October 2004

Edible

• Remove plant debris from the vegetable garden after frost. If plants were not diseased, they can be dug into the soil. Leaving dead plants in the garden will provide a home for over wintering insects. Also add a 3 to 4 inch layer of other organic matter and dig in. Your garden will be ready for planting in the spring.
  
  
• Choose a pumpkin for Halloween from a local pumpkin farm. Choose a pumpkin with a good stem; it will keep better. A pumpkin that is light in weight for its size will have less “meat” making carving easier. For a listing of local farms call 773-233-0476 or check out the Pumpkins and More web site at www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/pumpkins.
  
  
• Prepare to avoid frost damage. Our first frost usually occurs around mid-October. It is often followed by a few weeks of good growing weather. Protect tender veggies like tomatoes and peppers with layers of newspapers, blankets, tarps, sheets or floating row covers. Remove the coverings soon after sunrise. Vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, kale, collards and turnips can withstand light frosts, and the frost will improve their flavor.
  
  
• Saving seeds from your favorite tomato can be fun and will save you money, but unless the tomato is an old-fashioned variety, the new plant will not be as flavorful, vigorous and disease resistant as the parent plant. So avoid saving seeds from hybrid plants. Saving Seeds fact sheet available.

Ornamental

• Use sod to repair any dead patches in the lawn. Seeding the areas now may not allow the newly germinated turf time to establish itself in order to survive the winter. The sod should knit and grow quickly in the cool fall weather. Keep the sod moist until it is established. This takes about three weeks.
  
  
• Plant spring flowering bulbs now. Bulbs can be planted until the ground is frozen. Planting early will insure good root development. Root growth will occur until soil temps drop below 40 degrees F.
  
  
• Watch for the Asian lady beetle invasion. They will show up in large numbers on the sides of homes with sunny exposures. The beetles will enter the home through cracks and crevices, windows and open doors. They will not reproduce indoors. Avoid the temptation to smash them; they leave a stain. Vacuuming is the best control indoors. Outdoors caulk cracks and crevices.
  
  
• Dropping of needles from pines, yews, junipers and arborvitae is a natural fall occurrence. Evergreens drop their older needles to allow for new growth. The dropped needles can be used as winter mulch.
  
  
• Stop raking those leaves and mulch them into the turf. Mowing over the leaves will chop them into little pieces, which will filter into the turf. University research has shown that mulching the leaves into the lawn will not harm the grass and will improve the soil. Chopped leaves can also be added to the compost pile or dug into garden soil.
  
  
• Make a late fall application of a soluble nitrogen fertilizer to the lawn. A late fall application will promote good root development and will keep the lawn green longer. It will also help provide an early spring green up. Make the application while the grass is still green.