If you don’t have a fall or winter garden, prepare for spring planting.
Tasks:
• Repair damaged spots in cool-season lawns (such as tall fescue) by scratching with a rake, seeding, and covering with mulch. Keep moist until the new grass seedlings are well established. Warm-season lawns like Bermuda grass will soon be entering their dormant season, so bare patches should be covered with mulch to discourage winter weeds.
• Use spent vegetable plants and summer annuals to start a compost pile.
Pruning:
• Divide and thin perennials.
• Sharpen your pruning tools in preparation for fall pruning.
Fertilizing:
• To avoid a flush of new growth late in the growing season, do not apply fertilizer to citrus, avocados, or other frost-tender plants.
Planting:
• If the weather is cool enough, plant spring bulbs and annuals.
• Annuals: calendula, Canterbury bell (Campanula), pansy (Viola)
• Perennials: catmint (Nepeta), dianthus, fortnight lily (Dietes), Lantana
• Fruits and vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, parsley
• Trees, shrubs, vines: barberry (Berberis), redbud (Cercis), fringe tree (Chionanthus), chitalpa
• Tender leafy vegetables are best planted later in the month, and even then may require daily watering until they are well established.
Enjoy now:
• Annuals and perennials: fibrous begonia.
• Bulbs, corms, tubers: cyclamen.
• Trees, shrubs, vines: beautyberry (Callicarpa), bottlebrush (Callistemon), chitalpa.
• Fruits and vegetables: garlic, gourds, grapes, peaches.
• Fall color: Raywood ash (Fraxinus angustifolia), maidenhair (Ginkgo biloba).
Things to ponder:
• Cover remaining tomato and pepper plants with a garden blanket to extend the harvest season into November.
• Limit the size of fall vegetable gardens to avoid over-production. Plant only the varieties that you know you will use and enjoy, or that you can share with others.
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Source: Adapted from A Gardener’s Companion for the Central San Joaquin Valley, 3rd edition, currently available from Fresno County Master Gardeners for $30. These can be purchased at our demonstration garden — Garden of the Sun, 1750 N Winery (McKinley/Winery), open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9 a.m. to Noon, and via email at mgfresno@ucanr.edu. Gardening questions answered as well at mgfresno@ucanr.edu. Prepared by Terry Lewis, Master Gardener UCCE Fresno County.