NORTH FLORIDA MONTH-TO-MONTH GARDENING GUIDE   October 2006 by Nancy George

By October, day and night are of equal length, as daylight grows gradually shorter.  The temperatures have cooled and working in the garden is pleasant.  Fall color can be variable, but when the right conditions exist bright colored leaves flicker yellow, orange and red to transform the scenery.  Show your colors every autumn by selecting trees and shrubs to enhance your landscape, such as the "October Glory" red maple pictured at left.  Remember to include fall flowering plants, berries and exfoliating bark. 

What to Buy / Plant

Trees which deliver great fall foliage in our area include Sourwood, Dogwood, Ginkgo, and many oaks including Shumard, Sawtooth, White Oak and Chisos Red Oak.  Maples including Southern Sugar maple, Japanese Maples and ‘October Glory’ Red Maple, Grancy Graybeard, Bradford Pear, Chinese Pistache, Persimmon, and Liquid Amber.  On a smaller scale some great fall shrubs and vines include Oak leaf Hydrangea, Nandina, Blueberry, and Virginia creeper.  Other fall favorites include pussy willow with slender arching branches and catkins, Barberry, Virginia Sweetspire, Pyracantha, Lion’s Tail, and the cream and cinnamon peeling bark of Birch trees.

Cool season color arrives at the nursery during this month; look for mums, pansies, dusty miller, ornamental kale and cabbage, diascia, dianthus, gypsophila, iceland poppies, cyclamen, nemesia, snapdragon, and stock.  Plant spring flowering bulbs three times deeper than the diameter of the bulb.

Prune/ Propagate

Divide marginal and bog plants to prevent overcrowding around the pond.  Sow rye seed for green winter lawns. Take hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings.

Watering / Fertilizing

It's easy to forget about watering duties in the middle of fall, but proper moisture now is key to your plants' successful survival over the colder winter months.  Check the moisture of all plants, especially those in dry, sheltered areas such as under eaves and around tall evergreens.  Early in the month, feed roses for the last time this year.  Give roses up to 1 inch of water twice a week unless it rains.  Feed half-hardy shrubs with potash and calcium nitrate to help ripen the wood and make plants less susceptible to disease and frost damage.

Edibles

Plant cool-season vegetables such as sweet peas, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, kale, mustard, onions, garlic, lettuce and other greens.

Pests

This is the time for tidying up and putting things right to prepare for the winter months.  Keep the ground raked to reduce pests.  Reapply mulch to reduce weeds.

For Fun

To beautify a small space drill three holes in 25" or larger terra cotta saucer.  Spread a layer of potting soil over the bottom; add a variety of 4” ornamental grasses in varied colors  and heights.  Because the saucer is shallow you will need to separate the root s toward the outer rim.  Cover with soil, fill the exposed areas with moss.  Water well.  Add an assortment of river rocks and a small pumpkin.  Perfect for an entryway as a welcome for visitors and trick-or-treaters.  Change out the plants and decorations for other seasonal holidays, and enjoy.

Sourwood		Dogwood		Gingko		Sawtooth

Shumard		White Oak		Southern Sugar Maple

Japanese Maple		Grancy Graybeard		Persimmon

Bradford Pear		Chinese Pistache		Oak Leaf Hydrangea		Blueberry

Liquid Amber		Nandina		Virginia Creeper
Pussy Willow with Catkins		Barberry		Virginia Sweetspire

Pyracantha		Lion's Tail		Birch Tree with Bark		Diascia

Mums		Pansies		Dusty Miller
Ornamental Kale		Ornamental Cabbage		Dianthus
Iceland Poppies		Nemesia		Cyclamen

Gypsophila		Snapdragon

This article originally published on October 4, 2006.

Written by :

mkwestmark

 

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