With the arrival of October, we can start to hope for rain. The prospect of rain can trigger a lot of activity in the garden. It is a good time to add native plants, harvest summer vegetables, plant a winter garden, take care of fall maintenance and plan for next year.
Native plants can add beauty to your garden. Warm soil and the coming rains will encourage them to settle in. They need less water and fertilizer and typically less care than the plants you would find in a typical English-style garden. Native plants also provide habitat for native birds, bees and toads and a place for beneficial insects to spend the winter.
Finish harvesting your summer vegetables this month. With shorter days and cooler nights, growth in the garden slows. So dig your carrots, beets, turnips and potatoes; bring in the winter squash and pumpkins to harden off, and pick the last of the fruits and vegetables that frost could damage.
Rake up leaves, trimmings, grass clippings and spent annuals for a new compost pile. The cleanup will minimize the places where pests could overwinter. Enjoy the last sun-warmed tomatoes and spicy peppers, while thinking about the tender peas and lettuces you will harvest from your winter garden.
Prepare beds for winter crops, then plant onion, garlic and shallot sets. Plant broccoli and cauliflower seedlings now and sow seeds for chard, lettuce, fava beans, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, beets, carrots, radishes, spinach and onions. You can sow all of these seeds directly in the ground. Drape the planted area with row cover to protect the young seedlings from cabbage moths and the seeds from birds and other critters. Water as necessary until the rains come.
Watch for snails and slugs on new plants. Remove by hand or use a pet- and people-safe product. If you find aphids, wash them off with a strong spray from your hose. Or use a spray bottle filled with a mild soap solution; I make mine with a little mild dish soap, which smothers the critters.
October is also a good time to plant container-grown trees, vines and shrubs as well as artichoke and asparagus crowns. You can start a new lawn now or reseed any thin, bare spots in an existing lawn. In anticipation of bare-root planting in December and January, dig holes now for the new plants. If we get the rain we are hoping for, the soil may be too wet to dig then.
Now is also a good time to update your garden's infrastructure. Install drains and downspouts to direct water away from garden beds. Standing water can damage the roots of shrubs and perennials and cause rot in tree crowns.
Thinking about adding raised beds to your garden? October is a good time to build them and prepare the soil. In beds that you aren't planning to use this winter, amend the soil by planting a cover crop to add organic material, fix nitrogen and control erosion. Good cover-crop choices include barley, oats, vetch and fava beans. Alternatively, amend beds with compost and fertilizer and then plant your winter garden.
While the ground is still dry, order a load of compost. Mound it two to three inches deep in planting beds and under shrubs and trees out to the drip line. Keep mulch away from tree trunks to prevent rot. The compost will help smother weeds and will decompose over winter to prepare the beds for spring planting.
Tackle overgrown perennials now. Dig up and divide clumps of Shasta daisies, phlox, daylilies and agapanthus. Your garden will look new and fresh in the spring, and you may have extra plants to share with neighbors and friends. Dig up dahlias once the tops have dried and store them in a dry place where they won't freeze.
With these chores out of the way, you will be ready to relax and enjoy the rain, flipping through all those garden catalogs that will soon show up in your mailbox.
Free workshops: Napa County Master Gardeners will assist with a free workshop on “Perfect Plant Picks” on Monday, October 6, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the Yountville Community Hall, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. See how a drought-tolerant garden can be colorful and beautiful. Dozens of plants will be on display, including California natives. Registration is required. To register, call 707-252-4188 X116 or e-mail frances@naparcd.org.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will lead a workshop titled “Be Successful with Citrus” on Saturday, October 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at the American Canyon Senior Multi-Use Center, 2185 Elliott Drive, American Canyon. Get the information you need to succeed with your new or mature citrus trees. Learn about choosing varieties, planting, fertilizing and protecting from frost. Online registration (credit card only); Mail-in registration (cash or check only). The workshop will be repeated on Saturday, October 18, from 9:30 am to 11:30 am. Register online for the Calistoga workshop.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
A tree's heat requirement is the number of hours it needs between bloom and maturity at a temperature above 55°F. ‘Washington' oranges, for example, need 8,000 hours. Perhaps more important, you need to consider the cold hardiness of your choice. Popular citrus, in order of most hardy to least hardy, would include mandarin orange, sweet orange, grapefruit, lemon and lime.
If your property experiences frost, one strategy is selecting a citrus variety that ripens early. 'Satsuma' mandarins are the most cold-hardy citrus and the earliest bearer. They do well in areas that are normally too cold for citrus, and the foliage survives temperatures down to about 22°F.
Spring is the best time to plant citrus in Napa County, after the threat of frost has passed. This schedule gives the tree's roots time to establish before the onset of cold weather. Choose your site carefully, preferably a protected area away from wind with at least six hours of sun each day. When the winter sun is low in the southern sky, the tree will appreciate placement near a sidewalk or wall that radiates heat.
Mulching around your citrus in winter may not be a good idea. Research shows that the soil retains more heat when allowed to absorb daylight sun. Replenish your mulch in the spring.
Cold air flows downhill, so avoid siting your tree in a low spot or on top of a windy hill. You can also protect your tree from wind by espaliering it against a wall or fence. Citrus trees can also be planted in containers that can be moved to a warm spot in winter, but pots are a temporary arrangement. Your citrus tree will need a larger pot every couple of years.
Fertilize mature citrus with nitrogen monthly from April through August. Feed from November through January with a citrus fertilizer, such as 0-10-10. Trees in containers require less fertilizer. Citrus occasionally suffer from a deficiency of micronutrients, such as zinc or iron. As new growth emerges in spring, add zinc or iron sulfate to the soil or try a foliar application of chelated zinc or iron. Iron will increase the juiciness and size of the fruit.
Maintaining a good fertilizing program helps your tree resist fungal diseases. However, over fertilizing will produce excessive foliar growth, making the tree susceptible to other disorders such as bacterial blast. Use insecticidal soap against the common insects that tend to bother citrus, such as scale, leaf miners and mites. Blast aphids with a strong spray of water.
When cold weather arrives, be ready for frost protection. A citrus tree's tolerance for frost is related not only to variety, but also to maturity and the level of hardening it has experienced. Young trees are especially vulnerable. The amount of damage a tree and its fruit suffer depends on the length of time the temperature remains at or below the threshold for that variety.
For example, if the temperature remains at 25°F for four to five hours, 60 percent of the fruit may freeze. Ripe oranges, grapefruits and mandarins start to freeze at 27°F to 28°F and lemons at 29°F to 30°F. With this information in mind, you can understand the value of frost-protection fabric, which affords a few degrees of protection. I have seen homeowners in Napa who have risen to the challenge, devising tenting that is practically an art form.
Water your tree before the temperature dips. A well-hydrated plant is more capable of withstanding frost damage because moist soils hold heat better. Outdoor tree lights (not LEDs)can be wrapped around your tree to provide extra warmth. Wait until spring to prune any frozen limbs.
Free workshops: Napa County Master Gardeners will lead a workshop on “Soils, Mulches & More” on Monday, September 29, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the Yountville Community Hall, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. Learn the importance of soils, amendments and mulching. Understand basic landscape design and plant grouping. Napa County Master Gardeners will assist with another workshop on “Perfect Plant Picks” on Monday, October 6, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the same location. See how a drought-tolerant garden can be colorful and beautiful. Dozens of plants will be on display, including California natives. Both workshops are free but registration is required. To register, call 707-252-4188 X116 or e-mail frances@naparcd.org.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will lead a workshop titled “Be Successful with Citrus” on Saturday, October 11, at the American Canyon Senior Multi-Use Center, 2185 Elliiott Drive, American Canyon and on Saturday, October 18 in Calistoga at the Community Room, 1307 Washington St. Both workshops are from 9:30-11:30. Get the information you need to succeed with your new or mature citrus trees. Learn about choosing varieties, planting, fertilizing and protecting from frost.Online registration (credit card only); Mail-in registration (cash or check only).The workshop will be repeated on Saturday, October 18, from 9:30 am to 11:30 am. Register online for the Calistoga workshop.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
You have probably had experience with some of these pesky animals, such as gophers, moles, voles, ground squirrels and rats. It is the lucky gardener who has never encountered at least one of them.
If you have a gopher problem, check out the gopher pest notes on the University of California at Davis website (http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7433.html). There you will find information on how to identify and control moles, voles and other small rodent pests.
For rural dwellers, the list of vertebrate pests grows and includes raccoons, opossums and skunks. These three are nocturnal foragers and happily snatch fruit from your trees, berries from your vines, vegetables from your garden and eggs from your hen house. They have little fear of humans and will often return nightly to enjoy pet food left in bowls on back porches. Lights often do not bother them. Having a family of raccoons on your back porch at night can be entertaining at first, but they quickly make themselves unwelcome.
If you find yourself with a raccoon, skunk or opossum family visiting your home regularly, try to remove temptations and access. Bring in pet food bowls at night, and close pet doors. Skunks and raccoons can easily enter through these small openings, and confronting a skunk in your kitchen in the middle of the night is not what you want on your list of memorable experiences.
Make sure screens over chimneys and flues are substantial and attached. These cozy places, dark and confined, seem like perfect nurseries to raccoons and opossums looking for places to nest and raise their young.
Keep compost and trash receptacles tightly closed. Remove hiding places behind wood piles, and block access underneath decks.Seal off any openings that a small rodent could get through. They may look cute,but these animals often carry diseases, ticks and other pathogens, and they can get into tussles with animals you love.
If you need help getting rid of these pests or bigger wildlife like mountain lions, beavers and mink (yes, we have those),contact Napa County Wildlife Services (http://www.countyofnapa.org/AgCommissioner/Wildlife Services/).
If you live in deer country, you know you cannot grow tulips and many other fruits, vegetables or flowers without a fence or a dog. The only alternative is to grow the few plants that deer won't (usually) eat. That list includes daffodils, lavender, hyacinth, irises, sweet William and sage. Sometimes, instead of managing a pest, we just have to learn to co-exist.
Birds have vertebrae, too, and can definitely be pests. Many of us have competed with birds for a long-awaited crop of cherries or grapes. Or maybe you have waited patiently for your peaches to be perfectly ripe, only to find that a blackbird, raven or other feathered foe has been waiting as patiently for perfection as you have.
Birds are often the culprits behind disappearing seedlings in the garden. After planting pea or bean seeds, I may make several treks to the bed each day to watch the progress. It's an exciting day when the seed forces itself up through the soil with its first leaves spreading out to catch the sun. More than once, I have approached the bed eagerly in the morning, anxious to see the amazing overnight growth, only to find the seedlings completely gone or the leaves nipped off. The list of suspects is long, but the offender is all too often a bird.
The only reptile on the University of California's list of vertebrate pests is the friendly little lizard, but I consider a lizard a pest only if we are competing for the same warm rock.
Workshop: Join Napa County Master Gardeners for a workshop on “Critters in the Garden” on Sunday, September 21, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. Learn to identify and manage the many critters that invade your garden by air, by land and from underground. Learn techniques for managing gophers, moles, voles, rabbits, squirrels, deer and birds. To register, call the Yountville Parks & Recreation Department at 707-944-8712 or their website.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will conduct a workshop titled “Be Successful with Citrus” on Saturday, Octobe 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Discover all the tools you need to be successful with your new or mature citrus trees. Learn about choosing varieties, planting and fertilizing trees and protecting them from frost.The workshop will be held at the Senior Multi-Use Center, 2185 Elliott Drive, American Canyon. Online registration (credit card only)Mail in registration (cash or check only)
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions
