Fall or Summer?
Have you noticed the weather? High 70’s and low 80’s. After one of the hottest summers I can remember, at last some relief. Although we may get some more warm weather, as far as the plants are concerned fall is here. We will see plants starting to recover from the long hot summer.
The reason plants notice the fall even if the weather goes back up is because the nighttime temps are moving down and the amount of time it is hot is getting shorter. The reason plants show the stress is generally because they can’t replace the evaporated water fast enough. As we move into September and October they can.
What does this mean to you as a gardener?
1) Fall vegetable planting season. It’s time to plant broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, Swiss chard, peas, turnips and lots of other cool weather vegetables.
2) Fall flower planting season. Now is the time to plant pansies, violas, snapsdragons, stock, primroses, sweet peas and cyclamen. (Note: If you have been having problems with flowers rotting out because of phythophera we have been getting good reports on a new fungicide called Agri-fos. It costs 15.99 and we brought in last spring. I have waited until we got some success reports before talking about it.)
3) General planting. Gardeners have always known about the advantages in fall planting. You get the plant established before the spring growing season, which means a lot more growth next year. In addition you have a better established plant that has less heat stress in the summer. Now is the time to plant shrubs, trees and perennials. In fact anything that is not cold tender.
4) Bulb planting time. Now is the time to plant fall bulbs like daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, crocus and lots of others. Check out our naturalizing bulbs for repeated bloom year after year. There are lots of bulbs that really do survive here year after year. They include the smaller flowered narcissus, crocus, brodiea. They are clearly marked in our bulb selection.
5) Lawn care season. Now is the time to fertilize your lawn using Masters Fall and Winter Food. If you have had an annual blue grass control problem Masters has come out with a new pre-emergent fertilizer combination with good control of annual Bluegrass, Crabgrass (when applied in the early spring), Spurge (when applied in the spring). If you have thin or bare spots now is also a great time to reseed.
In case you haven’t noticed now is a great time to get out in the garden and start getting it ready for the most glorious spring and summer. Come in and let us show you how.
