Those flowering bulbs are calling! Don't put down those garden gloves for the year just yet! Believe it or not, October happens to be one of the most fruitful times of year to plant spring-blooming bulbs, hardy vegetables, and shrubs of many varieties.
If you live in a frost-free region, October is a great time to plant cool-weather flowers and vegetables in your garden. Crops such as kale, cabbage, collards, lettuce, carrots, mustard, onions, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, beets, and garlic can all be planted in early to late October.
From early fall through most of November is one of the best times of year to plant spring-blooming bulbs, cool-season annuals and vegetables, as well as many trees, shrubs, and perennials.
Mid-August to mid-October is an ideal time of year to plant new trees, though, that time frame can be stretched into November and December. To be 100% sure, measure soil temperature early in the morning for a few, consecutive days. If your soil is consistently 50° F or higher, you're good to plant.
Leafy greens and Brassicas: Lettuces, spinach, and Swiss chard can be planted from seed or from transplant this month. Plant members of the Brassica family, including broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, and cauliflower, from transplant. Kale can also be planted from seed in October.
If you're unsure, mid-November is a safe planting deadline for nearly everyone. - Get everything in the ground before the ground freezes. If you still have plants in their nursery pots, get them in the ground before winter, no matter how late it has gotten.
While you can plant a late planting to the first frost date, it's always best to allow as much growing time as possible. If you missed the spring planting, then calculate which vegetables you can grow now and still have a harvest before the first frost.
October is the season to plant spring-blooming bulbs, wildflowers, and many standard gardening favorites. The flowers that don't blossom this winter can spend the cold season in the ground, strengthening their root systems in preparation for a springtime bloom.
These cold-weather champs are kale, spinach and collards. Other hardy vegetables include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, English peas, kohlrabi and leeks. Hardy root crops are radishes and turnip, which also yields some greens from the tops. Other hardy greens include kale, mustard greens and collards.
Vegetables to plant in October: Beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, onion (seed & sets), radishes, spinach, strawberries and turnips.
September/October is the ideal time to take cuttings from your favourite strains of tender perennials to increase your stock for next spring or to make sure they live on if the parent plants do not survive the winter.
You can expect success planting potatoes in the fall as long as your soil gets cold and stays cold in winter, with temperatures 8 inches (20 cm) below the surface staying below 48°F (9°C). Buried potato tubers start growing as soil temperatures rise above 50°F (10°C). Your garden gets a vote, too.
In areas with cold winters, such as USDA Hardiness zones 5 and 6, you'll generally want to wrap up fall planting by late October, and by mid-October in zones 3 and 4. But better late than never!
The most vigorous growth of plants will be in the summer when the sun is up and out the longest. During winter, the sun is neither as high in the sky, nor in the sky for as long as it is in the summer. For your plants, that means less light. For some plants, this may trigger dormancy.
' Waiting until fall can be an issue too. 'If you plant a garden late into the fall, the biggest risk is that the plant won't root into the surrounding soil before winter and will be subject to frost-heaving,' Lindsay explains, 'when the rootball slowly works its way out of the ground due to freeze-thaw cycles.
California: We recommend planting wildflower seeds beginning in October, and continuing on into January. It's always best to plant just before your rainiest season begins.
Fall is Good for Root Growth
Warm soil temperatures encourage root growth – more so than in the spring when the soil is still warming up. Plus, with the shorter days and cooler air temperatures, plants spend less energy on growing foliage and flowers and more on building a strong root system in preparation for winter.
Plant your fall vegetables so that the crops you choose have time to reach maturity before the first frost in your area. Find your first frost date, then count backward based on days to maturity for each type of veggie you want to grow. That's your ideal planting date.
According to Myers, the hardiest vegetables that can withstand heavy frost of air temperatures below 28 include spinach, Walla Walla sweet onion, garlic, leeks, rhubarb, rutabaga, broccoli, kohlrabi, kale, cabbage, chicory, Brussels sprouts, corn salad, arugula, fava beans, radish, mustard, Austrian winter pea and ...
Potatoes are a great winter-early spring crop and at this time of the year you will find seed potatoes available in local garden centers and on-line. And there's a potato planting solution for any sized garden! They can be planted in the ground in rows or in mounds, in containers, in potato bags, or in potato towers.
Fall and winter gardening turns your vegetable plot into a giant refrigerator. During the fall season, cool weather allows crops to hold longer in the garden once mature. Crops like broccoli, cabbage, and kale can live for months in the garden after they reach maturity.