October Garden by Ravenelle
In the last post, TheGardenLady gave a list of 9 things you should do in your garden before the frost of Fall arrives. Here are 6 more suggestions:
1. Pull up diseased plants especially tomatoes, squash and potato plants. Do NOT compost these diseased plants. Bag them and toss them out.
2. Cut back dead perennials where slugs, snails and other pests might hide. But remember to leave some plants for birds and butterflies.
3. After the ground freezes, protect the perennials from frost heaving by putting mulching over them.
4. Mulch your garden plots with grass clippings, leaves that have been chopped or mulched or straw.
5. If you have fruit trees, remove all rotting fruit that is on the ground around the tree
6. If you have vegetable gardens or grow plants in raised beds you can plant cover crops to return nitrogen to the soil and correct soil compaction. Some cover crops are legumes such as alfalfa, peas, and fava beans. Legumes fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into their roots. Once these greens are plowed under, the nitrogen is released into the soil as an offering for other vegetable plants. A few other cover crops are Hairy vetch and crimson clover.
For things to do in October for your garden in your Hardiness Temperature zone from zone 3 to zone 10Â go here.