Now’s the Time to Plant

  

September’s cooler days and warm soil temperatures are a perfect combination for planting in the fall. The weather isn't quite as tricky as it is in the spring, and you don't have that "spring rush" feeling to get everything done after winter. In addition, there’s a great selection of perennials and shrubs to choose from, including mums and asters, colorful sedums and blanket flowers, as well as ornamental grasses.  Edibles such as raspberries, grapes, blackberries and rhubarb can be planted now, as well as Butterfly Bush, Potentilla, Spirea and other flowering shrubs. 

  

The key to fall planting, just like every other time of the season, is to prepare the soil.  The advantage this time of year is the soil is warm and drier, making it easier to add amendments. In our typical clay soils, that means adding organic material to the planting site is key.  

 

We stock locally produced bagged soil amendments such as Sheep, Peat and Compost. Bagged amendments make it easy to take home and place in the garden. Rich in trace minerals, organic material and beneficial microbes, Earth Essentials Sheep, Peat and Compost improves the soil’s physical and biological health, essential for initial planting as well as sustained growth. Amendments should be incorporated into the planting site at a 50:50 ratio with the existing soil. 

Plan to dig the planting hole twice as wide as the root ball and once again as deep. Once the planting hole is dug, fill it with water and observe how long it takes to drain. If it takes more than five minutes, add more organic material. 

Remove the plant from its container and break up the root ball, center it in the hole and back fill with amended soil, using enough to create a shallow basin to facilitate watering. As you’re filling the planting hole, apply ferti•lome liquid Root Stimulator to reduce transplant shock and stimulate strong root development. 

 

Keep plants evenly moist. This is best done by checking each plant daily and hand watering as necessary. Water slowly. Fill the moat you built around each plant and let the water slowly seep in. Don’t rely on automatic irrigation. 

 

Plant in the evening. This will give the new plant some 8 to 10 hours to begin acclimating without the stress of direct sun and higher temperatures.  

When the ground gets cold, usually around Thanksgiving, add a 2" to 3" layer of mulch. This will hold in the moisture, keep the ground cold and stable through the winter helping the plant maintain dormancy and less likely to trigger new growth during any brief warm up periods. Soil Pep is a good choice for winter mulch. Plan to water all the plants in your landscape every 4-5 weeks during the winter. 

In summary, planting in the fall gives perennials, trees and shrubs time to establish and develop strong root systems, thus giving them vigorous head start next spring  

  

 

 

Now is the Time to Plant Cool Season Crops

 

  

Late August is the ideal time for planting greens and root crops. Warm days encourage good growth, while generally cooler nights bring out the flavor of your fall crops. There is a wide variety of vegetables you can grow now, including beets, kale, chard, radishes, spinach, and broccoli. Fall crops are available as starts or you can plant from seed. The warm soils of late summer will encourage seeds to germinate quickly. Planting vegetable starts will result in faster harvest times for crops such as Lettuce, Cabbage, Kale, Collards and Broccoli. For a succession of crops well into late fall, plant some starts and seeds next to each other. Cool season vegetable starts can be found in our Annuals House.   

 

If you choose to plant from seed, look at the days to maturity information or days to harvest on the package label. This is roughly the amount of time from planting seeds to picking your crops. The shorter the days to maturity, the faster you’re harvesting. Radishes for example, mature in about 25 days, so if you plant them now, you’ll be picking radishes in less than four weeks.    

For best success with your second season planting, begin by cleaning up any lingering weeds or vegetation at the planting site, then dig two inches of compost into the site. Earth Essentials Sheep, Peat and Compost is a good choice. It’s produced locally and it works to improve and replenish your soil. For an additional nutrient boost, incorporate earth worm castings into the planting site.  

Summer vegetable crops will have depleted most of the nutrition in your soil, so adding a low concentration granular organic fertilizer at this time will keep your cool weather crops going strong. Work the fertilizer into the soil after you've finished amending the planting site.   

Once you've amended the soil and added fertilizer, it's time to transplant your vegetable starts. The best time to transplant leafy greens is in the early morning or on a cloudy day. This will help reduce transplant shock. Water the area thoroughly, remove the starts from the cell packs and plant them in the ground at the same depth they were in the starter container.

If you're planting from seed, follow package directions for seed planting depth and spacing and make sure you take time to mark each row as you plant. Don't have room in the garden? Are your potted petunias and other flowering annuals starting to look tired? Replace them with some Asian greens such as Mizuna or Bok Choy. Asian greens add unusual shapes, textures, and spicy flavors to salads.

For a longer fall harvest, plant seeds or starts every two weeks and keep a frost cloth handy for those fall nights when cooler temperatures might threaten your crop. This will help extend your "greens" garden well into late fall. There's nothing like a dinner salad picked from your own garden.  It's fresh and you know exactly what's in it. 

 

What to do in the August Garden

 

 

In between harvesting ripe crops and planning your fall garden, it’s important to keep up with the routine tasks of regular maintenance, watering, fertilizing, weeding, and deadheading.  

 

Irrigate, don’t water. Conserving water is always important, so whether you water with a hose or a drip system, it’s important to water at the ground level not overhead. By positioning the drip system emitter or hose end sprayer where it’s needed, you’ll optimize plant water consumption and reduce water waste due to evaporation.

 

Get in the habit of carrying a pair of light pruners with you as you make your rounds. As you spot a blossom beginning to fade snip it off.  In gardening terms it’s called deadheading, which simply means pruning off the old flowers. This keeps the garden neat and promotes additional blooms on roses, annuals and perennials.

 

Keep an eye out for summer weeds. They take advantage of cultivated garden soil to grow vigorously and can produce several generations during the summer season.  It’s important to control them before they seed out. 

 

Powdery mildew may be seen on squash, pumpkins as well as peonies and other ornamentals. Use an organic fungicide such as Sulfur to help contain the spread. Once the season is over, it’s important to do a thorough cleanup. Leaving spent vegetation in place will encourage mildews and other diseases to winter over and reinfect your garden next spring. Getting on a problem early is the best way to control it.    

 

Check your roses and remove any spent blossoms. Mid-August is the time to feed your roses for the season. Water each rose bush, then apply the fertilizer and water in thoroughly.  

 

Continue to deadhead blooming perennials such as Hardy Hibiscus, and Butterfly Bushes to encourage more blooms. Do the same for your container plants, including hanging baskets. Fertilize your baskets and containers every two weeks with ferti-lome 20-20-20.  

 

While you’re at it, take a hard look at your tomatoes and vegetables. Removing dead and diseased leaves on your tomato plants will put more energy into fruit production. Recognize common tomato problems such as blossom end rot (use ferti-lome Yield Booster to increase calcium levels) cracking (be consistent with watering) and yellow shoulders (heat, low Potassium levels, high soil pH). Heat, wind, uneven watering, poor soil, over fertilizing, insect damage can also cause tomato leaves to curl and twist. The best thing to do at this point is to maintain an even watering schedule and use an organic fertilizer every two weeks.   

 

Tomatoes and peppers are starting to ripen now, so it’s important to keep up with the harvesting, which will encourage your plants to produce more.  

 

This is also the time to start planning for a second crop of cool weather vegetables. Beans, radishes, lettuce, kale, spinach and many more cool weather crops can be planted soon, for late season harvest. Prepare the planting site by removing any spent foliage left over from summer’s crops. Next work two to three inches of compost and worm castings into the top six inches of the planting site.   

 

If you’re not planning a fall crop, consider planting a cover crop such as winter rye or buckwheat, 

 

 

Start a gardening journal. It’s beneficial to take pictures and keep a journal documenting what went well and what didn’t during the season. This will help when you make plans for the upcoming gardening season.   

 

 

Now’s the time For Lawn Food Plus Iron

  

This time of year, you may notice your lawn seems to have lost its vigor and doesn’t look as healthy or green as it did earlier in the season. Some summer lawn problems come about due to poor mowing and watering practices. At this point in the season, your mower should be raised to its highest setting, and you should be mowing twice a week. Mowing higher and more frequently will reduce moisture loss and minimize heat damage. Watering correctly is important too. Watering your grass every day encourages shallow root systems. When the weather turns hot and dry, these short, shallow roots can’t deliver enough water and your grass begins to dry up and die. A better approach would be to water deeper and less frequently. This will encourage grass roots to grow longer, reducing the heat stress effects on your lawn. In addition to utilizing good watering and mowing methods, it’s important to feed your lawn now with a fertilizer that contains both nitrogen and iron.

 ferti◦lome Lawn Food Plus Iron supplies the nitrogen your lawn needs in both slow as well as quick release forms. Quick release nitrogen will green up your lawn now, while the slow-release aspect will sustain color through the fall until it’s time to apply a winter fertilizer around Halloween. In addition to nitrogen, Lawn Food Plus Iron contains chelated iron, designed to work in tandem with nitrogen to maintain turf color and long-term growth. It's important to use chelated iron in our heavy clay, high pH soils because your grass can absorb it more effectively than non-chelated iron. This is true any time you're adding iron to your lawn, trees and shrubs. Always look for products which contain chelated iron. 

 

We recommend you include humate in your lawn maintenance schedule. Humate is a highly concentrated soil conditioner derived from the remains of decomposed organic plant material.  Feeding your lawn humate will make your soil healthier, increase microbial activity and enhance the nutrient uptake of the fertilizer. Humate is also a chelating agent. Chelating agents are not influenced by our soil pH and as a result, more of the fertilizer you put on your lawn goes to feed the grass.  Humate is available in granular form in Natural Guard HuMic.

You apply it using a fertilizer spreader.  For your convenience, we have spreaders you can borrow to apply humate and Lawn Food Plus Iron. Lawn Food Plus Iron and humate can be applied on the same day. Apply the humate to the lawn first and water in thoroughly. Then, reset your fertilizer spreader settings and apply the Lawn Food Plus Iron and water in.  

  

  

By following best practices for mowing and watering, combined with Lawn Food Plus Iron and Humate, you can help ensure your lawn will keep looking its best going into late summer and early fall.