116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
The Iowa Gardener: Finish fall chores before the snow flies
Now that frost has nipped most of the Cedar Rapids area, it’s time to get out there and do some fall cleanup and other tasks before the snow flies. It’s not unheard of to get snow as early as Halloween.
Of course, if we get just a light snow that melts away, you can still do many of these chores. It’s only once things freeze up hard or you have to fight your way through an inch or two of snow that some of them become impossible.
Meanwhile, we are still in a serious drought. One of the most important tasks you can do is to keep new plantings well-watered so they go into winter well-hydrated.
Planting
- October is the month to plant spring-blooming bulbs like tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. Be sure to buy top-quality full-sized bulbs (that rules out most cheap bulbs you see in discount and big box stores).
- You can plant trees, shrubs, and perennials in the fall, but this late in the season, there’s not much time for them to get established. Unless you have a really good reason to do otherwise, hold off until spring to plant these.
- If you have planted any new trees or large shrubs this year, protect the base with tree wrap, chicken wire, or other protection through early spring. Rabbits and deer love tender new plants and can strip a new shrub bare, severely damaging or killing it.
- If you have a deer problem, with small trees, create a chicken wire cage staked into place as tall as the trunk.
Lawns and Leaves
- Generally, fall is the ideal time to plant new grass, but it’s too late to do that yet this year. Wait until early spring days, almost as soon as the snow melts away when daytime temperatures hit the 60s.
- Deal with leaves as needed. Keep them off the grass — they can suffocate it. (Running your mower over grass and other areas to chop and collect the leaves in the mower bag is a great trick.) However, if leaves are collecting in your flower beds and borders, consider leaving them. It's nature’s own winter mulch.
- Do a final mowing. Then maintain your mower. Run your power mower to empty the gas tank for winter. Check your owner’s manual (or go online) to see if any filters need to be cleaned or replaced and what, if anything, should be done with any oil that is added to the mower.
- Sharpen the blade or take it in to be sharpened. Mower blades should be sharpened at least annually.
Fall cleanup
- If you don’t already have a compost pile, start one. It's a great way to dispose of yard waste in an environmentally friendly way. After a year or two, you’ll have compost to spread on your beds and work into plantings — the ideal fertilizer and soil amendment.
- Pull up all annuals. Pitch on the compost heap or otherwise dispose of.
- Cut back perennials damaged by the frost, but leave those up that have interesting shapes and seed heads, especially sedums and ornamental grasses. Leave purple coneflower seed heads up for the goldfinches. The job will go faster and easier with a power hedge trimmer. You can buy an electric one for around $50 and it makes the job a breeze.
- Dig up and store indoors any tender bulbs, such as gladiolus, cannas, dahlias and caladiums, that you want to store over the winter.
- Empty all pots and store indoors for the winter. In Iowa’s harsh winters, even plastic and concrete containers will crack. Clay pots will shatter.
- Keep on weeding perennial weeds as much as possible. Pull out annual weeds that are going to seed. You’ll save yourself tremendous work in the spring.
- Detach, drain and store garden hoses. If you leave your hose attached to the house, it can burst your outdoor faucet or attached pipe. Store them in a protected spot out of the sun and you’ll make them last years longer.
Winter preparation
- Perennials and strawberries do best with 1 to 4 inches of a loose, removable mulch over and/or around them. Leaves chopped by running a mower over them are perfect. You can use straw or hay but it often distributes seeds into the flower bed. Remove the mulch in spring when plants start to send out new growth.
- Protect roses. Avoid cutting back roses (and never use those white cones — they can actually be harmful to roses, not to mention that they’re unattractive). Roses tend to survive the winter better with as much of their plant material intact as possible. However, if there are long canes that will whip in the wind, go ahead and cut them back. Then mound them around the base several inches of compost or rich, dark soil to protect the bud union (right above the roots) from winter cold. Hybrid teas, grandiflora, and floribunda roses — the least cold hardy types — are more likely to survive the winter if you also wrap their stems in burlap and twine.
- If you have tender plants that last through the winter in warmer climates, you can experiment with bringing them indoors for the winter. Hibiscus, jasmine, rosemary, citrus trees, and others will often survive the winter if brought indoors and given a sunny site and sometimes even under a grow light. However, equally critical is protection from drafts and adequate humidity. Set the plants on a tray filled with pebbles and water to increase humidity around the plant, and keep in a room that is as cool (but not freezing) as possible, ideally around 50 degrees.
Veronica Lorson Fowler is co-publisher of the Iowa Gardener website at www.theiowagardener.com.
Daily Newsletters