 Good evening everyone and welcome Thanks for joining me this evening, and I'm excited about this evening because it's a wonderful wonderful time of year I'm Don Kinsler at the NDSU Extension agent for horticulture here in Cass County And I love this time of year as I was driving back to the office this evening. It's a beautiful evening and I was noticing how the Sun is low on the horizon lower than it was in mid-summer and the Sun as it gets lower on the horizon creates long shadows and the sunlight in the shadows just gives fall a Totally different look than at other times during the year and it's really quite an enjoyable time, you know, it's it's Fun and interesting sometimes a challenge to get it all done to get all of our fall tasks done But it's it's a good time of year if we can choose the days when they're nice and sunny and warm and working in the fall yard and garden really is a reward it it's It's a time unlike any other throughout the growing season and so I'm sure like many of you I really enjoy this time of year and it's gonna be fun this evening We're going to talk about kind of all things fall related We're going to take a walk through the the lawn and the perennial garden of the vegetable garden and talk about trees shrubs fruit trees Maybe even a little bit about house plants toward the end. So we're going to try to cover it all and As you think of questions During the webinar feel free to put the questions in either the chat or the Q&A Most of us are probably most familiar with the chat so feel free to put those in and then at the end of the webinar all address those and So thank you very much There are approximately 76 of you joining this evening. So greetings to all of you In the fall of the year here I just as I mentioned it is such kind of a magical time There are colors in our perennial gardens in our landscapes Colors that we don't see at other times of the year Famous landscape architect worldwide famous called Pete Audolf Created a wonderful movie a few years back. He called it the five seasons of gardening and Five seasons kind of meaning that each year flows into the next growing seasons flow into the next and there are never really only for Because you head on right into the next season. So as one year ends you look at the next and so some of the colors That a person enjoys in the fall that famous landscape Architect said that in the fall we learn to appreciate kind of the muted tones the the browns the Look in the photo here for example the beautiful ornamental grasses that develop their seed heads and there There's a richness of colors And so it's no wonder so many of us in the garden kind of enjoy this time of year Even though we're kind of getting things ready for winter so let's let's start in the lawn some things that that we can and maybe should be doing with our lawns and Boy, it's been a tough three years for lawns, hasn't it? It's been hot and it's been dry and a lot of our lawns don't look all that good Well, September here is a great time even though September is coming to an end It's still a great time to get our lawn looking much better for next year And next year's lawn is really going to depend on what we do yet this fall So a couple of things if you if you did need to reseed The preferred cutoff is actually about September 15th. So as we're Doing this on the 26th here. We're a little bit beyond The preferred seeding date and the reason for that is the reason for seeding by September 15th is so that that grass seed will sprout and Establish enough so that it will survive winter Seeding right now could be a little bit risky It'll germinate fine because the soil is good and warm But it could be a little risky as to whether it would establish enough by the time winter comes So but there is still a way Unless you kind of want to take that risk There's there's a good way and that's called dormant seeding and for dormant seeding We wait until the soil has cooled down to a point where that grass seed won't sprout and then Right before the snow that comes that would be expected to stay So I suppose we're looking at sometime Mid mid November late November, you know, however the season stacks up But you spread the grass seed right before the snow comes and that snow will lay and protect that grass seed And it will be in place ready to go right away next spring So dormant seeding is definitely a way that we can still fill in some of our bare spots Now fertilizing from Labor Day in September onward Continuing throughout the month of September. So there's still time is to fertilize Labor Day would be the preferred We don't want to get too late for example Fertilizing too far into October could cause a flush of tender lawn growth That might winter kill because it would be so soft and fresh but in September here. We're still within that window For example At my wife Mary and I is home in South Fargo We just got an inch and three tenths over this last weekend I had fertilized around Labor Day, but We don't have means really to water our lawn or water it sufficiently So that fertilizer was just laying there waiting for moisture to dissolve those granules and carry it down into the root system So we really needed this rain And so the fertilizer that we've applied in the month of September now Finally got some widespread rains that will carry that nutrition down to the root system Where the grass roots can take it up and make use of it and if a person didn't get the fertilizer on yet You could still do that this weekend But the sooner the better so that grass can start utilizing the new nutrition and a reason why this fall September fertilizing is so important is this Researchers have shown that in the fall of the year grass is making tremendous growth tremendous root growth and That deep root system that it forms in September is what will carry it through next growing season in the spring it will carry it through and Really make our lawns recover very very very very beautifully and So If you haven't done the fertilizer yet, you know go ahead and get that done And so anyway, I can't emphasize enough the importance of the fall fertilizing for example that September fertilizer has been shown To be the single most important fertilizer of the whole year Even more so Even more so important then the spring fertilizing the spring fertilizer is very important too So anyway, our lawns need the nutrition in the fall is the moral of the story All right, the other thing that September is great for and that is killing weeds in Our our lawns or really anywhere in our landscape or yards The reason that fall is the best time to control these hard to kill weeds such as creeping Charlie Which is the photo on the left or thistles the photo on the right the reason that these perennial weeds are more effectively controlled now is is this These perennial weeds are busy carrying nutrition down into the root system so that they can survive winter and come back to haunt us next spring and If we apply herbicides in September here Those weeds will carry that fertilizer down into the root system more efficiently and more Effectively than almost any other time of year Especially as we start getting a little bit of cooler temperatures the cooler temperatures in short days signal to these weeds The winter is coming and so they start storing up material And so let's give them some herbicide to carry on down as as well Many of these hard to kill weeds, of course one application isn't going to do it They will typically come back Hopefully in a weakened state next May and then that's when you would put a secondary application on and with persistent We can out persist some of these hard to kill weeds All right next the important concept is to continue the three inch mowing height all the way through September Three inches is the recommended mowing height so that we get a good You know a taller type mowing and and here's the reason for that taller type three inch recommended mowing and Couple of reasons one is that taller mowing will tend to shade the roots so you get less Evaporation keeps the soil cooler which grass likes but also the that height gives more photosynthesis surface and When leaves Including grass has more photosynthesis surface that means it can produce more good stuff It'll root deeper. It'll fill out sideways better As opposed to if we scalp the lawn with a lower mowing height We're reducing some of that leaf surface so you don't get as much of the good photosynthesis Stuff that we all learned about in science class So keep the mowing height at three inches through September Then in October we can start reducing that mowing height down to maybe two inches or certainly No lower than an inch and a half, but two inches is probably best So in a couple of mowing's in October gradually reduce the mowing height the reason for that is that if you Continued the three inch mowing height. There's a possibility that under the weight of the snow that Three inch layer could mat down more get floppier mat down and snowmold might be a little more severe next spring But it's important not to cut that lawn too low because a lawn that's cut too low Would tend to have more freeze out if we get a very severe winter without much insulating snow Now our friends over in University of Minnesota created a great lawn care calendar so if we look at this lawn care calendar and you could Pull this up on a search bar Just Minnesota lawn care calendar this will pop up So it's got the task over on the left and then it's got the best time to do it and then okay time Well, we kind of like to concentrate on the best time don't we to do things for example Seeding okay early August to late September that's be pushing it a little bit But you know if you want a little bit of a risk you could maybe still seed but again September 15th was a cutoff Air rating mid-August through mid-October Dethatching or power raking we can do that now So anyway, that's kind of fun to have a calendar like that that that we can use for our different tasks And of course anytime we're doing anything It's always nice to have someone sitting there making sure we're doing it correctly, isn't it? I couldn't resist setting that slide in Alright, the next next task is I love this one There's really no need to rake the leaves off of a lawn Because those leaves have lots of good material in them So instead of raking the leaves and removing that good material we can simply mulch them into the lawn with a few passes of the lawnmower and If it's a type of lawnmower that kind of shoots things out the side most of them have a removable shoot or a way to shut off that Discharge shoot so that it will mulch it back down into the lawn now that this photo was taken in our own lawn a couple of years ago and It only really took about one pass there as you can see to grind those leaves up pretty good So this this has been fun The reason I The reason I include this And the reason that I wrote a whole garden column about this a few years ago Was this I saw some interesting research done by by Ohio State University In which they studied for a number of years whether it actually was good for a lawn to Mulch these leaves in and here here's what they found and of course It was easy research to do you just have have a couple of plots to side-by-side and one you mulch in the leaves And when you rake off the leaves and then after a number of years of doing that Assess the two plots to see what's happening. So here's what they found Mulching the leaves into the lawn Added natural nutrition as those leaves break broke down So it tended to have a when they tested the soil the soil had a higher fertility Also, the weeds were controlled better in this patch and they also did this was a replicated study You know with all the good sciency type stuff done for research also, they found that the soil temperature stayed cooler which grass loves and and That's he also conserved moisture that area that patch of lawn stayed more moist the soil stayed more moist So good reasons to mulch the leaves back into the lawn because it's actually quite healthy for it Okay, and if you do have any questions on lawn There was one question that I'll One question that I'll address right away is before we leave the lawns tall fescue clumps Have you ever noticed in your lawn? You'll have these clumps kind of a circular clump The grass is dark green really nice, but it's a little wider blade You know, it's not crabgrass. It's not crack grass, but these clumps are called tall fescue they're oftentimes a contaminant in seed grass seed mixes and Gradually they'll enlarge that clump. So if you see those in your lawn, what can we do? Well, there's only about two ways to do that to remove those one would be just to dig out that clump and remove it Another would be to use a non selective herbicide grass killing type herbicide and kill those clumps and then And then reseed that area. So anyway, that's what that is is tall fescue and It especially showed up these last number of years when our Kentucky bluegrass Lawns have kind of diminished The thing that keeps tall fescue so green and vigorous is because it has a really really deep root system That can pump moisture from down below and so that's why when our lawns have kind of been under stress That's why the tall fescue has really showed up in area lawns And You could oversee do well we're kind of on that borderline So I'd probably reseed those areas next spring So you could kill those areas of tall fescue now and probably reseed in spring or do dormant Sprinkle some dormant seed in those areas right before winter sets in Okay, let's move to the vegetable garden We're kind of winding down in the vegetable garden But there's still some fun things because I enjoy harvesting the pumpkin squash carrots onions and now Pumpkins and squash can be left in the garden until after the first light frost I kind of like to do that because the first light frost doesn't hurt the squash or pumpkins But it collapses the vines. So it's easier for me to find the squash The way that you can tell if squash are fully ripe And of course there's always some late squash in the garden too, but the way you can tell is as photo there that kind of Kind of a buttercup type or a related hybrid They develop a less shiny coat a little dollar and also notice that spot called the ground spot on A good ripe mature squash that spot turns from yellow to more of an orange tone and also great to tell a ripe good ripe squash is to try denting it in with your thumbnail if you cannot dent the rind in Then it's it's it's ripe. It's good but if it's still soft and Dental then it's not quite ripe and ready I should also mention that most of the winter type squash such as buttercup or the related hybrids most of them will get sweeter and With a little bit of time curing time Left in the garage at about 70 75 degrees For up to about a month or moved into the basement if we start getting chilly But the squash will improve in most texture and sweetness with Two to four weeks of curing. It's called And of course carrots can be left in the garden until right before the soil freezes Carrots as the temperatures start getting cooler carrots would do become sweeter the cooling temperatures Favor the buildup of sugar within that within those roots Onions should be dug as soon as the tops become dry and brittle Then they should be gotten up out of the soil Potatoes could be left in the ground a while. I have not dug ours yet They could be left in the ground. They have kind of a natural Dormancy period so they won't start sprouting yet or anything. I don't have our root cellar cool enough yet So that's why I'm delaying our potato harvest a little bit Rubarb can be dug and divided now in September Or you can do it next May just as soon as they're starting getting a little growth But I remember mom and my grandmother always divided theirs in September now the tops of asparagus Which you see in the lower? center photo The tops of those should be left on over winter and there's a reason for that those tops Will help to catch the snow and if we have a very open winter in which we don't get much Insulating snow those tops will help to catch what little snow we do get and it will help the winter survival Because asparagus is as tough as it is if we have a winter with very harsh temperatures and very little snow It's even capable or possible for asparagus to freeze out And of course a little bit of sanitation in the vegetable garden Some of the crops that tend to get leaf diseases or stem diseases blights things like tomato pepper squash cucumber vine potatoes Peavines those should really be raked off and removed and disposed of because some of those disease organisms can survive winter on the trash that is left behind so though That's probably better to rake off other things a cabbage cabbage leaves broccoli Let oh lettuce much of that can just be chopped up and returned back into the garden soil. Oh And I love I love controlling weeds in the fall of the year and here's why Because the weed control that we do in the fall Can really make a lot less work next spring for example If we see weeds going to seed around the perimeter of our garden You know if if we got tired of doing weeds and there's some the wrong Maybe along the fence or somewhere that have gone to seed if we let those seeds scatter They can seed our garden soil with a bank of weed seed that can last for many Decades and keep popping up and and give me lots of weeding headaches So any weed control anything you can stop from going to seed is that much work less work next spring And if you have any perennial weeds popping up in the garden thistles Crackgrass Creeping Jenny anything like that now would be a good time to spray them as well And the fall is a great time to add a little more compost Leaves tree leaves raked off from other areas could be spread on to the vegetable garden For example, if you've got excess on the lawn that you more than what you can mulch in I should mention that You know we talked about mulching leaves into the lawn One thing I should mention is after you've mulched those leaves in make make a pass or two those leaves The shredded leaves can't remain on the surface if you've tried to mulch in so many and After a day or so if they're still laying on the surface of the grass those need to be raked off Otherwise, they'll be smothering out the grass. So if you do have excess More so than what will mulch down into the lawn. You could rake that off and add it to the vegetable garden You know, it's interesting when a person Works those leaves into the vegetable garden by next spring. They're pretty much Decayed as the leaves come in contact with the soil All right next we're going to head to the trees and shrub department and we can continue to plant trees yet through September It's a good time for planting and here's why You know person might wonder well is there really any advantage to planting in fall or should I just wait until next spring? Well, there's a good advantage to planting now in September and and here it is When trees shrubs or perennials are planted now They won't make much top growth But the roots will grow the roots will continue growing until the soil gets down to maybe 40 degrees or so And we've got a long way to go with that. So typically if planted by the end of September They'll have most of October, you know, that's about 30 good days in which they can start producing roots And that will put that tree shrub or perennial ahead of something that is delayed until next spring So good advantage is to doing some Fall planting and evergreen should be watered. We've most of the area got some pretty good rain this last weekend But when that just kind of soaked on in we should throughout the fall here make sure our evergreen stay well hydrated and some research has shown that a Consistent water supply is better than just one Shot right before freeze up for example if if we if we get a dry spell Throughout the month of October We should maybe water those evergreens, you know, rather than just giving it one hit right Before soil freezes if you follow me so to keep them well hydrated And a good time in the fall to add mulch around our trees If you notice that tree that has the mulch around It's it's crowned a little bit high So that's maybe not the best example the mulch should be kept away from the trunk about five inches So the the rule a rule is a good one five five five a five-foot diameter circle of Shredded wood material about five inches thick because it's going to settle down and then kept about five inches away from the trunk in kind of a more of a doughnut shape than a volcano shape if you can picture that and a good time to add Trunk guards to wrap the tree trunks especially of young trees so that it protects them from rabbits and Vols and deer so especially young trees We'll talk about fruit trees in a minute to the importance of that and of course fence for rabbits We we could go probably a whole hour on how to protect against rabbits But it can basically be boiled down to fencing is the best And there are several rabbit repellents that have better Track records than others one is liquid fence one is plant skid and another is repel X plant skid liquid fence and repel X but like all Repellents, they're not a hundred percent. They're not going to work every time All right now about pruning Should we prune in the fall? I get many emails from people wondering is it too late? Did I miss miss the time for fall pruning? Can I still prune? but There's really not a good reason to prune trees shrubs in the fall of the year and and here's why Trees trees and shrubs are smart. They sense these shortening days and Because of the shortening days it's a signal to them to start slowing down because they know that winter is coming and they need to kind of shut down and So the cell division and growth starts to slow. So if we do pruning cuts in the fall The cell division is slowing down So cell division isn't going to seal over those pruning wounds the way it does In early spring. So there's there's not really a good reason or advantage to prune in the fall of the year You know, certainly if a shrub is hanging over the sidewalk and the snowblower is going to catch it Yeah, absolutely go ahead and prune it If you do prune in the fall or if you have in the past It doesn't mean that that tree or shrub is going to die But there's more risk of something going wrong by having those open wounds all winter Maybe it's more branch die back Again, it may just be totally fine But it opens the way for something going wrong and there's really no advantage a better is to wait until early spring kind of right before Things start to leaf out and at that time the pruning cuts will made and then shortly growth will start the cells will start dividing and sealing over those pruning cuts and I should mention also if you notice the photo on the lower right hand side a better way for pruning most of our shrubs is Instead of a shearing type pruning a kind of a selective cutting if you'd like kind of a natural look on a shrub a selective cutting gives Just kind of a more natural look part of nature Unless you have a reason for shearing you know unless Unless you're making a statement of some sort then of course if you're making a topi area in which you need to Shear then of course I've often thought This this slide makes the gardening grounds every so often and there's got to be a story there somewhere Alright next we're going on to roses Now I love the Hardy Canadian developed roses because they really don't require Much care. They're winter hardy So they'll usually survive fine sometimes a little bit of die back up at the top the roses like pruning anyway in the spring So I love the Hardy Canadian type, but if a person has some of the Less hardy tender types then they do benefit from covering and again Pruning on roses is best delayed until next spring unless you have a Reason why you need to prune them for example if you have a less hardy rose type and you want to do some protection With like a circle of leaves. Oh by the way, the rose cones themselves the styrofoam rose rose cones aren't usually enough You need to kind of pack them with leaves or straw in addition to just the styrofoam Otherwise, there's too much cold air right around the canes But leaves work very well And so if you need to do some protection on them, then maybe you do need to prune But if it's one of the winter hardy types then their best left Unpruned and do that pruning in early spring Also, there's been some interesting research done that That roses tend to winter bed if the hips are left on everybody knows what the what the hips are on a rose when the blossoms fade if Pollination has happened you get this little fruit almost looks like a little crab apple and actually crab apples are in the rose family And those are the rose hips and some research has shown that if those are left on It kind of hardens off the rose bush toughens it up and gets it ready for winter so the last flush of roses rose blossoms and by the way some of my Mary and my roses Some of the Canadian ones are still putting out nice flushes of fall bloom And so that last flush of fall bloom I always leave on based on that research that if that last flush is left on and if they gets Some hips on them that they'll survive winter better And if you do need to cover some of the tender roses then they should usually be covered about early November not wise to do it too early because Roses are kind of notorious for hanging on to their their own foliage And if we cover them with leaves or something else while they still have that foliage on they'll oftentimes mold under that covering so it's better to delay covering until early November and By that time the leaves will have gotten some cold weather They hopefully will drop and yet we haven't gotten severe temperatures yet and of course fence for rabbits You know, it's interesting rabbits are interesting creatures Roses they just love and I would think that something with that many thorns along the canes would be the last thing that rabbits would eat But but they do love it and I guess it makes sense because the roses Roses are in the same as fruit fruit trees and we all know that rabbits love our fruit trees So let's head on into fruit trees So it's important in the fall of the year to rake up any of the fallen fruits Now usually with most apple trees you will get some that drops some of its natural fruit drop or maybe they were Apples that had defection and kind of defects on or maybe the wasps or hornets got into them And then they drop and create kind of a litter on the on the ground Well, it's important to rake that up for good sanitation because some of our common fruit insects Will winter they can pass from the apple down into the ground and it just makes a it makes a more likely A more likely way that These problems insects and disease will resurrect if we if we don't practice good sanitation So important to rake away the leaves and the to rake the leaves and the and the fallen fruit And wrapping the tree trunks very important fruit trees are very susceptible to winter sunscald And what happens with a winter sunscald is on a snowy day when we get bright sun Sunshine reflecting off the snow You know on those bright winter days the same way that a Skier can get a sunburn on a sunny snowy winter day Fruit trees can get sunscald usually it happens on the south or southwest of the tree trunk where that sun is reflecting off the snow and up onto the tree trunk and it can cause a Warming of that tree trunk which then of course freezes again and ruptures and causes problems And so the way to eliminate that or at least reduce the risk is to wrap the tree trunks and Wrapping the tree trunks should continue from the time the trees are young Until the bark is more a rough if you notice the oldest older apple tree there in the photo the one with the apples underneath The bark is quite rough and rigid and gray and so an older apple tree then Normally is not wrapped the type of wrap that I like the best is the one photo there It's a kind of a burlap material or garden center sell other materials that come in rolls And you fasten the bottom fasten the base with something like duct tape and Then a spiral it up the trunk Overlapping it and then either tie at the top or use a masking tape or duct tape at the top What I like about the rolls of wrapping like that Instead of the tree tubes, you know the white type tree tube These that wrap is able to go all the way up the trunk and you can intertwine it among kind of some of the Upper branches that kind of bring you know branch down to the trunk if you follow me You can kind of go higher than what a tree tube would allow you to do and so I really like those tree wraps so they should be applied in October or by early November and Then they should be removed next April Removing the tree wraps for the spring and summer and early fall allows that tree trunk to breathe There's less chance of rot or insects hiding behind the wrapping and of course fence from pests Boy, we had a lot of injury didn't we on apple trees this past winter because the snow banks got high enough so that the rabbits could get up into the upper branches of a tree and and do a lot of damage and So for many people that had fenced maybe three feet high and maybe four feet It just wasn't high enough and of course, that's not always a winter problem Sometimes our three or four foot fence will keep them away from the trunk You could try the repellents liquid fence plant skid or repellents you could try those or Be prepared if winter gets really snowy again Some of us have even been known to tramp out through the snowdrifts and put an extra layer of fencing out around Alright next we're going to move to the annual flower beds We could save seeds of some of the non-hybrid type flowers some of the marigolds Cleomie is a great one I enjoy saving seed from some of the zinnias and so the non-hybrid seeds come quite nicely True from seed the following year and so that's fun to save some of your own seeds by collecting them and of course the tender flower bulbs those that aren't winter hardy enough to to Survive over winter those need to be dug about the time of the first frost You can let a little bit of frost get on them. That's fine Things like gladiola's Dahlia can is are probably the most common so those get dug up and stored in and last last week's seminar we We talked about those in more detail All right, and we can clean up the annual flower beds You can either rake off the old annuals if they're clean and free of disease Then those can be just worked on into the flower bed. What I do on our annual flower beds. I simply Go over them with the more after the frost has kind of dried up the tops I Simply go over them with the lawn mower crunch them up really good and then wrote it till them back into the soil again Only if they were disease free a Good time to add organic material to our flower gardens and work that on and then it'll be all ready to go and of course this this was an organic method of Fertilizing raised gardens, but the method just never caught on All right next we go to perennial flowers Now some of the perennial flowers Like to be divided in the fall. This is their time to be divided in September and even though it's the 26 We're getting kind of on the edge of that time But we could still do it for example There are some day lilies that I I want to move and divide Some iris yet that I want to do and so even the preferred time was probably maybe towards labor day We can still do this if a person does have to Dig and divide a little bit later maybe than the recommended here. Here's a good way to here's a good way to make sure It's gonna work out. Okay. Go ahead and dig divide Even if it starts getting into 1st of October But put a good layer of mulch and I say a good layer of mulch put at least five or six inches of straw leaves Could be shredded wood product put that around the Perennial that you just divide it and plant it what that will do that will insulate the ground so that frost won't penetrate us quickly so that will buy you more warm soil time for that perennial to get Accustomed and do what they do in the fall of the year and usually what they're doing is producing some roots yet in the fall of the year So you can buy time by putting probably a three-foot diameter circle of a mulching type material insulating and that will give you a little bit of time And of course the fall is time to plant our beautiful bulbs that will come up next spring and give us such beauty You know, it's interesting in the spring of the year when you see tulips blooming many of us wish gosh I wish I had planted more of those in the fall And so now is the time to visit the garden centers and to actually do it I want to get some more tulips for our own flower beds because they're so pretty in the spring and So now is a good time if by any chance you're planting them a little bit late For example When you plant bulbs like tulip bulbs, they aren't just sitting dormant now in the fall They're just sitting dormant under the soil what they're doing is producing roots And it's those roots that are going to cause it to burst into growth next spring So we need to give those bulbs rooting time before the soil freezes So if you're a little bit late planting tulips or other bulbs again, do the mulching thing You'll put anywhere from maybe six inches or more of a good mulch Over that planting bed that will keep the soil warmer and buy you an extra two three four weeks of Unfrozen soil so some of those things we can kind of work with that Even though if we are maybe a little late getting some things done at times we can make them work for us And in the perennial garden most perennials love organic matter whether it's compost peat moss Other organic material just kind of worked in around most perennials really benefit from that so the fall of the year is a good time to add that and most perennials Most perennials benefit from having the tops left on over winter now someday I'm going to write a garden book because I love some of the terminology that Some of the terminology that gardeners use and so it'd be fun to write a whole book of gardening terminology Okay, here's a classic one the tops of perennials Okay Think about it. The top of a building is well up at the top but the tops of perennials is everything above ground level and So when you hear somebody say, oh, it's time to cut back the tops of perennials It's not just up the very top most. It's everything Basically from ground level on up maybe an inch or two above ground level So when you read and say, you know, it's time to cut back the tops now You'll know you're not just trimming way up here You're doing doing everything. Okay. Most perennial the tops are left intact over winter and here's why Well for one thing, they're pretty. Look at that winter scene. It's fun to I wish this were my winter scene but it's fun to look out the window at a landscape a perennial garden and Notice in that photo the ornamental grasses with their seed heads and kind of the frosty perennials and shrubs It's it's pretty. It's a nice landscape. And so leaving those tops on is pretty and It will give some habitat for birds as they pick away at the seeds also Very importantly most perennials Tend to survive winter better if those tops are left intact Because if we have an and one of these winters We're going to get a test winter when we don't get much snow to insulate and we get really frigid temperatures And those are conditions in which even hardy perennials can be lost But if we leave the tops intact what little snow we do have Tends to accumulate and catch on those so they tend to winter better now Many good successful perennial gardeners in the fall of the year go in and cut back the tops and that's fine You know that that works good to it if the time is better for you to get things cleaned up in the fall It doesn't mean they're going to automatically die over winter. So but they're there again, there are advantages to leaving them on Oh, one other advantage too is our little pollinator friends are native bees that we need for apples and cucumbers and everything many of those native bees and nest Overwinter in the hollow stems of perennials and ornamental grasses. So by leaving the tops on we're providing some nesting material for the little pollinating bees Although There are a couple of varieties of perennials Excuse me a couple of varieties of perennials that even if you decide to leave most everything intact There are a couple of varieties of perennials that should always be cut back one of those is peony because they usually get that grayish powdery mildew and Cutting off the tops about an inch above ground level and disposing of those in the trash and off-site Helps prevent that powdery mildew from laying there and re-infecting the soil also daylily Iris and Hosta They become so limp after a couple of frosts and by next spring under snow What you get is kind of a Mushy mess and trying to cut back so they're much easier to cut back in the fall of the year after a few frosts and Then if you do have any kind of borderline perennials Well, for example the perennial hibiscus with the great big blossoms, it's a little borderline hardiness That might be a good one to mulch if you've got some borderline perennials Okay, very quickly outdoor containers It's best to remove the old plants so that next spring you don't come in and find all those kind of Frozen Slimy plants that were left in so removing the old plants is good sanitation. Can we reuse the potting mix? Absolutely. Yes, Mary and I have used the same potting mix and some of the pots for probably going on seven or eight years But it's important to start with a high quality potting mix and One that has good drainage and good peat moss and all the good things and Just make sure that none of your plants were diseased in that and each year in the spring You should maybe remove about one fourth of the potting mix and add new add fresh And also I should mention if you have a breakable type container a Ceramic that freezing and thawing of that soil could crack it then by all means remove the planting mix Last week in our webinar. We talked all about bringing container plants indoors geraniums, mandavilla Hibiscus one of our favorites for bringing in is geraniums. What we do is the center photo there we Lift the geraniums up out of the potting mix Cut them back the lower right hand photo cut them all the way back Pot them up in a little square pot put them under lights in the basement and you've got by next May Greenhouse quality geraniums again. Okay real quickly about house plants in the in the fall here on these good days warm days great time to repot outdoors and much easier to do it outdoors than on the kitchen table Also a good time to buy House plants before the weather turns cold It's a lot easier to transport them now than it is in January when they have to be wrapped so carefully and we might treat our Plants with systemic insecticide that goes internally throughout to control insects and for fungus gnats those little annoying flies that that want to Kind of flit around all of our house plants Called fungus gnats. There's a good way to control those and that's with the product called mosquito bits That you see there in the red red and yellow labeled package now garden centers and some of the hardware stores sell Mosquito bits and if you look right under on the front of the label, it says also controls fungus gnats Now the way it controls fungus gnats is it controls the larvae see the little flies Lay eggs on the soil the eggs hatch into larvae the larvae turn into adult flies and they form a life cycle All inside your house plant soil. So these mosquito bits have a a beneficial bacteria That does not harm humans, excuse me It only affects larvae of mosquitoes and fungus gnats and so it it takes a little bit of time for this bacteria to Get kind of through the soil and then it will kill those fungus net larvae and it breaks the life cycle I just want to tell you quickly about if you haven't seen our growing together podcast Do a search for growing together gardening podcast John Lamb from the form and I enjoy a weekly podcast talking about gardening and I want to thank you For joining us and I'm going to leave my email address on the screen and so please do Please feel free to email me. All right, and now let's Let's go to the Let's go to the questions All right the first question is is Dormant planting appropriate for the planting of clover in the lawn Instructions indicate no planting six weeks before hard frost. Okay, and the reason for clover Not planting six weeks before hard frost would be the clover needs a certain length of time to establish so if it's planted kind of to if it's planted Too late without enough time to establish it could freeze out but you could do the dormant seeding type so wait until right before a Snowfall that's expected to say stay similar to what what we did with the grass and Then do the dormant seeding of clover that can work very effectively So I wouldn't plant the clover now. I would wait in dormant seed Thoughts on replacing grass with micro clover micro clover is the very little fine clover Similar to the white Dutch clover that has a little larger leaf But both the micro clover which is kind of a fine under a little clover or the white Dutch clover Are great additions to lawns. In fact, it's interesting in the 1940s and 50s premium lawns The lawns of the well-kept and well-to-do always had clover incorporated It was considered an elite lawn if you had clover in it because there's a lot to be said for clover in a lawn it feeds nitrogen town into the soil and and it Roots deeply and kind of breaks up the soil so that grass can thrive so grass and clover Blend together really well. So I'm I'm a big fan of incorporating clover into a lawn Okay, I have two young autumn maples with leaves covered with little black Seed-like pods. Can I save the trees? Okay on maples if they develop a Little growths described as black seed-like pods. They've probably turned black But earlier in the season those growths on maple leaves are Gauls they're called maple leaf Gaul and they usually start out green or maybe red-ish And they're caused by a little might and the might encloses itself inside tissue and builds this kind of little wall all around the nice thing is That it's been shown that they it doesn't adversely affect the maple trees younger maple trees We see it we see it happening and it It alarms us but it's it's cosmetic on a big maple tree. You'll never even know whether they're the maples coexist fine with it if If over half of the leaf was covered by these bumps these Gauls then maybe it could have an effect But if it's just a few of them then it's no problem But again, it's they're probably turning black now as those little Gauls approach Approach fall and winter. When do you pull all the things in your garden? When do you pull all the things the the disease type? materials such as Probably tomatoes potato vines cucumber vines that had That the powdery mildew as soon as you're done harvesting those I think it's a good idea to get those off if it's non-diseased Material then it's probably a good idea just to work that on in so I don't I don't clear-cut our garden I remove and pull off the things that were diseased or diseased prone and then work the other material on in and The material that I let work on in I usually wait until after we've had some frost Can tubes be left on trees all year to protect from animals? well, luckily Luckily animals tend to leave not in all cases But animals tend to leave our tree trunks alone in summer time because they've got other better things to chew on An exception might be deer Young bucks that might be rubbing their antlers on But tree tubes generally should be taken off There's more risk of leaving them on because they can be areas where mold and insects will hide under that tree wrap so So again, it's in most cases the tree tubes should be taken off We were among the snow trumpers adding more fencing to the trees. Yes, absolutely I'm kind of hoping for just a medium snow year enough to insulate But not so much that we have to snow blow every other day. How do you know when a watermelon is right? I love I love growing watermelon. Okay a couple of ways to tell a ripe watermelon One is the ground spot, which is the spot on which the watermelon was resting on the ground Turns from a white or cream to more of a yellowish Okay, and the things I'm going to describe you put all these clues together and then determine their watermelons, right? Okay, so the ground spot turning yellow The next is that if you watch the watermelons during the season as they enlarge a ripe watermelon loses the shininess and becomes a little duller in Color on the Ryan kind of a less waxy less glossy, okay Then the next one is take a look at the stem end where it's attached to the vine There are two little wire like tendrils When those turn brown and crisp The watermelon is approaching ripeness, but not necessarily yet. Take a look at the leaf There's a little leaf right by those tendrils and wait for that to get crispy brown And then the other thing that I love to do too is give it the thump test and when you Plunk a watermelon using your middle finger and thumb and give it a plunk It should sound kind of like a rubber filled water ball or my vegetable teacher in college said Thump the top of a leather shoe with your foot in it and a ripe watermelon sounds like that or Thump the watermelon as it's growing during the season and you'll hear you'll hear that the change in tone You'll you'll feel that That dull plunk of a water filled melon So anyway a long long answer But boy there's nothing more disgusting than growing a watermelon all season and then go to pick it and cut it And they don't ripen off the vine cut it and find out it's still too pink inside When is the best time to cut down my peonies after a couple of frosts? Let the frosts happen because some things are still moving down from the leaves into the roots So let a couple of frosts happen and then cut off an inch or two above Above ground level have you heard about using? Here a urinal blocks around the base of trees and shrubs to ward off rodents during the winter months, you know those do have quite an odor and Many of the repellents do work on an odor based liquid fence plant skid and repellents all kind of our odor based and I think that's probably worth a try So I guess I have heard of that So Urinal blocks, how do you know if your plants are diseased? Oh, okay. That's a good question Yeah, how do you know if the plants are diseased and you should be taking them off and Disposing of them well one of the classics is the gray powdery mildew on our vine crops such as cucumbers and you can see that Grayish whitish coating. So that's one that should be taken off tomatoes oftentimes get black or brown spots or speckles on the leaves and That's a good indication that they've got a fungus disease present Maybe didn't totally kill it, but it can diminish them. So those could be raked off Potato vines oftentimes can be very susceptible to the different blights and so those can be taken off So those are kind of the classics the vine crops potatoes tomatoes and peas. I Missed the houseplant webinar. Is it recorded it is recorded? and I could send it out to everyone that registered for this webinar But I got kind of busy and I haven't had time to edit the recording yet But I can send it out Thanks for joining from Superior, Wisconsin. Thanks. What should I do for wintering morning glory? Wintering morning glory now morning glory with the kind of a nice blue trumpet shaped flowers Seeds itself each year. That's an annual vine that comes back from seed and the flowers drop seed And so once you get morning glory started on a fence it will usually come back each year From the seed that it deposited itself so it itself So there's usually not anything else So if we're talking about that same morning glory vine with the nice blue trumpet shaped blossoms Sometimes there's a pink variety too. They'll self seed So you don't really need to do anything extra Yeah, isn't that mosquito bits a good product to use on houseplants But again, give it a little time to work when to stop mulching versus begging Before the end of this season is it better to ever beg mulch Prior to freeze up. Well, if we talk about begging on lawnmower Usually begging isn't really needed or recommended By not begging you can just let the clippings fall back into the lawn and they'll filter down in and provide nutrition and things for the lawn and so you get you don't need to beg lawn clippings and So is it better to ever beg mulch prior to freeze up one of the reasons for begging when you're mowing and Like if you're mulching up leaves one of the reasons for begging would be if you have so many leaves there That they wouldn't filter down in and then yes before freeze up or even When those leaves would accumulate on the lawn, it would be better to beg them up So I hope that answers should I cut my lambs ear this fall lambs ears up pretty such a descriptive Those gray Kind of silvery whitish gray leaves are so fuzzy and beautiful. Should I cut my lambs ear this fall? by next Spring under the under the snow they usually kind of just kind of mat down But I do think it's easier to cut them back next spring I found that next spring they almost just you can almost just by hand Taking kind of drag off the material off of the lambs ear So I act you could cut them back this fall But I find they're actually maybe a little easier to pull off in the spring of the year either can work Is there herbicide recommended for using on creeping Charlie in the fall creeping Charlie being one of the hard to kill and so yes search for a lawn Herbicide don't mention if this is in the lawn or not, but creeping Charlie often is so Look for a lawnweed herbicide containing the active ingredient triclopyr t-r-i-c-l-o-p-y-r triclopyr another one that Has a little more kick to it than just regular lawn herbicide would be trimac both of those products Trimac or one can take triclopyr need to be used with caution Because if you got too close to trees shrubs or non-grass plants, it could damage them as well Remind us again when and where do we find your podcast? Okay? The podcast is called growing to yeah thanks for asking it's called growing together a gardening podcast and You don't have to subscribe or anything like that if you just do an internet search for growing together a gardening podcast It will pop up And there are different venues such as Spotify or YouTube It will usually pop up on one of the things on your phone or computer that allows you to listen and They're all archived. It's all all the weeks there. I think we've been doing it about nine months already How do you know when to pull garlic? Is it the same as onions? Ah in interesting that you should ask That's one thing I could have added into our program now is the time to plant garlic Garlic is kind of unusual in that it gets fall planted and then you harvest it next growing season Okay, you plant it now Maybe give it a mulch of four to six inches our leaves and then uncover that next spring It'll grow next spring and summer and then when it starts to die down Next year, then you harvest the garlic So unlike onions that which are spring planted garlic is planted in the fall and harvested next year So garden centers usually do have garlic available right now for planting The leaves of my laurel leaf willow have blackened around the edges white what might be the cause Laurel leaf willow Laurel leaf willow of course being in the willow family likes it moist and so These past three years haven't been really friendly to anything that likes moisture But even if it is getting enough water one thing we can't control is the heat and Willows and some other things have had problems leaf scorch Through the from the heat sometimes they just can't pump up water enough to to get to the leaves and we get a scorched edge and so that could be what's happening with the Laurel willow which is a beautiful tree and There are different leaf diseases that it could be but generally there's probably no control For anything that's causing that so let's hope that next year we don't have it and But I'm thinking it's probably the heat stress. What do you recommend for apple blight? Apple blight well, there's a couple of things apple blight could or could Refer to fire blight and there are some fire blight sprays that garden centers sell But also we have to be very careful with pruning and do that door doing the dormant season To prevent spreading fire blight, but if it's if it's the blight that turns the leaves Spotted or yellow That's a disease called apple scab, which is a fungus disease and there are fungus Sprays there are home orchard sprays that have insecticide and fungicides in So if you're finding black spots or yellowing leaves, then apple scab and a home orchard spray would control that Thank you for your kind words When is the best time to cut down ornamental grasses next spring before they start sending out any new growth? because If they start sending out new growth and you have the old top on yet It it the two get intertwined and it's hard to cut the old back And if you don't cut ornamental grasses back once a year You get this just this massive amount of dry Material that can hamper the new growth. So next spring probably April or so on a nice day Cut the ornamental grass back to about an inch above ground level and then the new grass will push right through in Maytime Reason for not cutting it back in the fall is because they're so pretty against the winter landscape Let's see when should I cut hosta back? From botanical. Thanks for listening from botanical. Hosta can be cut back in the fall after a frost or two Because by next spring laying under the snow they get just so mushy And so it's easier to cut them back in the fall and they really don't contribute much over winter I've heard that it's best to stop harvesting rhubarb in July. Am I harming the plant if I harvest beyond that? Yeah, the cutoff date The recommended cutoff date for harvesting rhubarb and asparagus is July 1st, and here's the reason rhubarb lets us pluck off all its stems and leaves the first half of the growing season and The second half of the growing season it needs to keep its leaves so it can do its photosynthesis thing and kind of recharge itself From us having plucked everything off the first half of the growing season. So letting the Leaving the plant alone and not harvesting gives it that chance to recover But in the fall of the year you can certainly do a little harvesting if your plants to looks good You can still do some harvesting for a rhubarb pie Now in the fall of the year Or in the spring of the year frost is oftentimes a question Does frost cause rhubarb to be poisonous? The reason we don't eat rhubarb leaves is because the leaves are toxic and if after a rhubarb plant is frosted Some of that toxin could move down into these stocks, which wouldn't be good So here's how you tell if after a frost either fall or spring if the rhubarb leaves are wilted Don't use it if the stocks are wilted don't use it if it looks like that rhubarb was totally unaffected by frost then it's safe to use and So anyway, I hope that answers questions did generally the last half of summer We don't harvest rhubarb, but if you need to sneak some for a pie before the season ends It's certainly fine When is the best time to transplant juneberry bushes that would be early spring Before they leaf out that would be best, you know If you have no option then in the fall of the year here Maybe after they get a frost or so and have kind of hardened off and shut down More dormant then you could go ahead and move but if if you have your choice Then move a juneberry or any other woody type tree or shrub move it in early spring when it's dormant before it starts leafing out Hey, why would ears of corn not fully form when ears of corn don't fully form and I think we're on the last question When ears of corn don't fully form We might have a few more in the Q&A Beside the chat. I'll get to those Um Why would ears of corn not fully form? That's all about pollination Each of the those silk silky hairs that form up at the top of the ear each of those leads to a kernel That's where the pollen goes down and forms the little kernels that we eat and if Pollination doesn't happen or doesn't happen right and then so you miss all these kernels and so ears that don't fully form is usually a pollination problem and Corn is generally mostly wind pollinated, which is why we kind of planted in blocks so that when the wind blows it it will pollinate and So if pollen doesn't work and it can fail to work because if the temperature is too high temperature too low then it can be poor pollination I need to I Need to move a young apple tree to a better location. When is the best time to do so and Yeah, thanks for enjoying our podcast The best time to move a young apple tree would be an early spring before it leaves out Again, if you're moving or something want to take an apple tree with you then certainly, you know But it carries a little more risk doing something moving a plant Such as a woody plant you could move perennials and things etc But a woody plant would be better moved in the spring so it didn't have to face a winter right away Okay, what can be done fall to minimize vole damage to lawns? Yeah, and we've had a bad bad couple years on vole damage Well making sure that the lawn is Trimmed in the fall of the year cut it down to about two inches on the last mowing because vole damage tends to be worse If the lawn is longer, you know, they'll still get it if you trim low, but chances are less and The other thing is those voles are already lurking around the perimeters of our property And so you could use traps but put them in something so kids or pets can't get them Traps or poison baits. I'd like to use tubes of PVC white PVC pipe I put either traps or or Rodent poison inside those so that pets or kids can't access them The voles like to tunnel into things and so oftentimes will go in those tubes to get your trap or your poison Can we eat immature squash? Absolutely, you know, there's nothing harmful with it But it just a squash that isn't fully mature fully ripe just won't have the flavor or the quality But there would be nothing wrong with with eating it Have you ever overwintered pepper plants pepper plants? You know conceivably you could bring in a pepper plant or a tomato plant those are both perennial plants in the tropics and So the only reason they're not a perennial here, of course is at the first frost they die And so you could bring a pepper plant indoors sunny window or under lights and I've seen people I've not done that myself But I have seen people that have done it successfully so it'd be worth a try You know some of these things a person doesn't have much to lose be fun to try What care does a climatist need in the fall now most climatists? Die back each winter to about ground level And so most of the climatist vine growth next spring comes from the ground level or Slightly below ground level. So you have a couple of choices I like to leave our climatist vines on overwinter because it gives me a little something to look at on the trellis You could cut it back sometimes overwinter it'll just dry up and I find that it's easier than the next spring to get it off of the trellis because it's become all dry and crunchy over winter and It's just easier to kind of rub it and it just kind of falls off in the fall of the year it seems you have to kind of actually pull it off and So I just feel it's a little easier in the spring of the year But you could remove a climatist vine from the trellis in in the fall So what what care does a climatist need in the fall? If it's a relatively young climatist less than three years a good mulch And when I say a good mulch, you know 12 inches 18 inches of leaves straw Would help it especially if we don't get any snow cover a climatist once it's well established well rooted That will last decades and decades, but until they reach that good root system. They're a little more Sensitive to overwinter. So if it's a younger climatist, even if it's an older climatist They they enjoy mulch over their roots, but most most necessary when they're younger We didn't feed worth doing No, we didn't feed actually Can be kind of a waste of ingredients and here's why The feed part Definitely that's needed the weed part of a weed and feed our herbicide granules and those granules in most cases are contact weed killers They only kill weeds when that granule sticks to a dandelion leaf They don't prevent weeds from popping up and most of our lawns aren't a blanket of weeds And so to blanket the lawn with a weed killer is kind of overdue, you know over overkill I guess and those things can end up down our storm drains and in our rivers and streams and So a better approach is a liquid herbicide separate separate separate practices so Fertilize and then apply a liquid herbicide liquid lawn weed killer and spot spray Is a really good effective and so yeah, I'm glad you asked that one because Sometimes weed and feed sounds good in in theory, but in practice it kind of doesn't work so well I get lots of emails about that people saying that my weed and feed really didn't didn't control the weeds that well and The main key is that they aren't really preventative Do we cut down our rhubarb plant in the fall? Yes after a couple of frosts the rhubarb plant is better Raked off and disposed of and the reason for that is there are a couple of rhubarb foliage diseases that cause Brown spots on both the stalks and the leaves and removing that remove some of the inoculum that might be a Source of infection. I have a clematis that turned leaves brown early August. It's never happened other years Okay, one thing about clematis is they love Coolness in fact the old saying with clematis is they love their head in the sun and their feet in the shade So they love mulch over the roots own and they don't like heat a Preferred location for clematis is on the east side of a building where they get morning sun and then they get shade Protection from the heat of the afternoon sun. That's not always Possible to give it that location. But anyway, the reason the leaves probably turn brown is one of two things they don't like heat and we had a hot summer but also Um Rabbits will gnaw on certain stems and then everything beyond that will die So it's possibly something nibbled on a vine or two causing death above that point The recording I will send this out to all of you who registered I'll send tonight's and last week's recording out And Vicki has mulch made of cedar bark how far away from perennials should the mulch be kept? when planted They didn't keep the mulch back Perennials really can have the mulch put Relatively close close within an inch or two of the stems the reason tree trunk mulch has to be kept away is because It's possible for that tree trunk to start rotting if mulch is too close But most perennial stems don't have that That rotting issue of the stems because the stems die back once a year anyway So the mulch can be put relatively close, you know, maybe within an inch or so of perennial stems Clarosis what do you recommend on iron? Clarosis Especially in trees lots of maple trees showed this We were told we had to drill holes. I'm thinking you're maybe told to drill holes in the lawn Drilling holes in the lawn like under the canopy of a tree. That's yellow drilling holes would allow the iron and what you do is you go to a garden center and Buy an iron product that they'll have for treating these trees. You follow the directions And holes will allow some of that to get down in but the holes aren't necessary you can apply that iron product Label directions, but then the key is water Plenty of water or do it before a rain Several inches of water over that area that you've applied it to get that down into the root system So holes would not be absolutely necessary I've had good results just putting it on the surface, but plenty of water to carry it down How do you know the type of lawn seed to buy for an established lawn so that it matches the existing grass? So that's a good question Okay, most of our existing lawns are a high percentage of Kentucky bluegrass now There are different variety different cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass and they can a very a little bit in darkness of green But generally if you get a grass seed that's very high at least 50% in Kentucky bluegrass cultivars over time They will blend in When a new grass seed even if it's not the exact cultivar of bluegrass as long as it's a high percentage of Kentucky bluegrass such as over 50% Over time that new grass will get used to your fertilizer and your soil and Over maybe the first year won't happen, but in the second and third growing seasons. They'll they'll blend together Because otherwise it's almost impossible to know exactly which cultivar of Kentucky bluegrass might be on an existing lawn I put the excess shredded leaves in my garden as mulch How do I keep the shredded leaves in North Dakota winds? Yes Yeah, it's hard to keep them consistently wet enough so they don't blow around That's why in our garden when I use leaves I Incorporate them in I wrote a till or spade them in a little bit so that they're already starting to decompose If you're using them as a surface mulch They need to kind of start getting wet or decomposing a little bit first But if they're fresh leaves, they quickly dry out and you are long gone in the wind What do you recommend for dealing with voles? Okay? I think we got that one How do you get rid of striped gophers in a lawn? Well, there are different gopher repellents that you can try but I think they're kind of hit and miss so Striped gophers in a lawn the most sure way is to do some checking on gopher traps is Probably they need it and now I see we're at the end of our questions. Well, thank you to the 61 of you who hung on we had I believe about 93 or so when I looked that attended and thank you for the the rest of you that a Nice proportion of you hung on to the bitter end. And so anyway, thank you very much I'll probably do another webinar maybe in The middle of October. I thought it'd be fun to do something on how to propagate house plants When we start turning our attention more indoors, so Maybe the middle or the end of October and what I do is with everyone who has Registered for these webinars. I usually send out the registration form for upcoming videos and webinars as well So thank you very much. I appreciate very much and enjoy the fall And I'm actually going to be taking a day or so or part partial days off because I'm going to get some of our Own fall work done and it looks like the weather is going to be nice And so I'll be joining many of the rest of you with getting our tasks done So thank you again. Thanks for joining. Have a very good fall. Thank you much