Meadow View Greenhouse & Garden Center

September 10 Everything Knox

I have never been so ready for Fall in my whole entire life! I am usually a summer person, but this summer has been way too hot. Gardens have struggled and so have the gardeners. I know that there are some of you who just gave up and decided to try again in the fall. Well, fall is approaching. Here are some of the things you need to do when the heat index is not in the triple digits.

* If you haven’t done a “walk around” yet, now is a good time. Take a look at what did well and what didn’t. Take pictures, make notes, and cut out magazine articles to get ideas. If it is too hot to do the work, you can at least make notes on what to do when it gets cooler.

*If you have no idea what you would like to do, schedule a landscape consultation with Shalena Durkot, our landscape designer.  She can come out and make suggestions or provide you with a detailed design.

*Fall is the best time to plant most perennials, trees, and shrubs. Plants work on establishing their roots first, so if you plant them in the fall they have all winter to get those roots down.

*Fall is also a good time to divide and transplant perennials. The old recommendation is to divide spring bloomers in the fall and summer/autumn bloomers in the spring. Fleshy rooted plants such as Peonies and Iris should be done now.

*Clean up those beds! As plants start to lose their leaves and die back, disease free debris can be tossed on to the compost pile. Diseased leaves should not be composted.

*Perennials can be trimmed or cut back as needed. You may even be rewarded for your hard work with a second round of blooms!

*If your containers look terrible, dump them out and start over with plants that will take you through the fall. If you are sick of them, at least dump them out and store the container in a protected location.

*Keep harvesting the remnants of your vegetable garden, and get it ready for next year by cleaning out debris.  You may want to make note of where things were planted this year, and plant them in a different location next year. This helps to prevent disease.

* Some plants may need one last treatment with an insecticide to help keep bugs from setting up winter homes.

*Treat diseased evergreen shrubs to prevent fungus from overwintering. Some will need to have sick areas pruned out. Call us if you have questions.

*This is a good time to add compost, manure, etc. to your beds. This will make the plants you put in next spring very happy

*Get ready to move houseplants back inside before the first frost. Check them for insects before you bring them in, and treat if necessary. You don’t want bugs to set up housekeeping in your house.

*Don’t do any severe pruning now. You can remove dead or diseased branches and do minor trimming, but nothing major.

*Many beds will need their mulch refreshed. If you piled it on in the spring, you may just want to fluff it up. It can become very hard and compacted. If you didn’t put any on this spring, a couple of inches will help plants get through the winter.

*Plant Mums and Pansies at the end of this month for fall color. The Mums will stop blooming after 4-6 weeks, but the Pansies will take you through next spring! Pansies are one of my favorite flowers, because are such cheerful little things and provide so much bang for the buck.

*Since I mentioned mums, let me give you a little more information about them. If you want them to come back next year, you need to get them in the ground by no later than the end of September. Also, there are early, mid and late season bloomers, and if you want continuous color you will need to swap them out.

*When you are ready to do Fall displays, come and see us. We will have straw, scarecrows, and pumpkins in addition to the Mums and Pansies.

*Keep checking our website and Facebook for updates, and let us know if you have any questions.