Gardening expert highlights a few things to do to improve your yard and landscape.
1. Pest patrol
This time of year, chewed flower buds and leaves are a strong indication that katydids, grasshoppers or caterpillars are at work in the garden. Katydids have green, leaf-like wings but otherwise resemble green grasshoppers. BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) stops grasshoppers, katydids and caterpillars dead in their tracks.
Carbaryl (the active ingredient in Sevin and Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer for Gardens RTU) works well also, but be sure to follow safety precautions on the label.
2. One more harvest
In autumn, tomatoes often grow beautifully but stop producing. Here’s a way to get one more crop from them this season. First, stop watering the tomatoes and trim back the tops of the plants a few inches (not much). Then “root-prune” them by inserting a shovel its full length down one side of each plant near the trunk. This shock treatment will stimulate them to form more fruit. Water only if and when the plants wilt, and if frost comes before they ripen completely, harvest green tomatoes for cooking, or let them ripen on the counter inside.
3. Planting time
Plant seeds of beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chard, chives, fava beans, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuces, onions, parsley, peas, radishes, spinach and shallots. Also, if necessary, now is the time to transplant artichokes, asparagus, established herbs and rhubarb. Some of the winter vegetables also do well when planted from pony packs — especially the broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kale.
4. Making the cut
This is also the time to divide, trim and mulch perennial plants that tend to grow in a clump — but only if they are too big for your needs. These include bird of paradise, clivia, daylily, gazanias, Kahili ginger, Moraea iris and Shasta daisies. You may also still divide bearded iris, if you don’t delay.
5. Lawn care
Autumn is the best time to dethatch your lawn using a dethatching machine, available from rental companies. Dethatching is the removal of the thick mat of dead grass blades that accumulated over the summer. After dethatching, feed the lawn one more time. Due to the drought and prolonged high temperatures, wait until early November if you plan to sow winter rye over a lawn that turns brown in winter.
