{"id":402,"date":"2017-09-18T17:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T22:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/?p=402"},"modified":"2017-09-24T21:43:14","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T02:43:14","slug":"fall-things-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/2017\/09\/18\/fall-things-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"My fall to-do list in the garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_433\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-433\" class=\"wp-image-433 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/tents-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/tents-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/tents.jpg 384w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-433\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nothing beats fall camping.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Fall. I think it&#8217;s my favorite season &#8212; I love the crisp, chill air at night, the fall harvest, and I especially love the vibrant patchwork of leaves that change from green to yellow to orange to red. There&#8217;s nothing better than an October camping trip, sitting around a crackling fire under the stars and rustling leaves with a hint of frost nipping at your nose.<\/p>\n<p>But as a gardener, fall terrifies me. It seems to sneak up so quickly, and with it comes a list of failed summer tasks. Suddenly I&#8217;m in a race against the clock, triaging projects or admitting defeat and moving them to next year&#8217;s list. But fall also comes with its own new set of projects, and a lot of those can&#8217;t be ignored. I&#8217;ve found the best thing to do is make a checklist\/timeline and work my way through. \u00a0Here&#8217;s my list for USDA hardiness zone 5b:<\/p>\n<h3>September<\/h3>\n<p>Technically, fall doesn&#8217;t really start until September 22nd (the equinox), but things start changing quickly before that. After June 22nd the days get shorter, and the amount of daylight that&#8217;s being lost becomes accelerates as the date gets closer to September 22nd. This is why I start my planning on September 1st.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Order\/buy bulbs: If you have want to plant fall bulbs, get them ASAP. Stores will run out and you want time to plan your plantings.<\/li>\n<li>Take cuttings: Herbs like basil and mint respond well as cuttings. Cut a small piece off, remove the lower leaves, and plant it in water. Once the roots are 2&#8243; long you can pot it up as a houseplant and use fresh herbs throughout the winter.<\/li>\n<li>Plant cool-weather vegetables in mid-September, like arugula, radishes, and bok choy.<\/li>\n<li>Know the frost dates for your area. You can check this on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/2017\/09\/17\/knowing-your-frost-dates\/\">our earlier blog post<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Fix any broken irrigation lines so they can be flushed later.<\/li>\n<li>Take photographs of all container plantings. \u00a0You can look at them over the winter and figure out which ones worked and which ones didn&#8217;t (and buy the ones that worked again next year).<\/li>\n<li>Plant any perennials or shrubs that haven&#8217;t made it into the ground yet this season.<\/li>\n<li>Transplant any perennials or shrubs that need to be moved.<\/li>\n<li>Re-seed any areas of your lawn that need it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>October (pre-frost)<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Harvest any vegetables. \u00a0If you have green tomatoes, place them in a paper bag with an apple to ripen them. \u00a0Can, freeze, or dehydrate them.<\/li>\n<li>Harvest any other herbs. \u00a0You can freeze them or dehydrate them.<\/li>\n<li>Bring in any container temperennials that you want to overwinter (Mandevilla, Begonia).<\/li>\n<li>Remove your tomato, pepper, and tomatillo plants right before frost. \u00a0They will get slimy and difficult to remove otherwise.<\/li>\n<li>Harvest your cool weather vegetables that were planted in September.<\/li>\n<li>Plant your spring bulbs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>October (post-frost)<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_434\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-434\" class=\"wp-image-434 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/leaves-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/leaves-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/leaves.jpg 576w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-434\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Frost-kissed oak leaves shine in the morning.<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Collect any seeds from garden plants or herbs.<\/li>\n<li>Rake your leaves and compost them.<\/li>\n<li>Harvest any kale, cabbage, or swiss chard (the flavor is better after frost).<\/li>\n<li>Bring in any container plants that need to be overwintered (<em>Ficus<\/em> &#8216;Chicago Hardy&#8217;, grapes, sage, bay laurel) and store in an unheated garage.<\/li>\n<li>Collect bulbs from elephant ears, dahlias, cannas, and caladiums and overwinter in a cool, dry, place (but not too cool!)<\/li>\n<li>Pick up any fallen fruit around fruit trees to prevent pests from overwintering and attacking next year&#8217;s crop.<\/li>\n<li>Mow the lawn.<\/li>\n<li>Flush any irrigation lines that aren&#8217;t below the frost line.<\/li>\n<li>Water any plants that need it before the ground \u00a0freezes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>November<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Clean your vegetable gardens. \u00a0Remove any old plants and foliage that has fallen on the soil. \u00a0Weed and mulch with straw or leaves.<\/li>\n<li>Empty soil from pots can&#8217;t handle freezing (ceramic, terra cotta, many plastic pots, etc) and bring pots inside.<\/li>\n<li>Bring in garden hoses.<\/li>\n<li>Turn off outdoor faucets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Remember, this is just my list. \u00a0Yours might be different, and if you&#8217;re in a different hardiness zone you might have to shift the timeline a little.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next few weeks we&#8217;ll cover some of these items in more detail, and we&#8217;ll update the items above with links to the corresponding posts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fall. I think it&#8217;s my favorite season &#8212; I love the crisp, chill air at night, the fall harvest, and I especially love the vibrant patchwork of leaves that change from green to yellow to orange to red. There&#8217;s nothing better than an October camping trip, sitting around a crackling fire under the stars and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,11],"tags":[23,8,24],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-my-garden","tag-fall","tag-garden","tag-winterize"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>My fall to-do list in the garden - hort.net blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/2017\/09\/18\/fall-things-to-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My fall to-do list in the garden - hort.net blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fall. I think it&#8217;s my favorite season &#8212; I love the crisp, chill air at night, the fall harvest, and I especially love the vibrant patchwork of leaves that change from green to yellow to orange to red. There&#8217;s nothing better than an October camping trip, sitting around a crackling fire under the stars and [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/2017\/09\/18\/fall-things-to-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"hort.net blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-18T22:00:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-25T02:43:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hort.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/tents-200x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christopher Lindsey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christopher Lindsey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hort.net\\\/blog\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/18\\\/fall-things-to-do\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hort.net\\\/blog\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/18\\\/fall-things-to-do\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Christopher Lindsey\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hort.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c5048c118466b10e17155d29454e63de\"},\"headline\":\"My fall to-do list in the garden\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-18T22:00:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-25T02:43:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hort.net\\\/blog\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/18\\\/fall-things-to-do\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":715,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hort.net\\\/blog\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/18\\\/fall-things-to-do\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hort.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/tents-200x300.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"fall\",\"garden\",\"winterize\"],\"articleSection\":[\"fall\",\"My garden\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hort.net\\\/blog\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/18\\\/fall-things-to-do\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hort.net\\\/blog\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/18\\\/fall-things-to-do\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hort.net\\\/blog\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/18\\\/fall-things-to-do\\\/\",\"name\":\"My fall to-do list in the garden - 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