As the summer draws to a close, many of us tend to think that the gardening season is over and turn to indoor chores. Don’t do it, my friends! There is no need to retreat indoors while the weather is this pleasant. Fall is an excellent time to plant, and there are many other tasks to complete in the garden before winter comes. Following are a few of the most important (and my favorite) fall gardening activities.
Plant spring blooming bulbs. Bulbs are, without a doubt, the least expensive and easiest way to get a huge impact in your garden in the spring. For less than a dollar a bulb, you will have years of blooms; which get bigger each year, and many bulbs will multiply over time, giving you even more bang for your buck. Every spring, when spring bulbs start to emerge and bloom around town, we get tons of requests for tulips, daffodils and many others from gardeners wishing for the same brightness and color in their own spring landscape. Unfortunately, the glory of spring bulbs cannot be added in the spring. They are only available for purchase in late summer, and must be planted in the fall.
Spring bulbs are a fantastic option for Flagstaff because they need the cold weather of winter to get ready to bloom, and they do not mind frost or even some snow once they start to bloom in the spring. Here in Flagstaff, now is the perfect time to plant spring bulbs for optimum spring color. The cool night temperatures prevent the bulbs from rotting and the winter to come guarantees the necessary chill hours for bulbs to produce fabulous displays of color.
Plant mums. Mums are probably the most popular fall blooming perennial. There are literally hundreds of varieties of chrysanthemums; but to help you with your selection, we only carry varieties that will thrive in our climate. Fall is a prime time to plant mums. They prefer cold weather to heat, so your fall planted mums will be better established when the stressful summer arrives. Mums are relatively easy to care for, requiring only a sunny spot, plenty of moisture, and regular feeding throughout their blooming season. Should we get an early frost, you may need to cover your mums with frost cloth.
Plant blooming annuals to liven up your gardens. By now, many of your flowering perennials are losing their blooms, trees are starting to lose their leaves, and it feels as though everything is closing up shop for the season and heading into dormancy. As much as I love fall, with the changing colors and crisp air; I, for one, think this process goes much too quickly! So I like to add a bunch of annual flowers that are a little more cold hardy, such as pansies and violas, to my flower beds. They give my entryway a beautiful, colorful pop in the season that would otherwise be primarily yellow, orange and brown!
Plant just about anything else! Fall is an exceptional time to plant trees, shrubs and perennials in Flagstaff. Our cooler air temperatures, combined with the warm soil temperature, provide an ideal scenario for reducing transplant shock. In addition, plants are heading into dormancy, meaning they can focus all of their energy, all winter long, on establishing a good, strong root system. Come next spring (provided the plant gets plenty of water), you will have a healthier and more productive plant.
Apply Winterizer fertilizer. Fertilome’s Winterizer fertilizer helps prepare your grass, trees and shrubs for the cold, hard winter ahead. It gives an extra boost to your plants’ root systems, which will help your plants with winter hardiness, stem strength, and disease resistance. The healthier they are when spring arrives, the more growth and vigor you’ll see when your plants break dormancy. Add Winterizer to trees, shrubs, lawns and flowerbeds, according to package directions.
Winterize your irrigation system. If you have a drip irrigation system, it will need to be drained for winter and the system turned off to prevent freezing. If you have a sprinkler system (with PVC pipe), this process also requires that the pipes be blown out to ensure no water remains in the lines. With a drip only system, this process is relatively simple to do it yourself. There are many licensed companies that can provide this service for you, for either type of system, at a nominal fee (including Warner’s!).
Continue watering. One of the greatest challenges of living in our area is dealing with the dry winter (or dry any other season, for that matter!) We often think of winters as “wet,” because in some years we have been known to get more snow than anywhere else in the continental United States. But the truth is, we live in a high desert. Which means it’s really dry! Most winters, we don’t get enough precipitation to support even some established trees. The unfortunate part of this plight is that we have already winterized our irrigation systems, and turned them off until the danger of freezing is over. So, every winter, we gardeners drag out our hoses and turn to hand watering our gardens. There are a couple of downfalls to this system: the first being that many gardeners do not go to the extra effort, or they leave town; so their plants suffer huge stress and will eventually die. The second is that hand watering is not the ideal way to water anything in your garden, and many gardeners do not water properly by hand. We have a lot to say about proper watering techniques, how much to water, and how frequently. You can find tons of information on the subject online at www.warnercompanies.com, or come in and visit with us. There are a lot of different variables that affect your watering schedule and routine. The long story short is that you will need to simulate drip irrigation with your hose by putting it on a slow trickle for about 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of tree or shrub; about once a week for newly planted items and once a month for established plants throughout the fall and winter.
Mulch planting beds. Apply a 2-3” layer of a bark mulch to all of your flowerbeds and around trees, shrubs and perennials, especially those that are newly planted. The bark mulch will help to retain moisture, keep pests away, and it looks really nice! The added material also helps to insulate the soil and the plants’ root systems, keeping them warmer through the winter. We prefer to use bark mulch because the organic material will break down throughout the winter, which will provide extra nutrients for your plants as well.
I hope this to-do list will keep you plenty busy this fall in your garden! When you run out of projects, stop by and see us; we have lots more ideas to keep you gardening all year long. FBN
By Misti Warner-Andersen
Warner’s Store Manager