Mountain West October Garden To-Do List

Dispose of fall leave-taking . While I like to keep some leaves around my perennial for extra protective covering in the winter , I have too many for all of them to stay for the entire season . Remove leaves from your lawn in special so it does n’t get put out under loaded snow . you could either add them to the compost pile or take to the recycling eye .

Winterize your irrigation organisation .

October is when I ordinarily have the sprinkler organisation blown out for the winter by an irrigation company . you could also do it yourself with an melodic phrase compressor . If a frost comes before you have a probability to fully winterise the system , verify you protect the backflow preventer . A broken backflowing meeting place is a pricey repair . Yes , I learned this the hard way of life when I first moved to Colorado .

Protecting the backflow can be done in a duo of ways :

1 . post an insulated cover over the backflow during light Robert Lee Frost .

2 . sour off the irrigation clock and the piddle valve to the main irrigation parentage ( probably located in your basement ) . Open any and all valve on the backflow and on the pee course heading to the backflowing to allow piss to run out . This will temporarily protect the system until you fully winterize it .

Put the garden to bed . I pass on some perennial standing through the winter to flow the hiss and provide winter interest . Others that are offend or get matted under snow get cut back to ground . In addition to producing a hefty garden , I find this also assist open out the work and the trips to the recycling centre of attention over the following several calendar month . You should also remove any spent yearbook like helianthus ( Helianthus annuus)–although I keep the seed head for the birds – cut flowers , and container planting . For more on cleaning up your garden at the closing of the season , register onhere .

make for in houseplant . This month I permanently bring in my houseplant . They get a good shower to remove any insect , a eating of fertilizer , and a new locating in a gay window . think of to bring them in for those quick storm that snuff it through even before you have a chance to full groom them for indoor life .

Plant cover crops in the vegetable garden . Since an other September freeze brought an abrupt ending to my vegetable garden ( I was out of Ithiel Town and could n’t get thing protected ) , I am taking the opportunity to put cover crop seed in my raised veggie bed . back cropsprovide victuals to the soil , improve soil texture , and downplay wearing away during the wintertime months . I plan to contribute fava bean plant , which will bear wanton hoarfrost , and a portmanteau of pea and oats which will produce chop-chop but kick the bucket off as winter solidification in . The plants will be till into the garden in the natural spring . I ’m hop this year ’s effort will ameliorate next class ’s H.M.S. Bounty !

Michelle Provaznik is executive director of the Gardens on Spring Creek in Fort Collins , Colorado .

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