As sad as it may be for some, summer is drawing to a close. For amateur gardeners, it is a good time to survey the property, plan tasks for areas that need to be tidied before the frost, and consider whether any parts of the garden could do with a makeover. If a makeover is due, September and October are good times to plant new plants in the garden.
To get some ideas for your garden, be it a shrub, a tree, or different plants for a pollinator garden, the Rutgers Home Lawn and Garden website is a good place to start: njaes.rutgers.edu/home-lawn-garden.
If you want to see firsthand what native plants look like in a landscape, you can also visit several public gardens throughout New Jersey: jerseyyards.org/jersey-friendly-plants/native-plants-public-gardens.
Water the trees and shrubs that remain in your yard now during the hard freeze so they enter dormancy well hydrated. Evergreens are especially susceptible to desiccation and winter burn if they are not watered well before the cold and wind set in. Evergreens may also begin to brown or yellow their needles in September and October; this is normal for older needles. The oldest, innermost needles usually fall off the tree after a few years. It would not be normal for it to lose new needles. Additionally, if you live in an area with high deer pressure, you can wrap young or newly planted trees with burlap or another protective agent to prevent “deer scrub.”
After Labor Day, it’s usually time to clean up the vegetable garden. Start by pulling out spent vegetables and annuals. Before putting them in the compost pile, use garden shears to trim them up a bit or chop them up to speed up decomposition. In the now-cleared space, you can now plant collard greens until Thanksgiving. Collard greens is a general term for plants that grow best in cool seasons, such as broccoli, beets, kale, and spinach.
Leave your potatoes in the ground as long as possible. Harvest them two weeks after the vines have died back, or just after the first light frost has killed the vines. When you start digging the potatoes, avoid peeling them and exposing them to light for long periods of time. Leave the tubers in the ground for a few hours to harden before bringing them indoors, and do not wash them before storing them.
If you harvested your own garlic this year, save the best heads with the largest cloves to replant later in the fall. If you haven’t planted garlic but want to grow it, order your bulbs now. Prepare a sunny spot and plant each clove 1 to 2 inches deep and 6 inches apart in a row, with about 12 inches between rows. The optimal planting time for garlic is usually mid-October to mid-November.
Those who grow fruit trees should pick up fallen fruit and leaves. Removing grass and weeds from the area around fruit tree trunks will reduce winter damage from rodents. Allowing debris to overwinter can cause problems next season, as insects and diseases can live in the fruit and fallen leaves over the winter and reappear next spring. It is also best to pick off and remove shriveled fruit hanging on the tree, although some can be left if you want to leave it for the birds.
The perennial garden also requires tidying up. To prevent fungal diseases, do not leave debris around your peonies, roses and other disease-prone flowers. If you want perennials to self-seed for the next bloom, do not remove the spent flowers completely. Nicotiana, poppies, delphiniums and many others fall into this group that should be left alone. Some plants need to be left in place or the seeds spilled during the tidying up to ensure the next generation.
Plants with showy or bird-friendly seed heads, such as echinacea, can also be left. For the bare spots in your garden, you can plant spring-blooming bulbs. Now is the time to buy them, as they should be planted 6-8 weeks before frost. If you want to make the bare spots easier to maintain, consider a ground cover. A great native ground cover is bearberry, an attractive dwarf shrub.
If your garden has a pond, consider covering it with a net to catch the falling leaves. This will save you time during spring cleaning. And if you have amaryllis bulbs, now is the time to let them rest by placing them in a dry, dark place where they won’t get any water at all for a few months.
After you’ve finished cleaning up the garden, put your feet up and enjoy the coming fall colors.
Dennis McNamara is an agriculture program associate with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Monmouth County.
