October is the busiest gardening month of the year for me, from preparing and winterizing beds to planting perennials and fall vegetables.
1. The prime fall planting season for perennials runs from October through early November.
a) Plant your Butterfly Garden Perennials: Butterfly Weed, Blue Mist, Butterfly Bush, Lantana, Black-eyed Suzans, and Cone Flowers.
b) Plant your Texas Spring Bulbs: Iris and Lilies
c) Plant Roses from October through February as ground permits
2. Winterize your lawns. I DO NOT use commercial chemical fertilizers, but instead spread corn gluten meal over the entire lawn. It works as a pre-emergent herbicide by inhibiting weed seed germination. Also, because it contains 10 percent nitrogen, it acts as a fertilizer to green up your lawn and grow a thicker thatch.
3. Plant cool weather vegetables and herbs.
a) Herbs: celery, chervil, cilantro, dill, fennel, and parsley.
b) Vegetables: broccoli, Brussels, chard, kale, spinach, and lettuces.
4. Pull winter immersing weeds like clover and other running web root weeds. They need to be dug up now to limit spring spread. I use the CobraHead weeder and cultivator. It works like magic on spider-webby (my made-up word) roots!