By Ron Honig, Crops and Horticulture Agent
If you are like me, you are being forced to turn the corner and head toward winter, but still have a list of fall projects waiting to be completed. My short list includes tilling some peat moss and manure into the garden and a new flowerbed I’m trying to develop, planting a few bulbs that still need a home in the ground, collecting flower seeds from my dried plants before cutting them down and mulching around a few young trees.
We won’t even talk about the rest of the list like staining a couple new gates, searching for the leak in my sprinkler system or pouring a footer under the fence. Apparently, some projects are just going to have to be rolled into spring.
So, what can we finish up here at the last minute?
Planting Fall Bulbs
Spring flowering bulbs we plant in the fall will winter better in the soil then trying to hold them another year. We may not have time to work the bed under the bulbs adding organic matter and fertilizer, but we can at least turn the soil a few times with a shovel and get the bulbs in the soil before winter. We may be wearing a heavy coat and using a flashlight, but we can probably get this chore done. The soil is still fairly warm so we may get some root growth on the bulbs before complete winter dormancy. Be sure to plant at the proper depth.
Cleaning Off Old Crop Residue
Depending on what you grow in your garden, it can be important to rake up the old plant stems, leaves, and discarded fruit, and then dispose of them to reduce disease and insect problems next year. Old squash and pumpkin residue can harbor squash bugs through the winter. Tomato plants and fruit can over-winter disease spores for next years crop. Tilling them into the soil certainly helps but a combination of removing residue and with potential problems and tilling the finer remaining residue under the soil can provide double protection.
Tilling Organic Matter into the Garden
If you are person that likes to till their garden in the fall, there is still time to make that happen. I piled some “clean” grass clippings mixed with leaves on the edge of my garden to incorporate into the soil. If you are done mowing for the year, maybe there are still some leaves scattered around that could be raked up and tilled or spaded into the soil. Adding store-bought organic matter such as peat moss is great also if you have time gather the ingredients. If not, just work with what is readily available.
Don’t Let Free Seed Go to Waste
If you have flowers that produced seed, there is still time to gather some of it up for use in the future. Label some plastic sandwich bags with the flower’s name and store the bags in the refrigerator if you have room or in the garage. If you punch a few holes in the plastic bags, it helps equalize the moisture so the seeds don’t mold.
Once you have all the seed you need, leave the rest for the birds to clean up.
Fertilizing Cool-Season Lawns
A late-fall application of nitrogen to cool-season grasses, such as fescues, feeds the roots without stimulating new growth. The grass roots will continue to be active in the relatively warm soil after the top-growth has slowed for the winter season. An application of 1 to 1 ½ pounds of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn can help keep your lawn fed during the winter and promote an earlier, more even green-up in the spring.
Since this application is feeding the roots during the winter, there is still time to make this application and hopefully we get some moisture to carry the nitrogen into the soil. A light watering by hand can help move the fertilizer into the soil as well.
Last weekend we had a light rain shower move into the area. I pulled out my fertilizer spreader in hopes of getting enough rain to water in my nitrogen without having to start up water. I spread my fertilizer in the rain on one last zone of my lawn I hadn’t fertilized yet. But unfortunately, the rain finished about the same time I did so I’m hoping the snow is heavy enough to finish the job.
Either way, that chore got completed and scratched off the list.
