Here's a list of tasks for the garden this month. Enjoy!
- Dethatching your lawn is a great task to do early this month.
- Rake leaves and add them to your compost pile.
- While you are at it, turn the compost pile.
- Dig up tender herb plants such as rosemary, thyme and transplant in containers to bring indoors. These plants need a rest period so keep them in a cooler area of your house over the winter. Enjoy adding them to culinary dishes throughout the winter.
- Brussel sprouts, kale, and kohlrabi are cold-tolerant veggies and best harvested in cooler weather.
- Plant garlic cloves for next season.
- Beets, carrots, leeks and turnips will survive into early winter if mulched with straw or leaves.
- Continue to add spring flowering bulbs to your gardens.
- Cut dahlias back and dig up the tubers after the first heavy frost. Brush off dirt and air dry. Share some with your friends. Store tubers in a cardboard box between layers of vermiculite, peat moss, saw dust or wood shavings. The bulbs can also be potted in a soilless mix and stored in the cellar or heated garage. Do not water until mid-May. Store at 35 - 45 degrees.
- Canna bulbs must be dug up once a heavy frost hits. Cut back the stalks, dig up the bulbs and store them in an airy container with peat moss or rice hulls to help maintain bulb moisture.
- Transplant trees or shrubs now. Water them well.
- Gather fallen leaves, twigs, fruit and debris to keep disease at a minimum.
- Remove spent annuals from your garden. Compost them. :)
- Cut back spent perennial foliage to 3" or so. Compost the stalks.
