Keith Hansen

It seems we'll have warm and dry weather with us for a little while longer, rest assured, the fall gardening season is upon us. Here are a few items to keep you busy getting your garden in shape during the month of October.

Lawn Care. St. Augustine, Bermuda and centipede lawns should be fertilized no later than this week if you have not already made your fall application. What type you use should be based on a soil test. If you don't have a recent soil test for a guide, then use a 3-1-2 ratio. Do not apply at a high rate.

Lawns are not growing quite so fast now, but keep up with the mowing. Continue mowing at the same height, and do not remove more than 1/3 of the length of the grass blades to prevent stress.

If St. Augustine or Bermuda grass does not seem to growing well, it could be the pH is too low. Fall is a good time to add lime if the soil is acidic. You really shoud get a soil test done to determine the soil pH; if the soil acidic, it will recommend an addition of lime. Don't guess on this. Centipede lawns usually do not need liming as centipede tolerates acidic soils.

Pest Watch. Be alert for signs of brown patch fungus in St. Augustine (and sometimes centipede) lawns. This disease appears as more or less circular patches, with brown grass in the center and a halo of yellowing grass at the edge of the patch. A test for brown patch is to gently pull on individual yellowing or brown grass blades. If they pull easily from the runner, and appear rotted at the base of the blade, they have brown patch.

If your lawn has had brown patch in the past, it is a candidate to get it again under the right conditions. Conditions which favor brown patch development include mild days and nights with prolonged wetness of the grass. Do not water in the evening, and with milder days, lawn watering should be done less often, especially if it rains. Products containing PCNB (Terraclor, Turfcide), myclobutanil (Immunox), propiconazole (Fertilome Systemic Fungicide, Ortho Lawn Disease Control), or thiophanate-methyl (Green Light Fung-Away, Dragon Systemic Fungicide) should be applied at the first sign of symptoms to prevent this disease.

The same cooler weather that will bring everyone outdoors will also bring dormant weed seeds to life. In the world of weeds, we broadly classify them as warm season and cool season. Cool season weeds require mild temperatures to germinate, grow and flower, and these are the types we will contend with from now until next spring.

Typical cool season weeds include henbit, chickweed, cranesbill (Geranium), lawn burweed, and annual bluegrass (Poa annua). Many of these annual weeds germinate in September and October if soil moisture is available, but you really don't see them for several weeks until they have had time to grow.

If you have maintained a thick lawn this summer through proper mowing, watering, and fertilizing, then winter or cool season weeds will not be a problem in your yard. But, if your grass is thin, and full of summer weeds, then you may want to consider using a preemergence herbicide to prevent cool season weeds from germinating. However, you need to put it out immediately, since mild, wet weather is ideal for seed germination. Many preemergence products will not kill seedlings after the seeds have germinated.

Planting. If your landscape is in need of a critically placed shade tree, or an accent tree to provide color or interest, or, if you have been dreaming of a new bed of azaleas or other shrubs for your yard, October is a great month to plant woody plants. Plants set out at this time greatly benefit from the milder temperatures of fall and winter and early spring, giving them a long time to get established before they experience next summer's stressful heat. There is typically more consistent rainfall in the October through May period, which greatly aids in plant establishment, especially if new plants are located in an area where a hose is not handy.

Vegetables. There are a few vegetables that can still be started this month - the sooner the better. These include beets, carrots, collards, garlic, leaf lettuce, mustard, radish, spinach, and turnips. Be sure to mulch the garden to prevent crusting and prevent weeds.

Flowers. Add some color around your home this month to provide a cheery atmosphere during the duller days of winter. The most popular of the cool season flowering annuals to be set out now are pansies. There are so many types and colors of pansies you might find it hard to pick just one variety. There are pastels shades, varieties with no faces, and miniature flowers, so you should have no trouble finding the right type for your winter and early spring landscape.

Besides pansies, other bedding plants that can be planted in October include pinks, dianthus, flowering cabbage and kale, giant red mustard, 'Bright Lights' Swiss chard, stock, snapdragons, Citrona erysimum, violas, calendulas, diascia and nemesia.

As always, enrich your soil with finished compost, and in sandy soils, incorporate a small amount of fertilizer to help your plants get a good start.

October is also the month to divide and plant spring-blooming perennials like columbines, daylilies, phlox, Louisiana and bearded irises, dianthus, coreopsis, black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), coneflowers and daisies. If you have extras after dividing, give them away to a new gardener, or trade with a gardening friend or neighbor.

Wildflowers and seeded annuals like California poppy, Oriental poppy, larkspur, bluebonnets, coreopsis, Drummond phlox and many others should be sown early this month.

For great information on growing wildflowers, visit Aggie Horticultures Web site - http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/wildseed/index.html

Keith Hansen
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