For Release October 23, 2001

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

We are into the last week of October and the work is just beginning. In this part of Kansas we are still far enough south, that many of the fall lawn and garden chores are yet to be done. When the calendar turns to September, many homeowners are in a hurry to get everything done in the yard, right now, so that everything is ready for winter. Unfortunately, September is too early for a lot of yard and garden chores.

Unless you have bare soil, I would probably halt any further grass seeding for this fall. If the weather stays mild and moist you’d be okay. If it turns off cold and dry, you could be in trouble. There’s even odds for either event happening, so unless you just have to, wait until early spring to do any further seeding.

Most of the weeds that bloom so pretty in the spring, emerge in the fall. A lot of them just came up in the past month. If you treated for weeds during September, you may very well have missed a lot of them. It requires temperatures down into the lower twenties or the teens to shut many of these plants down for the winter. I have found late October to be a very good time to treat for broadleaved weeds in the yard. In most years, you can treat for weeds well into November. Either use a liquid formulation or a weed and feed granular product. As always, be sure to follow all label directions.

A final fertilization in late October or early November is also a good way to settle that lawn in for winter and get it off to a good start in the spring. Many winterizer type products are high in phosphorus. Make sure that you use a product that also gives a good shot of nitrogen. Nitrogen is more likely to be deficient in our lawns than phosphorus.

Keep mowing as long as the grass is growing. We have found that it is best to keep mowing at the same height all year round. Pick that proper height (in most cases, as tall as possible) and stick with it all year. No short mowing right before winter or first thing in the fall. Set it tall and leave it there.

Many people ask if it is necessary to rake leaves off of lawns. If you can keep the leaves shredded with a lawn mower to where they never become a thick matted layer, then it may be okay. But if you have a very heavy leaf load, especially with a new lawn, you must remove the leaves so the grass can get sunlight and continue to grow as long as possible this fall. You can always use the leaves as mulch in flower beds, or put them into a compost bin and they will break down very rapidly.

I would advise you to minimize the amount of tree and shrub pruning you do in the fall. We are finding that plants heal faster with late winter or spring pruning. In fact disease problems in junipers may be worse with fall pruning. Prune only what you absolutely have to at this time of year.

October and November is a good time to plant spring flowering bulbs. You can plant bulbs well into December, but they do best with an earlier planting. Prepare the soil, dig the planting hole, mix some peat moss if you need to improve drainage and include some bone meal for root development. Plant the bulbs as deep as the instructions say. Remember that the depth is to the top of the bulb, not the bottom. If you aren’t sure, you’re better off to plant a little too deep than a little too shallow.

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