowering perennials and bulbs.
• Start filling your compost bin as leaves begin to fall. If you have not or do not plan to plant a cover crop, you can till organic material like tree leaves into your vegetable garden soil.
• Dig and store summer bulbs like gladioli, dahlia, and caladium before frost.
• Spring flowering bulbs can be forced to flower in the dead of winter. Just pot the bulbs early this month and place inside your refrigerator. In twelve weeks take them out into the warmth of your home.
• Transplant any evergreen trees or shrubs that need moving towards the end of this month.
• Direct sow the seeds for lettuce, greens, onions, peas, and broccoli once weather cools.
• Remove “weed” or unnecessary trees from your landscape.
• Keep a close eye on all fall vegetable plants. Insects and diseases are more severe in the autumn.
• Divide peonies.
• Prepare houseplants to reenter your home – check them carefully for insect pests.
• Add special accents to your garden – sculptures, colorful trellises, antique decorative metalwork.
THOSE WEIRD MARKS ON YOUR LEAVES? HERE’S HOW TO DECIPHER THEM
Don’t jump to the conclusion that those mysterious marks are evidence of disease. They may be leaf mines or galls — and that’s a good thing.
By Margaret Roach
During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, some of us mastered bread-baking (if we could get our hands on flour) or devoted ourselves to nurturing some new mail-order houseplant.
Charley Eiseman set the bar a bit higher, as he always does. In 2020, he decided to keep count of certain creatures living within the confines of his Northfield, Mass., yard — and not the easy ones, like birds or mammals, either.
For Mr. Eiseman, a freelance naturalist who conducts biodiversity surveys for conservation groups and other clients, it’s the little things that matter most.
Before the year was out, he had recorded 212 leafminer species, among his various tallies.
You may not be familiar with leafminers, but even if you haven’t seen the miners themselves, which typically go unnoticed, you have most likely witnessed their handiwork: the squiggles or blotches within leaf tissue, known as mines.
The tiny creatures that excavate a leaf’s epidermal layers to feed themselves are larvae from some 50 families of moths, flies, beetles and sawflies. Each species targets particular host plants in ancient, intimate relationships.
If you grow columbine (Aquilegia), a popular meal in many regions for larvae of flies in the genus Phytomyza, you have probably seen evidence of the presence of a leafminer — marks that you feared were symptoms of disease, but aren’t.
PRUNING 101
October is good for pruning most deciduous trees (trees whose leaves fall off). After the leaves have dropped, pruning is easier, because you can see the “skeleton” of the tree, and they are in a dormancy period. Wait on the Crape Myrtles until March, and roses until February. Evergreens can be pruned now, and most folks feed them lightly after pruning, as well as in the late winter (around March). Camellias, Daphne, Sarcacocca, and any other winter bloomers, should wait until after bloom, but you can feed them now, to give them a boost.
WILDLIFE IN YOUR OCTOBER GARDEN
October is a time of year when wildlife is out in abundance and migrating birds make their way south to warmer climates.
Here are some ways you can help your neighborhood critters prepare for the cold and help migrating birds complete their journey.
October is a busy time for backyard birds. You’ll see thrushes, native sparrows, and finches at your feeders and birdbaths this month.
If you didn’t put any suet out last month, now is the time to do it.
If you don’t already have a heated birdbath, consider installing one before the weather gets much colder.
Keep your feeders filled with niger seed to attract sparrows and goldfinches.
PLANT NOW – DON’T WAIT FOR SPRING
Most plants in the fall start to put their resources toward new root growth before they go dormant and they can do this because they’re not battling drought and heat. And so it makes perfect sense to plant now because your new plants get a head start, and by this I mean they get two seasons of mild temperatures (fall and upcoming spring) before they need to contend with summer’s warm temperatures. Plus, upcoming winter rains will help the new plant develop a robust root system, protect it against diseases and drought stress, and make it more resistant to grueling harsh winter winds and temperatures.
And here’s another upside: If you get your major planting done now, you’ve simplified your future chores and can focus on pruning, weeding, and planting a few annuals to refresh containers and flower beds come spring. So plan to get your trees, hedges, hardy perennials, ground covers, and, especially, natives in the ground now.
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If you would like help tending your established garden or installing a new one, please let us know! Click here for Maintenance Policy & Pricing.
Enjoy the wonders of October!
The Birch Meadow Team
Mary Beth, Kelley, Barbara, Karla, Jared, Lauren, Jess, Rachael, Kell, Leigh, Shannon, and Community Based Landscaping
919-224-9697