If you have had problems with carrot whitefly – those disgusting little worms that make tunnels – it’s best to pull carrots as soon as they’re ready, even though the standard advice is to leave them and simply harvest as needed. When the whiteflies keep reproducing, as they often do until serious frost, carrots that are gorgeous in October can be bug-riddled by Thanksgiving.
* If you do decide to cover things, don’t forget that the purpose of covers is twofold: you want to prevent frost from forming on plant parts , and you want to trap the warmth that is stored in the ground. Covers that tent will be more effective than mere umbrellas, and the closer plants are to mother earth, the more protected they will be. In other words, lay those tomato vines on the ground and bend tall raspberry canes so the fruit is down toward the waist of the patch.
* Don’t wait to spray on repellent if that’s your preferred method of deer-deterrence Disgusting them when they take that first bite is the biggest key to success. If you don’t mind chemicals, or a slight veil of white over everything, try Thiram based Chew-nott -a local product, made in Dutchess county. One application lasts all winter. If you prefer familiar ingredients, and don’t mind having the yard smell like a candle store for a few days, try clove and cinnamon based Deer Solution. It’s good for about 2 months, in our experience, and it’s almost local – made in Danbury.
* There isn’t much point in transplanting full grown basil that’s flowering; even if you cut it back the new growth will be tough and strong. But if you planted a second or third crop, this is a good time to pot up young plants for another couple months of use. Basil grown in the house isn’t tasty – and is a major bug-magnet as well – but basil that can live mostly outdoors in fall is well worth having. Choose a big pot, and don’t crowd it too tightly. Bring it in on nights when frost threatens and take it back out in the morning.
* If it’s still dry where you are, hold off on fertilizing the lawn. Otherwise, anytime in the next few weeks is just about ideal. And rain or no rain, have a go with a low-toxicity (acid-based) weed killer on broadleaf weeds like plantain and dandelion. Established plants will regrow, but less strongly, and if you hit ’em again next month there’s a good chance you’ll starve the root enough so it can’t compete with late fall grass. To make sure the weed-killer doesn’t hit said grass, use an old paintbrush – or a sponge in a gloved hand – to target your death-dealing.
* There are bargains to be had as nurseries frantically try to unload the last of this year’s perennials, but there are also dogs galore. Be sure to check the roots before buying. A bit of circling is inevitable and can be unwound or cut, but a tight net of thick, brittle roots is a guarantee of disappointment somewhere down the road. Keep whatever it is in the pot , where it’s easy to water, until the weather turns.
You do have to think of it in advance, but mail order bulbs from places like Scheepers, and Brent and Becky’s are almost always larger and healthier than the ones that come prepackaged at supermarkets and garden stores. And they are more likely to be true to name than bulk bulbs, which would otherwise be fine. The problem is the customers, not the stores: I have with my own eyes seen oblivious jerks tossing rejects back into whatever bin was handiest.
* It’s time to haul out those bulb maps I was nagging about last spring, then – unless you are very well fixed indeed – you can start having an argument with your inner accountant. It isn’t time to plant yet, but by the time you make up your mind and make up your orders, it will be.
* There is still a great deal more to come from the vegetable garden, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start cleaning up. Look around for anything that’s hanging on by a thread, then get rid of it. Compost everything that’s simply dying of old age, send disease-victims to the landfill – or pile them up somewhere deep in the woods where there isn’t any underbrush. The assorted ailments that hit soft growth can’t get much purchase on tree trunks.
* It’s best to harvest big heirloom tomatoes like Brandywine and German Streak a little bit early: completely colored but not yet really dead ripe. This may sound nuts – why else are you growing your own – but most of these “unimproved” beauties are very vulnerable to cracking, even when there’s no last minute rain. Letting them finish up indoors for the last day or three won’t make them taste any less vine ripened; just be sure to keep them in a single layer, out of the sun and somewhere between 60 and 75 degrees.
* If you haven’t tested your soil for a long time – or ever – this is a good time to check things out and see if adjustments are called for. Organic amendments like greensand and lime need time to break down, so if you want their good effects next spring you have to spread them this fall.
* Goldfinches are very food-needy right now; they wait to raise families until wild seeds are ripe. Even if there are feeders around, your little black and yellow neighbors will be grateful – and gratifyingly in evidence – if you stop deadheading the cosmos.
* As you drag the hose around, don’t forget that the compost needs water along with everything else. It won’t die if it gets desiccated, but it won’t decompose either. It can be a low priority if there’s plenty of space to make a new pile ( or piles!) at cleanup time. Otherwise it will be very convenient to have a nice open place to heap the frost-blasted dahlia stems and chopped up autumn leaves. Plus fall plantings benefit from lots of compost, which is often in short supply by the end of the growing season.
* It’s time – past time, really – to sow cover crops in annual and vegetable beds that are starting to fade. The payoff in improved soil health is worth the effort it takes to clean out tired plants and find winter rye seed. If you don’t expect frost for at least 6 more weeks, you can plant tender alternatives like buckwheat or field peas instead. They will still be small when they get killed, so they won’t make as much green manure, but because they will rot down over the winter you won’t have to till them in next spring.
* This is a good time to cast a cold eye on your summering houseplants and ask: would I buy this thing if I were browsing at the nursery? Would I buy it if it were on sale? Would I pick it up if it were sitting on the curb with a “free” sign around its neck? You know what to do if all answers are no. Most of the plants that remain are likely to need cutting back and re-potting before being moved to a shadier spot, which should be done fairly soon. There is still a fair amount of outdoor time left, but it helps to get them used to low light before they must go indoors.
* It takes at least 6 weeks – often more – for a baby winter squash to reach full size and ripen thoroughly , so before long it will be time to tip-prune the vines and remove new fruits and flowers. Plants that can put all their energy into just 4 or 5 large fruits are the ones that produce great squash. Just count back from your expected first frost date to find the optimum pruning time. The vine tips and baby squash are sometimes tasty, sometimes quite bitter. Try sautéing a sample in butter or olive oil before putting all that (potentially) high-end vegetable material on the compost heap.
* If you have been feeding roses, don’t forget to stop. Succulent young growth needs plenty of time to toughen up before cold weather, and you don’t want to encourage the plants to keep making more of it.
* If you have to ration water in the food garden, give the first drinks to tomatoes, peppers, beans, leafy items like lettuce and chard, and any young fruiting plants – like squash or peas – you planted for autumn crops. Don’t worry about melons and summer squash that are already producing – plants may look wilty at midday, but once the fruit is set it’ll taste better if it ISN”T irrigated.
* Among annual flowers, give preference to those that will keep blooming after frost: asters, calendulas, honeywort , snapdragons, stocks … And don’t forget that big plants in pots are practically on hydroponics by now – those pots have more roots than soil in them and may need water as often as twice a day.
* Inconsistent water supplies lead to blossom end rot in tomatoes, and being where it’s on the blossom end you often don’t notice it until the rotten part gets huge. But why let the tomato plant waste energy on failures? It only takes a minute to get down , look up, find the ailing fruits and get rid of them. If getting down far enough to look up isn’t easy, you can use a mirror just gently turn large tomatoes that appear to be ripening. With any luck, that’s what they’re doing, but changing color can also signal that something’s going wrong.
Take advantage of the wilting heat to fiddle with crisp stems that are prone to breakage: tie up floppy dahlias, unravel wayward bean and morning glory vines, tuck tomato branches back where they belong in the trellis. At midday these plants are limp and easy to work with – assuming you’re not so limp yourself you can’t bear to be out there.
This is about last call to cut back repeat-blooming roses – new growth needs quite a while to toughen up before freezing weather. But cutting them back is well worth doing ; by now a lot of the old foliage is bound to be freckled with blackspot or turned to lace by the Japanese beetles. Removing it instantly makes things look better, and it usually results in a good flush of fall bloom.
Even when it’s too hot to work, it’s not too hot to write, and the notes you take now will come in mighty handy when it’s seed and plant order time. Which tomatoes are ripening soonest? Which ones are fighting off the blight? Is there a rose that doesn’t appeal to our little brown and green pals? Which daylily is covered with buds, its blooming days still to come? You might think you will remember this stuff, but the chances are you won’t.
