October can be a strange month. Even when early fall dips back into summer-like temperatures, you can tell the season has changed. If light frosts haven’t set in yet, the threat of them is in the air every morning. I spend most of October rushing to harvest whatever is left in the garden and trying to wrap up all my yard infrastructure tasks to get things nice and tidy before the cold really sets in. Make use of breaks in the rain to cross all the tasks off your list.
Think about the lawn
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Once the daily temperature stays 60 degrees or below, it’s time to stop mowing. Be deliberate about it, because continuing to cut after it’s slowed down or when it’s too cold can do real harm. Make sure you’re not cutting it too short, either, which will leave it too exposed this winter and can also kill it. Two inches of growth keeps the lawn healthy, and means that pollinators and other friendly yard insects have a place to settle in for the winter.
This is prime time for seeding new lawns or lawn mixes with clover and other perennials. The rain makes it ideal to keep the seeds wet, but you’ll want to do this before the temps dip below 60, so get it in now. Use lawn mulch to insulate the seeds and keep them safe from birds.
With the rain here, you can now button up the irrigation for the winter. Drain or blow out your sprinklers, hoses and other watering stuffs, and store it for winter. Get an insulation cover for your spigots.
Plant all the bulbs and cold-weather color
You can continue to get bulbs in as long as the ground is workable, but you can start your spring color assault now. My hot tip is to get all your bulbs out of the bags, and walk around the yard placing them where you might like them, so you see how they’re bunching up, and then go back and plant them. You still have time to order, but get them in soon.
It’s also time to make space, clearing out your annual flowers that are spent, so you can get in your flowering kale, violas and other winter color.
While you don’t want to clear away perennials, it’s time to clean them up. Chop your artichokes down to eight inches or so for winter, the same for your fennel and all your perennial flowers. I like to leave behind the flowers that seem to enjoy a real late staying power, like African marigolds, cosmos, and zinnias.
Call it quits on the summer vegetable beds
Trust me, I understand the loyalty we have for the last tomatoes, the peppers you are just sure will turn color, and the promise of that last summer squash. But it’s time to bring what you can inside, allow them to ripen there, and get the beds cleared and cleaned up for winter. If that means topping them off with compost and planing a fall garden, get ‘em in. Get garlic seed in and cover it with hardware cloth to keep squirrels out all winter. If you’re going with a cover crop, get it sowed now. In any case, mulch, mulch, mulch. Remember, you can use leaves for mulch, and if you do this instead of shredding them or raking them away, you save all the spots beneficial critters are hiding for the winter.
Save everything from the rain
If you’re like me, stuff just starts accumulating outside over the summer. It’s sunny, it’s warm, it’s accessible. As the rain sets in, though, it’s time to gather up the tools and blankets and various garden ephemera and get them all stored inside where they’re safe from rusting.
Take down umbrellas, put away the pillows, and cover any furniture that needs covering. Consider space-saver bags (the kind that you can vacuum the air out of) for your various pillows, towels and other pool stuff, they work fantastically to compact them.
Think about the birds
It’s time to think about our feathered friends. Can you reasonably commit to keeping those bird feeders clean this winter? That means taking them down and actually sterilizing them with some regularity, so you’re not spreading disease among the bird population. Remember, birds don’t really need our feeders; they do fine on their own. If you can commit, get feeders (and bird baths) really clean, and then set a regular cleaning schedule for yourself for the season so you can enjoy the view from your windows.