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Ready For Fall? Here’s 7 Tips For Your Garden

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From repotting to planting, late summer is a great time to get your garden in order. Here are some tips to help.

1. Sow Spinach

It’s a good time to sow spinach for later this fall and early next spring. Sow seeds in the garden; keep the area moist for a couple weeks. You’ll harvest healthy, great tasting spinach in a month or six weeks. This also gives you a head start in the spring. The spinach will over-winter and hit the ground growing in early spring. Sow other salad greens, too. They won’t over-winter but they will produce great autumn salads.

2. Plant Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums provide great fall flower color. Pick plants that are tight and have lots of branches. More branches means more flowers this autumn. Plant mums in a sunny spot. Be sure you know what type of plant you have. Some mums are dainty and small, others can get big.

3. Fertilize House Plants

Use a balanced fertilizer. Take them outside for a shower.  It’s also a good time to transplant pot-bound house plants into a little bigger container. Most house plants don’t like drafts so keep them away from furnace vents.

4. Fall is for Planting or Transplanting

Trees and shrubs planted this time of year do well.  Divide and move any overgrown or large perennials. If you have more than you can use give some away to neighbors and friends. Move plants with the most roots. New plantings will put roots down and hit spring running. Ornamental grasses do not like to be divided in late summer. Divide them in the spring.   

5. Cut herbs for Drying

Herbs in flower hold the most oils, flavor and fragrance. Tie the stems and hang them upside down. They can be kitchen ornaments and essentials throughout the winter.

6. Consider Canning or Freezing

Fall is a great season to have fresh, home-grown fruits and vegetables. Even if you don’t grow it yourself, you can buy produce grown a relatively short distance away. To keep up with the flow, we freeze a lot of the harvest. Canning is the only way to save salsa and marinara for the winter. 

7. Watch Out for Bugs

Tomato horn worms can eat a lot in a day. They are what they eat and tend to be the same color of the vine they are on. Check tomatoes and potatoes carefully.  Hand pick the bugs off of the plant. Potato beetles can also be handpicked. Or just knock them off the plants into some soapy water.

tom@throgmortonplantmanagement.com                     

Tom has been offering garden advice on KUNC for almost two decades. During that time he has been the wholesale sales manager at Ft. Collins Nursery, Inc. Since January of 2005 he has been the owner and operator of Throgmorton Plant Management, LLC., a landscape installation and maintenance company as well as a horticultural consulting firm. He lives in northern Ft. Collins with his wife and two kids.
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