Year-Round Advice to Keep Your Garden Beautiful

October

Now is the time to add color to your yard this fall and winter. The Pansies & Snapdragons are annuals and will last through April or May of next year. The perennial Mums and Fall Asters will bloom this fall, freeze, & then come back in the spring. These plants are hardy and will repeat this cycle for years. Fall is also the time of year to plant trees and shrubs. Doing so now will allow more time for a plant’s roots to establish before next summer. Also, fall fertilization for all plants is a good thing to do if you have not already! It helps plants to recover from summer heat, promotes strong root and stem growth, improves winter tolerance, and ensures a healthy, vigorous start in the spring. 

Want to stop winter weeds before they start? Now is the ideal point to apply a pre-emergent herbicide to your lawn, preventing weeds from germinating and saving you trouble in the spring. Pre-emergent weed killers work for up to three months and are available alone or combined with fertilizer. Here at McIntire’s Garden Center, we have a variety of these products from Fertilome, Nitro-phos, & Hi-Yield. 

In the garden, you may or may not be harvesting the last warm season crop of the year. Now, either way, October is the perfect time to clean up your garden bed & prepare your soil for a fresh, cool season crop. Checking for any bugs/fungus is a good idea, as well as adding compost & other fresh soil amendments! 

Mark S. Ney, Certified Texas Nursery Professional #4749