A magnificent Japanese maple at VanDusen Botanical Garden.  Photo by Amanda Jarrett

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The Garden Website Homepage for October
October's Introduction & Plant Combo - Amanda's Garden Blog Blurb - October Garden Chores -  October Lawn Care
Ask Amanda - Why Leaves Change Colour - In the Veggie Garden - Pruning 
Prepping Garden Beds for Winter - Plant a Seasonal Container- Plant Police 
Protecting Plants for Winter - Saving Tender Summer Bulbs - Container Winter Protection
My Garden's October Flower Arrangement - Plant of the Month: Fall Asters

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Ask Amanda

Save your back & time by keeping leaves on garden beds.

Question: Is there anything I can do with all those fallen leaves besides bagging them putting them curbside? It's such a lot of work to bag them all. MH, Surrey

Answer: Yes, it is lots of work and unecessary. First of all, you don't have to remove them from garden beds, but do rake them from the lawns. Don't bag them, just rake them into garden beds for a wonderful nutritious mulch. Don't worry about it being too deep as it should be no less than 3 inches in depth in order to do a good job to feed and protect the soil while reducing weeds all at the same time.

Other uses for those leaves is to add them to the compost as the carbon layer. You can also use them to make nutritious leaf mould. It is easy to do and improves soil health and fertility.  Just place moist leaves in plastic bags and nature will do the rest. How about some arts and crafts? Press colourful fall leaves and frame them as they make free and beautiful art. Store any extra leaves in paper recycle bags to top up existing mulched bed throughout the year and to add as a brown layer to compost bin. In other words - save those leaves!

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Leaf mulch is often criticized for not being attractive, but I think it looks pretty good.

Why leaves change colour

A red maple (Acer rubrum) showing off it's fall colour.

​It’s magic! No, not really – it’s science, it’s botany… it’s nature doing its thing. The shorter days and longer nights signals plants that winter is on its way. Trees and shrubs prepare to drop their foliage by restricting the vessels that carry nutrients and water. This combination of reduced light and no nutrients kills any green pigment (chlorophyll) whilst preventing more from forming. As the green fades, other hidden colours that existed within the foliage are revealed. These pigments, anthocyanin (red) and carotene (yellow) become visible, but not all trees colour-up in fall; some just turn brown.
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Maples (Acer spp.), ash (Fraxinus spp.), red oak (Quercus rubra), aspen (Populus tremuloides), Persian ironwood (Parrotia persica) and the maidenhair tree (Gingko biloba) are a few of our local vibrantly coloured trees. Colourful shrubs include the burning bush (Cornus alatus), staghorn sumac (Rhus spp.), blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum), Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica), oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia), witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) and fothergilla. Not to be outdone, there are two vines that also colour-up in fall: Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) and Boston ivy (P. tricuspidata).

Admittedly some autumns are not as brilliant as others due to frosts and wet, dull weather. With any luck the colours will be fantastic this year so let’s hope for a nice long, sunny and mild fall. 

Japanese maples are known for their autumnal stellar colours.

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The garden website index

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Learn How to Garden Introduction 
Planting Know How
Soil Building
Cover Crops
Composting
Compost Tea
Growing Food Introduction
Crop Succession, Crop Rotation, Companion Planting
​Pruning

Lawns
​Container Growing 101
Choosing a Container
Monthly Flower Arrangements
Growing Roses Introduction 
Types of Roses
Climbing Roses
Rose Insects & Diseases
Pruning Roses
Mulching & Types Introduction
Living Mulches – Groundcovers​

Fertilizing & Feeding Plants Introduction
Fertilizers & Ratios
Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
Organic Plant Food
Propagation Introduction
Growing Seed Outdoors
Growing Seed Indoors
Taking Cuttings
​Amanda’s Blog
Plant of the Month

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October's
​plant combo

A brilliant honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), provides a vibrant backdrop and elegant vertical element to the mixed perennial bed in the foreground at VanDusen Botanical Gardens.

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October Intro -
It's a busy month

As the summer yawns lazily into another beautiful fall, many plants slip into their autumnal dress donning colours of gold, red, yellow and orange. They know winter is coming as the daylight hours are dwindling and the evening hours are becoming quite chilly. 
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October is the perfect month to rearrange the garden. Either move small plants that are being overrun by their larger neighbours or take out a big guy to give everything more room. Before digging anything up, prepare a hole wide and deep enough to accommodate all the roots. When digging up plants, try to get as much of their roots as you can. To make large plants easier to move, cut back all the stems by one third beforehand.  For more information on planting refer to Planting Know How.

Since there’s lots of stuff to do in the garden, hopefully we won't be deluged with rain as gardening and rain don't mix. Diseases are easily spread between plants and wet soil compacts when working with it never mind walking on it. So on those rainy October days, it's a good excuse to do other things besides gardening.  

Cheers,
Amanda

Try not to garden in the rain as it spreads diseases and compacts soil.

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In the veggie garden

Kale & broccoli like fall's cool weather and enhances their flavour too.

• Cool Crops: There’s no need to remove cool crops from the garden such as Brussels sprouts, Swiss chard, cabbage, turnips and kale, as they enjoy fall’s cool temperatures. A slight frost actually enhances their taste, so keep on harvesting as long as the plants are producing and tasting good.
• Harvest remaining veggies and fruit removing all plant debris, especially unhealthy ones from garden beds so as not to re-infect next year’s crops.
• Plant Cover Crops: Don’t let your veggie patch go fallow. It's a tad too late to plant crimson clover, fall rye and other cover crops on bare veggie beds, but you still need to prevent erosion and to reduce weeds. Use straw, autumn leaves and even thick layers of newspapers as protection.
• Cure winter squash: acorn, spaghetti and pumpkins in a warm, frost free location for 4 to 5 days. To prevent mould, wipe them down first with a solution of 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. Store at 10 to 15 C (50 to 60F).
• Plant garlic now to harvest in July. Select a well-drained sunny site and add some compost, as they are heavy feeders. Break apart the cloves from the bulb and plant them 2 to 3 inches deep and 4 to 6 inches apart.
• Sow Seeds: Direct seed for winter gardening beets, broad (fava) beans, garlic cloves, radishes, spinach. 

Plant garlic this month.

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Prepping the garden for winter

Clean up garden beds by discarding buggy, diseased unhealthy growth from plants. It is not necessary to cut all herbaceous perennials (non-woody) plants to the ground, in fact it is best to leave about 6 inches of their stems to increase their winter hardiness. Hollow stems also provides a place for beneficial insects to overwinter: Autumn Joy sedum, Himalayan honeysuckle (Leycesteria formosa) and ornamental grasses.

It is not a good idea to rake off fallen leaves, twigs and other organic stuff from garden beds. That debris provides homes for lady bugs, lacewings and other beneficial insects to overwinter. It also provides food for plants when it decomposes. It is just not a good idea to have a ‘clean’ garden as it interferes with soil formation and nature’s natural processes.

​Chop & Drop: If cutting back chrysanthemums, cone flowers and other herbaceous perennials don't discard those healthy and blemish free leaves and stems; just pile it on top of the plant. This chop and drop method provides the plant added winter protection to the plant underneath. Removing all their foliage from the plant as well as the ground offers them no protection, leaving them vulnerable to winterkill and even death. Don’t chop and drop if the plant is diseased or is infested. Always remove and discard peony leaves every fall to prevent Peony Measles (Red Spot, Leaf Blotch).

The 'chop & drop' method of cleaning up beds is not recommended for peonies infected with peony 'measles'.

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Pruning

Don't take off too much in in the fall but do remove broken branches as well as diseased and dead ones.

• This really is the last month for pruning. Don't wait until November as it stimulates tender new growth, which is easily killed by frost. However, no matter what time of year it is, do remove dead, diseased and broken branches as soon as possible. If plants are overgrown, don’t cut them back too much, just 1/4 maximum, as it makes them vulnerable to winterkill.
• Don’t prune when it is raining or when the plants are wet as it spreads diseases and is unsafe as tools are difficult to grip when wet. The branches tend to be quite slippery too.
• Deadhead roses and remove all dead, diseased, broken canes. Cut back overly long canes on rambling and climbing roses. This prevents strong winter winds from whipping them around dislodging the plant from the ground (windrock). Overly long rose canes also become lethal weapons for unsuspecting people passing by.

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Protect trees from caterpillars

Tree bands stop overwintering insects including caterpillars, that emerge from the ground below from crawling up the tree.

To prevent forest tent caterpillars and other insects from feasting on your trees, including fruit trees and ornamental Japanese cherry trees, apply tree bands now. Wrap a 15 centimetre (6 inch) wide band of plastic wrap or foil backed pink insulation around tree trunks at a convenient height. Spread Tanglefoot ® on the band. Wear rubber gloves and use an old or foam paintbrush, or sturdy stick to spread this sticky, thick goopy stuff. As insects emerge from the soil in spring they will attempt to crawl up the trunk only to encounter the sticky trap. The Tanglefoot will stop them from going any farther. Remove the banding in February.

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Plant (Design) Police

Tulips lined up like soldiers gives little impact.

Make more of an impact with a just a few bulbs by grouping them together.

​Every spring public parks and gardens boast grand displays of thousands of tulips and other spring bulbs. Most gardeners can’t afford such extravagant displays, but what is one to do with limited funds and sore knees? Planting loads of bulbs is lots of work and too much money for most of us. Adding a few bulbs in a row, spaced far apart to line a garden bed may seem like a good idea, but alas, it doesn’t quite cut it. It’s a much better idea to plant the bulbs together in a cluster. This gives you more bang for your buck. Just bunch odd numbers of bulbs together (5, 9, 13 etc.) and place a number of these bulb groupings throughout the garden.  

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October lawn care

Rake leaves off the lawn into garden beds or if the leaves aren’t too thick, use your lawn mower to chop them up and bag them as you go. Use the leaves as a mulch in garden beds.

• Mow 2 to 3 inches high, do not cut lower as the grass plants need food to survive the winter. Keep the clippings on the lawn if they are not forming clumps or bag them to add to garden beds as a winter mulch. Let them sit for a week or so before applying to garden beds.
• Clean up fallen leaves from the lawn by raking them into garden beds or mulch them into the lawn with a mulching lawn mower. You can also mow the leaves and bag them as you go, then add the cut up leaves to your garden beds as a mulch on top of the soil between plants.
• If you didn’t fertilize your lawn last month, do so this month with a slow release preferably organic fertilizer formulated for winter. Of the three numbers on the label, the third one (potassium), should be the highest.
• Wait three weeks to apply dolopril lime after applying fertilizer so any nitrogen in the fertilizer isn't lost into the air.
• If you didn’t aerate the lawn in spring do so now with an aerator machine. Either rent one or hire someone to do the job. Keep the sod 'cores' on the lawn, as they will decompose. You can also and topdress the lawn by applying screened compost or a commercial turf blend.
• Renovate sparse lawns and install new ones. Remove patches of dead grass and rough up the soil with a rake. Apply bone meal, then sow the grass seeds and press them down firmly with the back of the rake. Keep seeds moist until they germinate then water to keep soil moist not wet.
• There is still time to put in a new lawn by laying sod or sowing grass seed.  

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Plant a Seasonal container 

A fall seasonal container with chrysanthemums, asters & ornamental gourds.

A container full of winter treasures by the front door is a welcoming sight on a dull winter day. Select a sturdy container with drainage holes or update an existing one that's needs some extra colour. Do not cover the holes as this outdated practice impedes drainage. Mix together 3 parts sterile potting soil, 1 part Sea soil or compost and 2 parts vermiculite and place in the container so it’s 2/3rd full.
​Select evergreen perennials such as coral bells (Heuchera sp.), English daisies (Bellis perennis), primroses, pansies, ​variegated Japanese sedge (Carex oshimensis 'Evergold', bergenia, winter heather (Erica carnea) and don't forget to add some spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils. Add some branches from some funky plant such as Harry Lauder's walking stick (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') to add drama.

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Ornamental kale, a mum, pansies, an aster and ornamental gourds were added to a pot already planted with fennel & creeping Jenny.

Amanda's Garden Blog

Check out my blog on my gardening experiments, trials. tribulations and excursions. 
To subscribe to my blog click here. 
A Visit to the Arizona-Sonora Desert
Winter Protection for Banana Plants & Palms
Lasagna Gardening/Sheet Mulching
Saving Geraniums and Other Tender Plants
Spiders, Spiders Everywhere ... Oh My!
Trouble With Tomatoes & Decontaminating Soil
Trees That Drip That Sticky Stuff
Balcony Bliss
One Huge Beetle! 
A Summer's Day Harvest
The Dunbar Garden Club Private Tour
Leaky Birdbaths and Slug Free Strawberries
Easy Roses
Oops... Wrong Plant, Wrong Place
I Had An Ugly Lawn...

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 October's garden chores

October is the perfect time to plant daffodils and other spring flowering bulbs.

• Plant spring flowering bulbs. Wrap tulip bulbs with chicken wire when planting. Dust all bulbs with cinnamon as it is a natural fungicide and sprinkle with bone meal to promote root growth.
• New Beds: Need more garden beds? Now is a good time to prep a new bed so it is ready for spring. Try your hand at sheet mulching also referred to as lasagna gardening, as it is an easy time saver.
• Perennials: Divide summer and fall flowering perennials if they are overgrown.
• Annuals/Bedding Plants: You don’t have to remove deceased petunias and other bedding plants unless they are sickly. Ones with hardy seeds often survive the winter to regrow come spring such as lobelia, alyssum, calendula, cleome and snapdragon. ​​
• Collect Seeds: Keep the seed heads on pansies, hollyhocks, sweet Williams, wall flowers, foxgloves and other biennials or collect them to sow in early spring.
• Sow Seeds: Directly sow outside seeds of hardy flowering plants: pansies, poppies, foxgloves, hollyhocks, sweet Williams. They need the cold dormant season and should sprout in spring. 
• Cuttings: Take hardwood cuttings from deciduous shrubs and evergreens now through winter and early spring. Take cuttings from dormant, mature stems with firm wood that doesn’t easily bend.
• Winter Bedding Plants: Plant cold hardy bedding plants: winter pansies, primroses, ornamental kale and cyclamen. ​
• Overwintering Tender Plants: Move frost tender plants such as geraniums, bougainvilleas, allemandas, mandevillas, gingers, coleus, angel trumpets (Brugmansia spp., Datura spp.) and fuchsias inside as soon as possible, if you want to save them for next year. For more info, check out my blog post: Saving Geraniums and Other Tender Plants. 

'Winter' pansies happy faces flower through fall and winter.

• Weed:  It is a weedy time of year as it is the end of the growing season. Bite the bullet and start removing them by hand. It is quick and efficient. Try your best to get all the runners and roots. Get those seeds heads and flowers too. Put down 3 inches of mulch to prevent more weeds from growing.  
• Compost: The compost bin is probably full at this time of year. Make sure you don't add plants that have set seed unless the temperature within the compost reaches 60°C (140°F) for 2 weeks. Same thing goes for diseased and insect ridden plant parts. Turn the compost and water if needed.
• Birds: If you plan on feeding the birds this winter, put out bird feeders and suet feeders. Make sure you keep the feeders topped up as they will become to depend on your for survival. 
• Gift Plants: Start gift plants such as amaryllis, paperwhite narcissus and hyacinths to brighten up the house during winter or to give as gifts. ​​

Amaryllis and other gift plants are often sold in grocery stores in boxes. Just pot them up and add water.

• Garden Shed: Move fertilizers, seeds and other products to a frost free area over the winter.
• Outdoor Furniture: Remove patio furniture or cover them but do relocate them to a sheltered location. Mustn't forget to place any pillows and soft furnishings indoors as well.
• Drains & Eaves: It isn't October without leaves in the eaves & debris clogging storm drains and catch basins. Prevent flooding by removing fallen leaves and other debris. Check them periodically especially after a storm, strong winds and heavy rains. Don't forget to clean out the gutters, before it gets too nasty to do so.​

Don't forget to remove fallen leaves and other debris from city catchments to prevent flooding.

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winter protection 

Prolonged freezing, fluctuating temperatures, high winds and heavy snow contribute make winter a challenge for many borderline hardy plants.

After the snowy, cold winter we had last year, I’ve been thinking I should do more to protect my plants this fall. Our globe cypress was disfigured after repeated dumps of heavy wet snow. Many evergreens suffered the same fate resulting in broken limbs and disfigurement. Some plants just didn’t make it due to fickle fluctuating temperature whilst for others, it was just too cold. There’s many ways to protect plants depending on what they are. 

Rock rose (Cistus albidus) are borderline hardy here and benefit from some extra mulch and fabric to keep it cosy.

Protect the roots & crowns (where roots and stems meet) of any new plants, transplants, hybrid teas and other grafted roses, borderline hardy plants: New Zealand flax (Phormium sp.), pineapple lily (Eucomis autumnalis), freesias, palm trees, elephant ear (Colocasia spp.), Australian tree fern (Alsophila australis), bananas, rock rose (Cistus spp.), and lavenders.

​To protect the crowns, either pile up soil on top or use at least 3 inches of mulch or leaves on top of the crown. It is such a simple thing to do but it is an effective method to insulate the soil against temperature extremes and fluctuations.

The leaves from this gunnera have been used to protect its crown from winterkill.

A rather ghoulish-looking Australian tree fern is wrapped with fabric.

Protect the Stems:Wrap tender shrubs and trees in layers of breathable fabric from their tip, right down to the ground. Don’t leave a space between the wrap and the soil surface as the thermal heat from the earth is then lost to the air. Avoid using plastic. It suffocates plants and has little insulating value. Old sheets, carpets, blankets, tablecloths and other breathable fabric are excellent insulators and keep plants toasty over the winter months. Another alternative is caging plants by wrapping hardware cloth or chicken wire around the dripline (where their canopy of leaves ends). Gently place leaves inside the cage on top of the plant so it’s completely covered.

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Protecting Cedars & other Evergreens

This used to be a perfectly round globe cedar, so now I know to tie it together in fall.

Wrap string around cedars and other evergreens to keep their branches together and to protect them from breakage from high winds and heavy snow. It’s too late to prune them so put that pruning gear away. If they are cut back now, the new tender growth will be injured by winter temperatures and cold winds.

To prevent heavy snow from smashing evergreens, wrap them with string.

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Saving Tender Summer Bulbs

A yellowing gladiolus.

Lift gladiolus, dahlias, tuberous begonias and other tender bulbs after a frost or when the plant is obviously dying down for winter. Allow their leaves to turn yellow before lifting gladiolus or hang them upside down by their foliage on in a frost free location until the leaves yellow.

You don't have to remove dahlias from the ground, as they usually (but not all the time!) survive our mild coastal winters of zone 8. It was a pretty brutal winter last year and I lost one of mine that had been in the same spot for years so I’m storing all of mine this year. Either wait for frost to kill their tops or cut back all stems to 6 inches to a foot. Wait a few days, then dig them up.

Once bulbs, corms and tubers have been lifted, remove as much soil as possible by hand then place them in a dry area, away from frost and moisture for a week to cure. After curing, place the labelled tubers, corms etc. in cardboard boxes so they are not touching. Dust with nature’s fungicide: a healthy dose of cinnamon, then cover completely with dry vermiculite, perlite, peat moss or sterile potting soil. Store in a dry, frost free place 4 to 8 degrees Celsius.

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Store dahlias tubers in cardboard boxes not plastic, to prevent rotting.

Container winter protection 

Containers left outside and manned with plants benefit from a few inches of an organic mulch.

Trees, shrubs and perennials that live outside in containers need extra care to protect them from freezing and thawing and prolonged icy snaps. If possible, move any planted outside containers under the eaves against the house or another protected location so they don’t drown with the winter rains. It's a tad warmer too. To insulate plant roots, wrap the containers with bubble wrap, Styrofoam, blankets, mats or whatever. Add at least 3 inches of an organic mulch on the soil surface if there is room. Another alternative is to bury the pots in the garden. The thermal heat from the earth will keep them much warmer than sitti​ng on a deck or patio.

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My Garden's October Flowers

Michaelmas daisies, Striped Vulcan & Golden Sceptre dahlias, Japanese anemone, Guy de Maupassant roses, hardy fuchsias and 'Victoria' California lilac.

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Plant of the Month
Fall Asters/Michaelmas Daisies
Symphyotrichum species

Soft purple flowers of the New York Aster.

A cascading New York aster.

'Audrey' is a short and compact New York aster.

Bees and other pollinating insects love asters for their copious amounts of pollen.

Common Name:     Aster, Michaelmas daisy
Botanical Name:     Symphyotrichum spp., previously named Aster 
Family:                    Asteraceae           
Form:                      upright or spreading depending on variety              
Genus:                     Aster           
Species:                   numerous species           
Plant Type:               herbaceous perennial   
Mature Size:            10 inches to 6 feet depending on the variety, up to 4 feet wide
Origin:                      Great Britain, Europe, North & South America     
Hardiness Zone:      USDA zones 4 to 8
Leaves:                     entire, simple, alternate, soft, green, pinnate, pointed tip, linear 
Flowers:                    composite, yellow flower disc surrounded by blue, purple,     
                                  white, or pink petals, blooms from September through fall
Exposure:                 full sun to partial shade, no blooms = too much shade
Soil:                           well-drained, soil tolerant           
Propagation:            root cuttings, divisions, cuttings, seeds
Uses:                        butterflies, bees, cut flower, perennial and mixed borders
Problems:
Tall asters tend to flop over so pinch back stems by a third in early June. This promotes bushier, shorter plants with more flowers. Prone to powdery mildew especially when planted in too much shade combined with dry soil.
Varieties & Cultivars:
There are 2 major types of aster: New England and New York. New York aster (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii) tend to be smaller than the New England types though some grow to 4 feet. They have thin, hairless stems compared to the New England variety (Symphyotrichum nova-angliae), which have sturdier, hairy stems and foliage.
Another aster of note is the alpine aster, Symphyotrichum alpinus, has a mounded, upright habit about 1 foot high. Flowers are either pink, deep purple, white, violet and flower slightly earlier than other asters. Used in rock gardens, and for edging since it is short. Will self-seed as not a long-lived plant. Prefers a sandier soil than other asters.
Comments:
Asters are often called Michaelmas Daisies because the flower at the same time St Michael’s Day is celebrated in England (September 29). There are many cultivars in lavender, violet, blues, and pinks. Since asters are either tall, short, erect, bushy or spreading, correct selection is critical. Read those plant labels as they are wealth of information. 
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A single New York aster blossom.

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Love plants, love to garden. ​
​Amanda's Garden Company
The Garden Website ​