Home Gardening

North Mississippi Gardening Tips
October, 2001

Notes for October

The "grand finale" to the growing season occurs in October in north Mississippi. This month is the garden's last chance to show off before the first killing frost (usually occurring around Halloween) puts an abrupt end to it all. Texas tarragon, goldenrod, sedum, Mexican bush sage and other fall bloomers are still blooming up a storm. Leaves of the deciduous trees and shrubs are displaying every color of the rainbow as the sugars are moved out of the leaves down to the roots. Plants are busily forming seeds and otherwise preparing themselves for the winter rest period. Chilly nights and warm (not hot) days make this a nice season to spend time in the garden enjoying the vivid fall colors and harvesting the last of the warm season veggies. The fall landscape is ablaze with beauty. Take a minute or two to enjoy nature's last hurrah for the year. Share the pleasure with a friend or child. I'll never forget driving alone up the Natchez Trace from Jackson to Tupelo one October and very nearly bursting with joy at the beauty of the fall colors exhibited in our forests. I think I would have exploded if I hadn't had a car phone to call and share the joy and pleasure I was experiencing with a gardening pal of mine. That makes me think of an old saying, "Sharing with a friend doubles your joy, but halves your sorrow." Elizabeth Lawrence said, "Even if everything is left undone, everyone must make time to sit still and watch the leaves turn." Do it.

Annual Flowers and Vines

By this time you probably have done one of two things to your annual bedding plants. You've trimmed them back in August or early September, fertilized them well and they have rebounded with vigorous growth and blooms by now, or either you have done what I did--totally neglected them all summer, leaving them to battle drought, bugs and disease on their own. At this time they appear a tad bedraggled and rather pathetic. Have some mercy and put them out of their misery. It's time to pull up the embarrassing remains and dispose of them in a proper fashion. This serves several purposes. It makes you feel better to get rid of the evidence of your lazy gardening, it rids your garden of potential carriers of insects and disease through the winter, it makes the garden neater and more attractive and it relieves you of one less job to do next spring. Your flurry of activity will also serve as a good example to your neighbor who will surely be impressed with your vigor.

Bulbs

You can plant spring flowering bulbs like daffodils, crocus, tulips, hyacinths and others when the soil cools later this month. Use a fertilizer formulated for bulbs when you plant. Follow the manufacturer's recommendations for rate of application. You can pot some of these bulbs in containers and force them into early bloom. There are several ways to do this. I'm going to share with you the simple and easy way I have done it successfully. I call it the slothful gardener's approach to forcing bulbs. If you have another technique that works great for you and requires less effort, I wish you'd share it with me. Pot 3 to 6 bulbs (depending on the size of the bulbs) in a six-inch clay pot using a good porous potting mix. Dig a trench in the garden and bury the pots up to the rim. I use pine bark mulch, rotted sawdust or sand to backfill around the pots. Do not allow the potting soil to dry out. Leave outdoors exposed to the cold weather for at least 12 weeks or until you see roots coming through the drainage hole and the bulb is beginning to sprout foliage. It won't hurt to pull the pot out of the trench periodically to check the growth of the roots. When the pots are ready bring them indoors to a cool, sunny room (50-65 degrees F) to continue growing and bloom. I have a south facing sunroom that is ideal for this. An enclosed porch or by a sunny window in the garage would also work well. Bring into the house when the flowers begin to open for full enjoyment of the fragrance and cheery blossoms.

Container Gardens

Remember to fertilize your lettuces, flowering kale and cabbage and other cool season pot plants throughout this month. A weekly application of a complete fertilizer in a liquid form would keep your leafy greens looking great. Don't forget that you can harvest the leaves of the ornamental kale and cabbage to use as food garnishes or in floral arrangements. You can eat them also, although they are not bred for taste. Lettuces can be very ornamental in pots especially the colored and fancy-leaved varieties like "Red Sails," "Lolla Rossa," "Salad Bowl," and "Oakleaf." Having these in containers makes it easy and accessible to add tasty and attractive additions to salads and sandwiches.

Fruit

Do not prune fruit trees, bush fruits or fruiting vines this month. If you haven't removed the old fruiting canes of blackberries and raspberries, do so now.

Groundcovers and Lawns

Cool season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, or creeping red fescue can be seeded throughout this month. Apply the last application of fertilizer to Kentucky bluegrass the middle of this month. Refer to the Mississippi State Extension Service publication, "Establish and Manage Your Home Lawn," for other information. Dormancy of warm season grasses begins with the first frost and what a relief to park that noisy lawnmower for a few months!

Perennial Flowers and Vines

You might get a notion to clean up your perennials after you've done such a good job on the annuals, but restraint is the better part of valor on this. Your frost-tender perennials need all their leaves to continue to feed the root system until the first killing frost puts a stop to that. Then you can remove the unsightly foliage. Leave the attractive seed heads of purple coneflower, rudbeckia, Siberian iris and any other perennial that has attractive cones, pods, seeds, or branch structure. Don't let your power-tool addict get a hold of your ornamental grasses with the weed-whacker either. The feathery plumes can be enjoyed all fall and winter. Clean out only the ugly stuff from your perennial beds leaving the rest to add interest, structure and motion to the winter garden.

Trees and Shrubs

Do not be tempted to prune shrubs and trees this month. Pruning now could encourage new growth that would be tender and killed by the first hard freeze. Besides, spring flowering shrubs and trees like azalea, rhododendron, forsythia, spirea, crabapple, redbud, and flowering quince have already formed flower buds by now. Any pruning would remove next spring's blossoms. Don't fertilize trees and shrubs this month either for the same reason. Fertilization will promote new, frost tender growth. Evergreen plants like boxwood, holly, juniper, and English ivy should be fertilized in early spring. Spring flowering shrubs and trees like those mentioned earlier should be fertilized after flowering.

Vegetables and Herbs

If you sowed that "sallet patch" early you have already enjoyed several messes of greens. Nothing goes better with a fall meal of baked sweet potatoes, pork roast, and cornbread than a huge pot of sallet seasoned with fatback or bacon drippings with a pod of hot pepper thrown in for good measure. Sallet typically consists of mustard or turnip greens. Kale, collards, spinach, rape and rutabaga greens can also be part of the mix. You can continue to sow these leafy vegetables until the middle of this month. Spinach can be sown until the middle of November. Harvest the last of your annual herbs like basil before frost gets them. Gather branches into bundles and hang in a dark, warm place until leaves are crispy dry.

Do you wait until the late night weather report predicts the first killing frost before you frantically rush out in your nightclothes to gather the last tomatoes, peppers and other tender vegetables? You are not alone. If this is your usual mode of operation, try the following suggestion the next time you are jolted out of your TV stupor by the forecast of impending frozen death to your plants. Instead of stumbling around in the dark trying to pick each tomato and pepper, pull up the choicest plants, heavily laden with fruit and hang the whole thing upside down in a cool garage, cellar or basement. The tomatoes will continue to ripen. Peppers will not, but will keep fresh on the plants for some time. That's a lot easier than working yourself into a frenzy trying to gather each tomato or pepper.

A handy device to help you preserve the harvest is a dehydrator. Every gardener should own at least one of these. Mine gets used daily in the fall to dry herbs, apples, peppers, flowers (for potpourri), tomatoes, figs, and anything else that strikes my fancy. Store dried vegetables and fruits in ziplock bags and put in the freezer to retain freshness. Dried herbs can be stored this way also.

Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes North Mississippi Gardening Tips monthly and is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.