Fall Gardening Open Thread [Y-not]

It’s a weekend day in late-October which can only mean one thing – working in the garden!

I know we have a lot of resident garden experts amongst the Moron Nation. I am not one of them, but I am trying to learn. This thread is a place to share that expertise.

So what should you be doing in your garden right now? Here’s a handy resource of gardening to do lists by month: courtesy of pallensmith.com.

Much of what you’ll be doing this weekend depends on which hardiness zone you’re in. You can find that our here courtesy of the USDA: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. (I’m in Zone 7a.)

For those of us at altitude, understanding hardiness zones can be a little complicated. Here’s an explanation of how they work courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens.

We haven’t had a hard frost yet at Casa Y-not, but my basil plant is starting to drop leaves so I really need to get out there and save what I can. I was thinking of pureeing it and storing it in ice cube trays since I am not a huge fan of dried basil. I also have a lot of thyme, tarragon, and rosemary, which I think may survive the winter (pretty sure the rosemary will here, not sure about the other two).

I still have tomatoes on the vine that I’m hoping will start to turn and our Padron pepper plants are still making flowers! Does anyone know if tomatillo plants over-winter? I’ve read they are very hard and will naturalize.

This was our first year using raised beds for vegetable gardens. ( These were the raised beds we put together last Spring, btw. They are awesome – highly recommend!) I’m trying to decide how to put them “to bed.” I’m thinking of leaving most things in place, including woody herbs, and dumping a bunch of mulch on them or, if my damned aspens will cooperate and drop their leaves, using leaves instead of mulch so that it’ll be easier to get the beds ready next Spring.

I’m not big on flower gardening – I’m far too lazy to mess with annuals. I have some perennial flowers and inherited a bunch of tea roses that I still need to cut back. Last year I just winged it and they survived ok, but I understand that there is a right way to do that, so maybe I should look into that.

What’s happening in your garden this weekend?

posted by Open Blogger at 03:05 PM

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