Hallulah!  It’s Finally Fall…

by Mona L. Hayden

I just love this time of year! You can almost feel the seasons change as the pine needles and leaves cascade down, pumpkins and pansies, and mums show up everywhere, and cool breezes snap you to attention. I especially like the end of daylight savings time because I think we sometimes need a little darkness to appreciate the light. Besides, after the hot summer we’ve just experienced, our plants need to get to bed early for some much needed rest. So do I.

While they’re napping, we can either go inside and start planning our fall and spring gardens or spend the daylight hours tending to the final chores of the season. Or you can follow my lead and go outside to enjoy the fall flush of roses, salvia, and mums while eagerly anticipating the arrival of camellia blossoms. If the urge to be productive arises, this is the time of year to cut back banana trees and elephant ears, order spring blooming bulb and plants, and divide perennials. You can sow some ryegrass seed, too, if you want to keep a lush green lawn throughout the winter months. The seeds won’t germinate until we get consistently cooler temps but you can start broadcasting them around the middle of this month, which is also the ideal time to sod your yard. Cooler temps and fall rains will keep it moist allowing time to root in before it goes dormant for the season. 

Another beneficial task is adding a layer of mulch (pine straw is great for this) to your beds for the cooler months ahead. Although you’ll probably have to continue watering a little longer, you can stop fertilizing for the season except for maybe a little slow release around the cool-season annuals. With our first frost date projected to arrive in mid/late November, you don’t want to encourage tender new growth that will just burn off. 

It’s also a good time to direct seed poppies, larkspur, sweet pea, stock, calendula, alyssum, and bachelor’s buttons. You’ll definitely be rewarded later for your efforts. Also, you can begin implementing flowering cabbage and kale, dianthus, petunias, pansies (although I prefer violas because they self-seed), and mums into your autumn landscape. As for perennials, you can successfully set these out until the end of the year.  If you want to incorporate hybrid roses into your garden, get a head start by preparing the beds and making selections now. However, if you prefer old garden shrub roses, you can plant those any time of year. The upcoming months provides the ideal climate for planting shrubs and trees so their roots can get established before the hot, dry season arrives.

If you want a fall garden, plant some cabbage, carrots, celery, garlic, onions, radishes or broccoli this month. With these chores under control, you can spend those cool, rainy afternoons in a comfortable chair indoors with bulb and seed catalogs, planning next season’s gardens.

On a more personal note, I recently had the pleasure of sharing breakfast with another Master Gardener, John Greene, who lives in Monroe. John is one of eleven children and tells me he grew up with “the mud of Union Parish between my toes”. He went on to become and educator and consultant around the globe before retiring in Monroe in the early 1980’s. At 93, John says he’s led an unbelievable life, and from touring his home and gardens I’d have to agree. Situated on a shady area of the bayou, his beautiful home is comfortable and inviting. His gardens are well planned and maintained and provide color and texture as a forefront to the mossy bayou background. Statuary and water features are strategically placed throughout the grounds, adding to the serene environment.

John also plays the pumping organ and is recognized as one of only a handful of people in the U.S. that has successfully bred Brazilian Cardinals. He has recently decided to convert his aviary into another type of breeding house – this time, for plants. John’s unofficial Saturday morning breakfast club, consisting of David Schmitz, Lonnie Schrock, and Lorena Knappier, isn’t a planned affair but just an informal table set for any of the three that may show up at 7am. This charming man, so accomplished and yet so humble, enjoys his beautiful yard and feeding the birds while looking forward to every day. How inspiring is that?

Now go dress up really scary and spook the neighbors!