The Fall Planting Season Continues

Hints for planting bulbs, improving soil, and tending to grasses in the fall.

Winterizer Formulation Gro-Power Flower-n-Bloom
Item # 99708 		Gro-Power Flower-n-Bloom

each $13.95
  • Topic: Fall Gardening
  • Author: David Salman
  • Keywords: fall, bulbs, fall planting. , Fall Gardening, gardens
  • Date: October 2000

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October continues as an excellent month for fall planting. In colder sections of the country (Zones 4-6) fall planting of perennial flowers should be coming to a close. Bulb planting, however, can begin in October after a few frosts have started to cool the soil. In warm winter areas of the country (particularly Texas and the desert Southwest), late October marks the start of the fall planting season as the daytime temperatures begin to cool.

Storing Your Bulbs before Planting

We will begin shipping bulbs this month. If you’re too busy to plant right away or the weather is unseasonably warm, bulbs can be stored before planting. To hold bulbs in good condition keep them in their ventilated paper shipping bags (airtight plastic bags are to be avoided) and place in a dark room that stays cool but not freezing (below 62 degrees F but above 40 degrees). Basements and cool closets are excellent. Avoid more than two weeks of storage in the refrigerator. Just like that uncovered dish of salad, mechanical refrigeration will dry out bulbs if kept there too long.

Bulbs that are Invaluable for Shade

Spring blooming bulbs can be real problem solvers when used to plant shaded beds under trees. Daffodils, Scilla (Siberian Squill), Hyacinthoides (Spanish Bluebells), Galanthus (Snow Drops) and Muscaria (Grape Hyacinth) are all superb when used to brighten these areas of your yard. These bulbs should be planted into patches of other non-bulb shade-loving groundcovers like Symphytum (Ornamental Comfrey, #93050), Aegopodium (Bishop’s Weed, #10910) and Lamium “White Nancy” (False Nettle, #62250). This combination will provide flowers when the groundcovers are still dormant and out of leaf. The groundcovers will in turn cover the bulb foliage as the bulbs go dormant in early summer.

Mulch Bulbs after Planting

Once your bulbs are planted and labeled (so you’ll know where to expect them in the spring), mulch the ground with a two inch thick layer of mulch material. Soak the ground thoroughly to settle the soil and dampen the bulbs and stimulate root growth. Until the ground freezes in late fall, additional watering once every two or three weeks is beneficial. Remember, don’t let your bulbs get too dry over the winter should it prove to be a dry one. A monthly watering from February through April is good.

Keeping the Soil Healthy

Avoid chemical lawn fertilizers! These chemically derived nutrients bypass the microbial activity in the soil and are absorbed directly by the plant roots. Prolonged use of chemical fertilizers will actually deplete the soil’s organic matter content and kill the soil’s good microbes by starvation leaving the plants completely dependent on the continued use of non-organic formulations. Lawns that have been feed for years with chemical “lawn food” require annual de-thatching because there are no beneficial microbes in the soil to break-down the grass clipping and convert them into humus.

Instead build your soil through the use of organic fertilizers. Healthy soils are full of beneficial microbes that break down organic material and convert it to nutrient-rich humus. A lawn growing on healthy soil never needs de-thatching and is typically not bothered by dollar-spot and other fungal diseases because the beneficial microbes crowd out the ones that cause disease. This healthy root/soil microbe interaction is the cornerstone of a healthy, lower maintenance landscape.

Keeping Your Lawn Healthy

Fall is the optimum time to fertilize grass lawns. Fall “feeding” of turf and native grasses strengthens the roots and increases the grass density. It also helps grass have good green color next summer while avoiding the fast, thirsty growth that results from summer “feeding”. I use all natural formulations like Gro-Power 5-3-1 (#99707) or Yum Yum Mix (#99730) as excellent soil building fertilizers to keep turf and native grass lawns healthy. Turf-type lawns should be fertilized twice during the fall; once in early October and again one month later in early November. Native grass lawns and meadows only need a single fertilizer application, preferably in October.

For Kentucky Blue and Fescue turf grass; apply one to one and a half pounds of actual nitrogen per 1000 sq. ft per application. At this rate a 20 lb. bag of Gro-Power 5-3-1 will cover 660 to 1000 sq. ft of lawn. A 25 lb. bag of Yum Yum Mix will cover 330 to 500 sq. ft of turf.

(When a fertilizer bag has numbers on it like 5-3-1 the 5 refers to the percentage weight of nitrogen in the bag. Thus a 20 pound bag is 5% nitrogen by weight or 1 pound of actual nitrogen.)

For Buffalo, Blue Grama and other native grasses; a single application of one half pound. of actual nitrogen per 1000 sq. ft of lawn area is enough. At this rate a 20 lb. bag of Gro-Power 5-3-1 will cover 2000 sq. ft of native grass lawn. A 25 lb. bag of Yum Yum Mix will cover 1000 sq. ft.

Fertilizing Perennials, Trees, and Shrubs

Once the leaves have dropped off the woody plants and the perennials are beginning to go dormant (or been frosted several times), it’s time to fertilize. Gro-Power Flower- n-Bloom 3-12-12 (#99708 ) and Yum Yum Mix (#99730) are both excellent granular formulations that build the soil and add nutrients for the plants to use. I like to scratch the fertilizer into the top inch or so of the soil then cover the soil with several inches of mulch. Irrigate the fertilized areas thoroughly.

You don’t have to be a neat-nik this fall

There is no need to go out and cut-back all your perennials and ornamental grasses this fall. Many perennials and grasses have ornamental seed heads and dried flowers that will add winter interest to your garden. Seed-eating songbirds will also appreciate it if you leave the seed heads on the plants as a fall or early winter snack. Remember that many perennials will have greater cold hardiness if the stems are left on the plant over the winter. Only diseased leaves and stems should be removed in the fall. This will remove the disease organism and discourage it from re-infecting the same plants next year. So kick back in your lawn chair with a hot cup of coffee, relax and wait for mid-spring before you get back to work cutting off the dead stems and flowers.