Fall is a time to accomplish a great deal in your garden before another long winter. October is a time to plant, fertilize, amend the soil, mulch, stake, and prepare for the best growth possible next spring.

Autumn Gardening - How often has spring crept up and found us unprepared to jump into the garden? Many of the most essential gardening tasks must be completed in the fall. Much of next year's gardening success depends upon the care it is given now. Now is a good time to go over your garden thoroughly, analyzing any mistakes of the past season and making plans to prevent their repetition.

There are two types of fall gardening activities:

(1) Preparing for next spring (and the winter in-between) by transplanting perennials, trees and shrubs, planting bulbs, fertilizing, mulching, preparing soil and preparing new beds.

(2) The completion of the growing season by harvesting, cleaning-up, cutting-back, staking, tying and putting away tools, etc.

Watering - Cut back on watering now if you already hven't. Plants will be better prepared for the cold and possible drought of winter. Too much constant water late in the season keeps plants in a succulent state and makes them more susceptible to dieback in the cold. Too little water however, especially with new plantings, and plants may die. Water new plantings at least once a month after October unless they receive plenty of snow or rain. Use Thanksgiving as a reminder to send your garden into winter with very wet soil. If no snow is present by Christmas, hand water new plantings again (once a month all winter if there is no substantial snowfall).

Collecting Seed - annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees. Poppies, cosmos, lychnis, columbine, delphinium, aster, hollyhocks, penstemon, lily, wild rose, currants, gooseberries, Mt. ash, thimbleberry, dogwood, snowberry, Jeffrey pine, lodgepole, fir, etc...

Collect seed in your garden and in the wild and sow them into your garden this fall. Create a "seed bed" in a partial shade location with a loose "peat-light" (peatmoss, perlite, vermiculite) amended soil.

Dividing - dividing perennials may be done in the early fall, now, while the soil is warm. Bleeding Heart, Daylilies, Monkshood, Phlox, Siberian Iris and more may be dug up and cut or pulled apart and replanted. Give each division the same soil preparation, slow releasing fertilizer and mulch you would give a new plant. Water in well. Later when temperatures are consistently cold and hard frosts are regular, it is better to wait until spring. Lilac, Aspen, Chokecherries, some Willows and Spiraea produce sprouts from shallow lateral roots. As their leaves turn and start to fall they may be dug up with as much root as possible. Make a clean cut on the main lateral root. Replant as you would a new tree or shrub taking care not to plant the new division too deep.

Transplanting - Fall is a good time to move perennials to a better location. This is one of the best aspects of perennial gardening. If a plant doesn't grow or bloom well in one location, move it. Trees and shrubs which were planted in the last 2 years can usually be safely moved as well.

Cuttings - Hardwood cuttings are an easy way to propagate many shrubs. Cornus, Cotoneaster, Lonicera, Ribes, Rosa, Salix, Sambucus, Spiraea, Viburnum. Cuttings should be from canes grown during the current season at least a pencil's thickness in diameter. Trim the bottom of the cutting just below a leaf node and just above one at the top (8-9" long). Dip the bottom of the cutting into rooting hormone. The garden encyclopedia tells us to "Make a slit trench in an out-of-the-way place in your garden. Refill the trench to 1/3 with sharp sand (never use soft builders sand). Put the cutting about 5 inches apart into the sand with about 3" above ground. Refill the trench with loose, rich soil. Often simply sticking the cuttings into loose rich soil works perfectly well.

Planting Trees & Shrubs - " Fall is for Planting!" It is said that many trees, shrubs and perennials will do as much as 80% of their root growth in the fall. That is probably not the case in our climate but they will still produce new roots. The soil is warm after collecting heat all summer but the weather is mild. Without the foliage demanding constant moisture (because of the cool air or because of the lack of leaves) more energy is allocated to the roots. Fall planted trees, shrubs and perennials have will be much larger and better established than those planted next spring.

Planting Bulbs - Bulbs are best planted before the soil freezes too hard but not so soon that warm weather will cause them to sprout. Now is a good time to start planting all kinds of bulbs in the higher parts of town, later this month for gardens east of town. It is fine to plant from now through December. We've planted in January is some very warm years. Planting with bulb food, bone meal or perennial fertilizer will help bulbs to increase and produce more blooms in the future. Plant in well draining, rich soil. Plant in masses of single varieties for the greatest effect it is possible to put several types of bulbs in the same large planting hole. Many rock-garden varieties may be tucked in to little patches in rock walls, along paths, or in planters. Protect tulips from ground squirrels with chicken wire, hardware cloth, Ropel spray, or planting with garlic.

Planting Perennials - Now is an excellent time to plant perennials. After dividing all you can in your own garden select new species and varieties to try. Perennials planted this fall will bloom and expand throughout next summer. Plants planted next summer won't really settle in until the following summer.

Fertilizing - While it is generally not a good practice to feed plants a high nitrogen fertilizer before going into dormancy, your plants will benefit from the addition of other nutrients. Applying a thick mulch is an organic form of very slow release nitrogen and is very beneficial. Organic fertilizers like Dr. Earth or Biosol may be applied in the fall as they slowly break down with biological activity. Most other forms of nitrogen are relatively soluble and will leach through the soil. Phosphorous and Potassium are slower to break down and will provide spring nutrients with a fall application. Bone Meal promotes better roots and future flowers. Osmocote has a formulation which releases only when the soil is warm and moist and when used now, will be ready to release in early spring. Always add a slow release form of fertilizer when planting.

Mulching - Mulch originally meant merely an application of manure or other loose compost spread thickly on the soil surface around new plantings to preserve the soil moisture and improve the soil.. This is of vital importance. All of your plants should have this sort of fresh mulch added at planting and every year. Winter mulches of mature compost (Gromulch or Soil Building Compost) or pine needles should be spread in late fall on freezing or frozen soil in order to help keep the soil frozen. This protects plants from the destructive effects of repeated freeze / thaw cycles which may ruin roots or lift plants out of the ground by the "heaving" of the soil. In the case of hardy bulbs, late mulching over the frozen crust, keeps voles from burrowing and eating the bulbs Some plants require a thin layer of mulch to shade them from our winter sun and prevent desiccation in our very dry climate. Pine needles or fir boughs may be lightly placed over perennials with exposed crowns or late basil rosettes of leaves (Peony, Oriental Poppy, Lupine, Foxglove). This is unnecessary when many feet of snow cover the ground but we never know when that will be. Occasionally mulches may be used to keep the soil in a bed unfrozen for a little longer so that certain bulbs (Iris) may be planted after the normal planting season is over.