Rohde’s October Organic Gardening Calendar

Average Freeze Date for Zone 8: November 16th.
Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday, 2:00 a.m., November 1, 2009

Vegetables

Transplant cool-season vegetables throughout the fall, but give them frost protection, as needed.

Plant fall vegetables now, either seeds or transplants: Beets, Carrots, Mustard Greens, Onion sets, Garlic, Garden Peas, Radishes, Spinach, Turnips, Cabbage, Collard Greens, Parsley, Lettuce, Chinese Cabbage, Swiss Chard, Mizuna, Escarole. Bok Choy, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Kale, Kohlrabi, Broccoli, Watercress, etc... (Be sure to follow depth & spacing directions on the seed packet.)

Transplant spinach toward the end of the month.

(FYI from Tamu PlantAnswers: “…Brussels sprouts, collards, and kale contain more protein than does milk.” If only Brussels Sprouts weren’t so yucky.)

If you have planted any of the cold crops, like cabbage, collards and broccoli, watch out for cabbage loopers or cabbage worms. These are those green worms that riddle leaves like they've been blasted with a shotgun. Apply Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to control these hungry pests. Bt controls only caterpillars and is very environmentally safe.

Continue sowing garlic cloves and radish seeds during the first two weeks of the month. Cultivate the soil deeply for both crops. Select large, healthy garlic cloves for planting. Set them root end down, 1-2 inches deep. Space the cloves 4-5 inches apart in rows at least one foot apart. Or you can inter-plant with roses or other flowers and vegetables for companion planting.

Rohde’s has a nice selection of garlic bulb varieties and a good supply of red/white/yellow onion sets.

Plant cover crops in empty flower and veggie beds and gardens: Plant clovers, hairy vetch or perennial rye instead of mulching, and till them in next spring before they flower. Elbon (cereal) rye is a cover crop that can assist in controlling the root-knot nematode in the soil if it’s a problem. If you plant elbon rye, it should be cut and tilled in before it gets to be a foot tall. For all cover crops, wait at least a couple of weeks after tilling before you plant anything else, to allow the organic matter to decompose.

Fertilize every 3-4 weeks on established vegetables with Green Sense Vegetable & Flower Food.

Herbs

Plant all perennial herb plants now, and cool season herb plants such as Cilantro, Dill, Fennel, Parsley, Caraway, Chamomile, Chervil, and Chives.

Flowers

This is the best month for planting cool-weather-loving flowers. When night and day temperatures start to fall into the 70’s and 80’s. It’s also the best time to dig up, move, or divide your perennials. You can also start root cuttings of geraniums, begonias and impatiens to grow inside during the winter, and re-plant next spring.

Fall-blooming annuals and perennials can be kept in flower longer and will look better if their maturing flowers are removed.

Annual Flowers

• Plant Petunias, Dianthus, Ornamental Cabbage & Kale, Swiss Chard, Snapdragons, Calendula, Pansies, Violas, Larkspur, Nasturtiums, Sweet Pea, English daisies,
• Plant Iceland poppies now for blooming in the spring.
• Rejuvenate leggy begonias with a light pruning followed by an application of an organic fertilizer and mycohriza fungi.
• Apply water-soluble fertilizer to get newly planted pansies and other cool season annuals off to a good start.
• Seeds You Need to Plant in the Fall: California poppies, sweet peas, larkspurs, and bachelor buttons.

Perennial Flowers

• Divide iris, phlox, daylilies, Shasta daisies, and other perennials.
• Move any misplaced perennials that have already bloomed.
• Remove dead stalks and foliage from perennials as they go dormant unless they are seed heads for the birds.
• Trim hanging baskets and other container plants you intend to over winter indoors. This gives them a few weeks to re-grow and fill in before bringing them indoors.
• Watch patio plants and hanging baskets you intend to over winter indoors carefully to be certain they do not bring insect pests indoors with them. Watch drain holes for hiding pill bugs, slugs and even roaches.
• Gradually withhold fertilizers from plants in patio containers if you intend to bring them into darker indoor conditions over the winter.

Wildflowers

• Plant wildflower seeds now if you haven’t done so already.
• Wildflowers germinate and perform better if they are seeded into a lightly cultivated or raked soil. If planting in an established turf, chose bermuda turf since it is dormant during the growing season and bermuda is usually growing in a full sun location which wildflowers need.
• Wildflowers and seeded annuals like California poppy, and bluebonnets should be sown early this month.

Ornamental Grasses

Ornamental grasses combine beautifully with fall-flowering perennials in the landscape, and many look their best in the fall.

During the winter, while the rest of your garden is brown and dormant, ornamental grasses add color, texture, and movement.

As an alternative to planting a few different kinds of grasses for variety in the garden, do a wall of one kind as a backdrop for other plants, ornaments, or landscape features. They can also screen unsightly views of neighbors, sheds, fences or section of your property.

Grasses are susceptible to crown rot, especially in winter. The majority prefer well drained soils in sunny location. Cut back grasses to short clumps in early spring. You can divide clumps every three years or so as some will do better.

Rohde’s carries a large selection of varieties that do well here.

Trees and Shrubs

The fall season is also the best time to plant new trees and shrubs. Plants endure less drought and heat stress, and their roots have months to grow and become established before spring growth begins.

Come to Rohde’s if you're planning on buying trees and shrubs. Ask about our delivery, planting, and warranties. Don’t forget the soil amendments; Green Sense Kelp Extracts for root stimulation, Green Sense Mycor granules to inoculate the plant with mycorrhiza fungi, compost, and a variety of mulches.

Fall color will vary greatly from year to year, even on the same tree. Most dependable in Texas, however, are Shumard Red Oak, Ginkgo, Chinese Pistachio, Sweetgum in sandy soils, various maples and Crape Myrtles. Pick your trees in their fall colors if this is an important aspect for purchasing the trees.

Consider some rarely used trees this fall. Larger trees to consider; Montezuma Cypress, Cedar Elm, Lacey Oak, Chinkapin Oak, Texas Ash, or Bur Oak. Some smaller trees to look at; Texas Mountain-Laurel, Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum, Desert-Willow, Eve's Necklace, Goldenball Leadtree, or American Smoketree.

Hollies and nandinas are good for foundation plantings. They come in manageable heights and have a variety of different leaf shapes, colors, and styles.

Harvest pecans as they fall to the ground-as their quality declines quickly.

Clean up fallen leaves, particularly around fruit and nut trees to prevent over wintering of pests and disease. Compost the yard litter well to destroy any pathogens. May need to shred the litter and subject it to solarization prior to composting. Solarization is commonly used to control weeds and pests in the soil prior to planting. Expose well-moistened crop residues, layered and sealed between two sheets of clear plastic, to several days of Texas sunshine to effectively destroy pests and disease organisms.

Spray weeds and grass around tree trunks with vinegar. Use 8-10% with one ounce orange oil, one tablespoon molasses and one teaspoon liquid soap per gallon. Better to physically clear the grass away from the trunk of trees as far as you think is visually appealing (more the better for the tree) and replace with compost and/or mulch, leaving a clear area directly against the trunk. Clear away soil to expose the root flare if the tree is planted too far in the ground.

Do not drastically prune trees and shrubs now, but while you can see which limbs are green leafed or not, do prune broken, diseased or dangerous limbs. Do not make flush cuts and use no pruning paint or wound dressing except for Green Sense Tree Goop.

Root-prune wisterias that have failed to bloom. This may or may not help.

Do not prune knees from bald cypress trees, they are part of the root system. Instead change the root zone areas from grass to ground cover or mulch.

Reshape shrubs with light pruning as needed, but do not prune spring-flowering shrubs or vines until after they bloom.

Continue to keep vigorous-growing shrubs, such as pyracantha and ligustrum, pruned to maintain desired size and-or shape.

Wait until December or January to do any major tree pruning to avoid disease and stress problems.

Lawn and Turf Grasses

Plant cool-season grasses such as rye and fescue now. It is also time to plant clover, vetch. Plant perennial rye instead of annual rye. Annual rye grows faster so needs more mowing, watering and fertilizing, plus it’s more disease prone.

If you want a green lawn all winter, overseed with the perennial variety of rye grass at the rate of six pounds per 1000 square feet. We don’t recommend doing this though, as it slows down the warm season grasses and doesn’t die off fast enough in the spring causing fungal problems.

Perennial rye grass can be used to quickly cover bare soils to protect from erosion.

October is time for the most important lawn fertilization of the year. It will promote root growth through the winter and help the grass survive some watering neglect to give better weed resistance and growth in the spring.

Fertilizing now will give the soil microbes time to breakdown the fertilizer before the ground gets too cold, and give the grass time to take advantage of the nutrients while it’s still growing.

Spray your lawn and landscape with Green Sense Kelp Extract. The Kelp’s potassium, minerals, and growth hormones help harden your plants for winter. For the same reason Kelp Extract is used for a root stimulant, it will increase root growth during the winter for better spring performance. A foliar spraying of Kelp also improves fall flowering and helps with disease and pest control until the freezes come.

Apply Greensand at 40 pounds per 1000 square feet, now if not done in the spring. You can do this once a year, but as with all fertilizers, you can put too much down. A soil test is highly recommended. Greensand is important because it contains many trace minerals. Iron may not be (probably isn’t) the only deficiency.

Be on the lookout for Brown Patch fungal disease in the lawn. It can cause areas of St. Augustine to turn brown almost overnight. It can occurs during cool wet weather between fall and spring. Turf turns brown and grass blades rot off of the runners. Forms a general circular pattern with brown grass in the center and a halo of yellowing grass around the edge of the patch. Grass may grow back sporadically through the brown spots as the roots are usually alive.

Take-All Patch is another fungal disease that can occur between fall and spring for the same reasons as Brown Patch. Take-All Patch differs in that the roots rot. The infective area is more irregular. Initially the grass blades turn yellow and the roots darken. The results are that you can pull up the runners of the grass with the blades while you only pull up the grass blades with Brown Patch. You don’t usually notice Take-All Patch though until the weather warms in the spring and the grass is stressed and dies back.

Treat both fungi diseases by improving lawn conditions, adding proper organic soil amendments and treating with anti-fungal products of corn meal and potassium bicarbonate. Go to our Newsletters tab and look for our articles on “Organic Lawn Maintenance”, and “Lawn Problem Diagnoses and Treatments” for details.

But don’t stop watering. Just don’t over do it. Better to water in the morning and at a lesser amount if warranted. Letting the grass go a little dry is better.

Mow when needed, but don’t scalp the grass.

If you live in sandy soils, now is a good time to check the soil pH and add lime if it’s too low. Better to get a soil test done first of course.

Apply pre-emergent Corn Gluten Meal to prevent winter weeds from germinating. It is also an excellent fertilizer for the established grass, gardens, and plantings, so it will constitute your fall fertilizing. Use Humate to complete the fertilizing process.

Finish warm-season lawn grass plantings by seed by early October. Quality sod can be planted anytime when available. Be sure to wet the soil of the sod before planting. Apply a thin layer of compost to the surface after planting.

Watch for grub worm damage also. Grub worm damage results in yellowed areas, less regular in shape than brown patch, and more damaging since roots are eaten. If runners and blades pull easily from the soil and if you find 5-10 grub worms or more per square foot, you should treat the area with beneficial nematodes. Grub worms can attack any type of turf grass. We don’t recommend those sandals with spikes on the bottom for aerating, but it’s been suggested that they can diminish your grubs if they are plentiful, by stomping around in the grass, impaling them. If nothing else, the thought of revenge will sooth your psyche, and the neighbors will be entertained.

General Pests and Diseases

To reduce feeding and breeding sites of pests such as crickets, remove any dense vegetation that is right next to the house foundation and clean up piles of bricks, stones, wood or other debris. If you store firewood outdoors, get it up off the ground to help keep bugs out. If possible, stack it with the bark side up or cover the wood to repel rain. A sheet of clear plastic also helps keep moisture our while trapping bugs inside. If temperatures under the plastic get high enough some of the trapped insects may die.

Insects can still be a major problem this month, particularly if the weather is hot. Watch for whiteflies, spider mites, aphids, and scale. Release Lady Bugs.

If you have nematode problems in your garden, forego a fall garden and go with Elbon rye. Add compost, fertilizer, till and seed.

Apply a band treatment of DE around outside of house, also along baseboards, to kill household pests before they come in for winter.

Other Things to Do This Month

Mulch all bare soil with shredded tree trimmings. Shredded material from your own property is best. If it is partially composted or mixed with compost, is better. Rubber, colored wood, and pine bark should be avoided.

Make a TALL compost pile. It should look like an upside down ice cream cone.

Prepare new planting beds.

If you are having continuous problems with your garden or plantings, now is a good time to do a soil test. This may reveal soil conditions causing the problems, or give you a heads-up to impending problems.

This is the best time of the year to design a new landscape. Current plantings can be moved if need be, it’s not too cold to work the soil. Come to Rohde’s and let Sally help you with your designs.

Feed and water the birds! Rohde’s has a large selection of birdhouses, feeders, water baths, and bird/squirrel foods. Consider a second birdbath to fill with play sand for birds to “dust” in. This is as popular an activity as bathing is to birds.

Pine trees, junipers and arborvitae all begin shedding needles at this time of year. Make use of pine needles as a mulch.

Root and top-prune native plants that you want to transplant in winter.

Most of this calendar is designed for Dallas, Tx in USDA Hardiness Zone 8a, where the predominant soil type is black prairie clay.

Last year we renovated a landscape for a customer who had moved from her former home north of LBJ Freeway to her new humble abode just South of LBJ.

“?”

I never could figure out how or why people would go through the trouble of packing up all their belongings, paying huge moving expenses just to move a mile away.

Any way it is none of my business even though it did bring me more. Business!

As part of the refurbishing of her landscape we removed some Asian jasmine from an area in the front lawn that would be a great spot for a beautiful collection of showy perennials sprinkled in with seasonal color to allow visitors a view of a beautiful, happy entrance.

Well…it is not an everyday occurrence; luckily it does not happen often at all but as luck would have it, it happened to us.

Can you identify the plant in the photograph? If you can I feel for you.

I feel for you, because this is the one and only weed you ever want to wish on your own enemy. It is nutsedge from the genus Cyperus.

Once you see it growing where you do not want it you bend down and pull it as you would any normal weed. PULL! It’s gone.

But it is not. You just awoke the meanest beast that lives in the garden and will grow quickly and aggressively; spreading it’s awakened roots underground. Soon two more plants will pop up here and three more over there. You still do not realize what you have started so you pull these too. 2 x 2 = 4. 4 x 4=16. 16 x 16=…. Way too much for me to compute mentally and since I hate math I will stop there hoping that you caught my drift.

So, the customer calls us up and says that we brought in the dreaded weed from hell and wants to know what we are going to do about it. “It was not there before you did the work and it appeared shortly after you completed the job. How else could it have gotten there?”

We have been told that cotton bur compost that we sold was infested with the nut. We have been told that the lava sand we loaded into a customer’s car was loaded with nut grass. She even remembers seeing the nut as she spread the lava sand onto her flowerbeds. The flowerbeds she had just turned and added cushion sand to.

What do you do when you know about the beast and try to prove to the customer that the nut sedge was not in the cotton burr compost or the lava sand but could have been laying dormant in the existing soil that was turned or brought in with the sand loam that was freshly trucked in from some recently mined pasture.

I had the customer who claimed that the compost was the culprit call the compost company for a detailed explanation of how the compost could not have been the carrier. How the composting process would have destroyed the weed by the excessive heat build up in the piles. She became less critical of us and more curios towards the materials brought in during the final stages of construction or during the initial landscape instillation.

At her request we dug up an area near the nutsedge infested area whir some concrete footprints were poured to serve as a base foe some beautiful Pennsylvania blue flagstone.

Sure enough the soil underneath the concrete pad was a sandy clay like substance that seemed to have developed a highway of roots that grew every which way. One of the guys on my crew slowly started to trace the roots in an area where we had not dug. By using a hose end jet nozzle he directed a strong stream of water to the thicker mass of roots splashing the soil away. He kept going for about five minutes until he found a nut.

With a pleased look on his face he showed this to the customer who then removed it from the roots massive webbing and eventually planted it in a shallow pot.

In less then three weeks the triangulated leaves had emerged to about one inch height above the soil. She said that just for grins she pulled it. And as the nut began to emerge she placed her thumb on it and yanked. She did pull the nut out and replaced it into the soil.

Three weeks after she had four plants growing in the pot.

Two weeks after that we were back at her house and removed all the soil to a depth of six inches including the soil underneath the concrete pad and replaced it with a black clay soil we purchased from a pool company. After the soil was replaced we graded it and watered it as if it had been landscaped. Three weeks passed by without a sighting of nutsedge. We lightly turned the soil hoping to disturb the soil and germinate the weed. It did not happen. We felt confident that we had rid the area of the mean, ugly weed beast.

And then it popped up in another area in the predominantly shady area of the lawn where her Labrador would dig cool spots to relax in during the heat of the day. Well, I could go on and on and I can even confess that I sought chemical help, but to no avail. It seems that every week we find newly populated areas of nutsedge.

Last year as the plants and lawns around the heavily infested areas went dormant we sprayed Round-up. I know what you are thinking, but it gets to a point where even the most diehard organic landscapers and homeowners have to realize that money is being wasted. We realized that as all other vegetation was dormant the nutsedge became vulnerable. On hands and knees applying a diluted solution of round Up to each plant all weeds died. After one application!!! In the spring the lawn came up unscathed. Perennial plants started exposing their foliage and shortly thereafter their buds and flowers.

Pay attention to the photograph above, if you see any plant emerge that may look similar to the above plant and are not sure if it is the beast weed: DO NOT PULL! Treat each individual plant with a solution of Round-up.