In the vegetable garden:
- It’s apple season! Store your harvest at 0 °C to 7 °C (32 °F to 45 °F). Some varieties will keep longer than others, so check regularly to ensure they are not spoiling.
- Make sure to dry your beans well before storing in a moisture-proof, airtight container for making those soups and chili dishes over the winter.
- Make sure your onions are dry and wiped clean of all dirt. Store away from apples and potatoes where it is cool and dry. Again, some varieties are better keepers than others.
- Root Crops. Clean your potatoes, carrots, beets, etc. of any soil. Store in a cool, dark place. If you clip the tops off of your carrots, beets, parsnips, etc., they will stay fresher longer. (Some people like to store their root crops in sand-filled tubs.)
- Squash and pumpkins should be washed with a 10 % bleach solution and wiped dry thoroughly for storing. They should be stored at 10 °C to 15 °C (50 °F to 65 °F).
- And for goodness sakes! Plant that garlic now!
In the perennial garden:
- Time to dig up the tender plants for storing, such as dahlias, canna lilies, begonia tubers, etc.
- Right time to plant the spring-flowering bulbs, if you did not get this done last month. Put markers of some sort where you have planted your bulbs and late-flowering perennials. That way you will not dig them up in your spring enthusiasm.
- Still time to divide and move those overgrown perennials.
- Get on with the fall clean-up schedule in the garden. Cut back those herbaceous perennials which are dying back, such as hostas. Put any plant debris which is showing signs of serious disease such as botrytis in the garbage, or on the burn pile.
- Those piles falling leaves. They are a wonderful, protective mulch for any borderline hardy perennials you may have snuck into your landscape design. Leaves are also great for protecting soil erosion from winter rains.
- Good time to start some paperwhite bulbs indoors now.
- If you have kept last year’s poinsettia, and stored it in a dark closet, now is the time to bring it out into the light so it will produce those lovely, colourful bracts at Christmas.
- Check your climbing roses are securely tied to their trellis so as not to risk any broken branches during the winter storms.
- Put your garden furniture under cover to ensure longer life.
Posted on September 28, 2017
