Things to do in October

Give your flower beds one last good weeding and edge your garden.  Dig out roots of dandelion  and the endless white rhizomes of quackgrass.  Don’t add these to your compost pile.

Plant spring bulbs. A little bone meal mixed in the bottom of each planting hole is an excellent source of phosphorus, but watch out for dogs.  Plant bulbs throughout the perennial border, then as the perennials grow they will hide the bulb foliage as it fades.

Force some spring bulbs for indoor bloom.

Plant garlic to harvest next July

Keep watering trees and shrubs until the ground freezes.  Make sure all evergreens have a good soak before the ground freezes.

Start a new garden by laying 6 sheets of newspaper in overlapping layers over the new garden site and cover with 4-6 inches of topsoil, compost, and mulch.  Let sit all winter.

If you plan on using raised beds next year, build and fill them now.  Don’t use pressure treated lumber.  Hemlock ages slowly and rough cut 2” thick boards last longer than 1” milled boards.  Keep beds to no more than 3-4’ wide.  Fill 12” beds with a mix of well rotted manure, compost, good topsoil, peat moss and/or chopped leaves.

Make a rough sketch of your perennial beds on graph paper (each square can represent a foot) locating each clump of perennials on the sketch.  Try placing a label next to each clump indicating the name of the plant and if it needs dividing or moving.

Begin to winterize tender roses by dumping a bucket of sandy soil over their base.

Rake leaves and stockpile them.  Run them over with the lawn mower to speed decomposition. Maple and Ash trees make the best leaf mold.  Pine needles decompose very slowly!

Look for egg masses of the eastern tent caterpillar and destroy them now.  Look for tapered masses that encircle branches about pencil-sized or smaller in diameter.

Clean and sharpen all garden tools.

If you have fruit flies a trap can be made by using a quart-sized jar equipped with a paper funnel.  The opening should be about a quarter inch in diameter. Put a small piece of fruit in the jar.  Freeze to kill or take the flies outdoors. Replace the fruit bait every few days.

Don’t mulch yet.  Wait until the ground freezes.

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