Plants are pretty forgiving, so don’t sweat thet fall schedule

As the gardening season wanes, questions from gardeners who are both pressed for time and those who want to pack in as many tasks as possible aren’t as much about how to do a job, but when to do it. And the good news is that although there’s usually an optimal time for most tasks, plants are generally accommodating enough to be OK with fittingt in to the gardener’s schedule.

If you’ve taken advantage of late-season plant bargains, there’s still time to get plants in the ground, although the sooner, the better so they can start getting some root growth before the ground freezes. Perennials and deciduous trees and shrubs are still fine to plant, so long as they are reliably hardy in our area. It’s generally not advisable to plant evergreens or plants that are questionably hardy this late in the season because both stand a better chance of making it through the winter if they have more time to get established, but any plant is better off in the ground than left to fend for itself in a container for the cold months.

If you can’t get something planted, either because you’re short on time or the area where you intend to plant isn’t ready, bury it into the soil right in its pot — empty raised bed garden beds can be handy for this — and after the ground freezes put a thick layer of leaves or wood mulch over the crown to help protect it. 

Mid to late October is usually the best time to plant garlic in our area, but you can typically push it off until mid-November. Ideally, garlic cloves should have a bit of time to establish some roots before the ground freezes, but it’s a remarkably resilient plant.

Bulb planting for spring bloomers such as daffodils, tulips, crocus, hyacinths and more is perhaps the biggest job many gardeners unwittingly get themselves into. It’s one of those things that sounds like a good idea until you’re faced with a thousand bulbs that need to get into the ground. In order to avoid bulbs sprouting in fall, it’s best to wait until the ground temperature cools to about 50 to 55 degrees before planting, but procrastinators will appreciate that you can continue to plant bulbs as long as you can dig in the soil.

Some tender plants that need to be overwintered indoors such as elephant ears, ornamental bananas and dahlias are best left out long enough for a light frost to kill the foliage, which signals to the plant that its time to enter dormancy, but need to be brought in before a true freeze. With later first frosts now a common occurrence, this timing can get tricky, but rest assured that you can cut back and bring these plants in before frost nips them and they will figure it out.

And that’s the thing with plants — they are far more adaptable and resilient than we give them credit for. So aim to get to those end-of-season garden tasks at the correct time, but rest assured that it will be fine if you get to them when you have time.