Rodd's Seeds of Wisdom Horticultural tips and tricks from Rodd Moesel

We keep marching further into autumn and have even seen a few night temperatures fall down in the 40’s & 50’s.  These shorter days and cooler nights will soon trigger the changing of the colors and then the leaf drop on our deciduous trees and shrubs.  We still have almost a month of growing season left before the first hard freeze closes the curtain on the 2014 show of our tender flowering annuals and vegetables.  Many of those tender annuals and veggies are showing renewed energy with the cooler fall temperatures and are producing another round of flowers and fruit to close out the season.   The reds, purples, orange and other bright colored flowers are often the deepest and most intense colors of the year in the fall as the cooler night time temperatures really brings out their best color.  Not only can you harvest beauty and food from your spring and summer plantings in October but there are many cool season plants you can plant now to enjoy right away.

Hardy mums are a great tradition of fall in Oklahoma and bloom every year at this season as the short days turn on their “flower switch”. Chrysanthemums make a spectacular show in your flower beds or in decorative containers and once planted they will come back year after year with just a little care and attention.  The hard freeze will end their show for the year but a light frost just causes them to redden or bronze their flowers and even the foliage on most varieties.

Recent years have brought us a flood of new pansy varieties. Pansies are one of my favorite plants because they are able to actually provide color and brighten up our yards during fall and even through most of our normal winters.  Few things are more delightful then seeing the cheerful and colorful faces of healthy pansies blooming on a cold winter morning or even peeking through a light snow on a frigid winter evening.  Pansy flowers have the power to charm and encourage us though the dark, dreary days of winter in an array of yellow, blue, red, bronze, white and pink flowers.  The sooner you plant your pansies the more they can grow and be prepared for hard winter weather.

Plant ornamental cabbage and kale to produce great color and interest in your garden well into the winter. Plant tall fescue or rye grass seed if you want to establish a green lawn for the winter.

Don’t forget that fall is one of the very best times to plant trees and shrubs. If you need to replace or add trees to your landscape take some time to select and plant trees this fall to change your property and neighborhood for decades to come.  Nothing can change the look and feel of your property like trees and shrubs and they provide shade, cooling and windbreaks while looking good.

Shop now for spring flowering bulbs like crocus, Dutch iris, tulips, daffodils and hyacinths to create the best surprises next spring.  Just as pansies can help encourage us through the winter, the early season bulbs can give us hope and thrill our souls as we come out of winter and sprout into spring.  But to get the thrill of spring tulips and daffodils, we have to plant them in October, November or even December.  If you haven’t experienced the thrill of bulbs announcing spring at your home make a little effort now and get in on the fun next March and April.

Fall has definitely arrived with most of our recent daytime highs in the 80’s and night-time temperatures in the 60’s. The sunrises are coming later and the sunsets are getting earlier as our days get shorter by a few minutes each day.  Many of our vegetables and flowering annuals that survived the tough summer heat are producing a new round of fresh green growth, flowers or vegetables as they celebrate the relaxing cooler weather of fall.  The fresh growth and the brighter flowers that result from the lower night temperatures make this one of the prettiest times to walk, sit or spend time in your garden.  It is also a great time to tour and enjoy other gardens.  The Oklahoma Horticulture Society is hosting their annual OHS Garden Tour for Connoisseurs next Saturday, October 4^th at six special gardens here in Oklahoma City.  The tours are come and go at one or all six gardens.  Advanced tickets are available for $12.00 at Precures Nursery, TLC Nursery, Marcum’s Nursery, Tony’s Tree Plantation, Myriad Gardens or Wild Birds Unlimited.  Tickets are available on the day of the tour for $15.00 each at any of the six amazing gardens.  The ticket proceeds are used to support horticulture scholarships at Oklahoma State University/Oklahoma City, Tulsa Community College, and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.   They also support the horticulture programs of 4-H and FFA youth across Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Gardening TV Show.  These private gardens are rarely open to the public and this is a great way to see what plant materials you like, how different plants are performing in our area and to get tons of great design and gardening ideas.  It is also a wonderful time to meet successful Oklahoma gardeners and to visit with lots of other Oklahoma gardeners enjoying these “idea gardens”.

The six gardens on the tour include Kamela Gamble in West Nichols Hills of Kam’s Kookery including the 2 acre vegetable and herb gardens she uses to provide fresh local foods for her catering service. Linda Vater in Crown Heights and well known for her garden spots on Channel 4 will invite you to see her Potage garden, which has been featured in Southern Living Magazine.  Steve and Jini Morris in Crown Heights and Martha Burger on Country Club Drive are sharing their remarkable yards.  Kris Balaban and Shaun Murray of Putnam Heights have a very cool urban garden.  Bill Hawk with his great fish and water gardens near Lake Aluma.  You can learn more about the tour gardens, and find maps at www.ok-hort.org. and click Garden Tour.

Don’t forget “fall is for planting.” Now is the time to plant hardy mums, pansies, ornamental kale and cabbage. It is also one of the best times to plant trees, shrubs and to overseed your lawn with tall fescue or ryegrass.  It is the season to buy your tulips, daffodil and other spring flower bulbs.

Fall is for planting and both the Oklahoma State Fair and football season have arrived so fall must be here! Suddenly we are overwhelmed with gardening opportunities.  Now is a great time to plant all the seasonal color for fall including hardy mums, pansies, asters, flowering kale and cabbage.  The hardy mums and asters will make a spectacular flower show from late September until the first hard freeze which usually hits us in November.  The pansies, ornamental kale and cabbage will start providing color over the next few weeks and will actually provide flowers and color well into the winter or even all winter depending on their planting location and how hard our winter weather gets.

From now until mid October is the prime time to plant cool season lawn grasses like tall fescue or turf type rye grasses if you want to enjoy a green lawn though the winter months. Fall planting of these cool season turf grasses in sunny areas will liven up the dull, dreary short days of winter.  These turf plantings can overseed your summer Bermuda grass lawn or can be sown on open ground to establish a good and attractive cover crop until you can sow warm season grasses next spring.

This is a great time to plant trees and shrubs in the Oklahoma landscape. Many horticulturists like fall tree planting even better than spring plantings as it gives the newly planted trees more time to get rooted into their new home or soil before facing the hot dry brutal summers they must sometimes endure in our beloved Oklahoma.  Even after the first freeze comes and the leaves drop from deciduous trees and shrubs it is often warm enough 6”, 12” or 2 feet under the surface for the roots to grow and get established as long as you do just a little regular watering at planting and during any fall or winter dry spells..

We often mulch new plantings in the spring and summer to keep our plants cooler and reduce water evaporation or water loss. We can mulch new trees, shrub or other plantings in the fall to keep them warmer, protect them from hard freezes and to reduce water evaporation and the need to water as often.  We have lost many trees and shrubs over the last few years to ice and wind damage across our state.  Take time to evaluate whether you have a need to add more shade, windbreaks, or the sheer beauty and aesthetic impact of trees and shrubs to your property

We not only plant in the fall for immediate fall impact with mums and pansies or thinking of the long term impact of trees and shrubs, but we also plant for the coming spring with flowering bulbs. This is the time to shop for the best spring flowering bulbs of daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, Dutch iris, crocus and many other lesser known spring bulbs. Buy the best bulbs now but wait to plant these bulbs until after mid October when the temperatures have cooled a bit more.

Falls truly is for planting so look around your yard and decide if you want fall color now, spring bulbs to greet you early next spring, green grass through the winter or new trees and shrubs to define your yard and get busy planting. None of these plants can grow and beautify your yard until you get them planted.

Fall may be approaching on the calendar but most of the last two weeks has felt more like summer. We have actually dealt with more triple digit temperatures the last two weeks than the rest of this summer combined. Hopefully you have been and will be watching for thirsty and stressed plants. We have made it through much of the summer on natural rainfall and have not had to hand water or use sprinklers near as much as the last three exceptionally hot and dry summers. Hopefully you have provided the water your flowers, veggies, shrubs and trees have needed in this hot spell to bridge them over into the cooler and usually wetter fall season when many of our plants produce another round of new growth, vegetables or flowers. The fall season can be one of the prettiest and best times in your yard and garden but we have to keep our trees and plants healthy. Our plants must survive the last of the summer heat to get to the wonders of fall in your garden.

Besides watering and mulching existing plantings there are still a few root crops and semi hardy cool loving veggies we can plant to complete our fall vegetable gardens. We are entering the prime season for planting tall fescue seed if you want a green lawn this winter. The Oklahoma State University turf program is involved in breeding and evaluating turf or grass varieties for use in Oklahoma. They are famous for some of their varieties of grass used at the Olympics in China, on NFL football fields, at the Bombing Memorial in Oklahoma City and even on the athletic fields at Oklahoma University and many other athletic fields around the country. Tall fescue is planted in the fall in sunny areas if you want green turf though the winter months. It takes eight to twelve days for the seed to germinate after it comes in contact with the soil and is watered in to start the germination process. It is best to sow your winter lawn between August 15th and October 15th. Make sure to water the young grass regularly until it is well established. Some of the most popular varieties recommended by Oklahoma State University include Crossfire III, Rembrandt, Hound Dog or blends that include several varieties and insure that at least one variety is likely to be adapted to your soil and fertility conditions.

It is always good to have a soil test so you really know your existing PH and fertility conditions before fertilizing. If you know your soil test results you can feed just what your soil and the plants are missing. If you don’t know your soil test results, you may want to feed with a lawn starter to help get the fescue off to a good start. If you don’t plant to overseed tall fescue but just want to take good care of your Bermuda or other warm season lawn heading into the winter this is the time to make the last application of nitrogen or a well balanced fertilizer so that the resulting new growth happens well before our first freeze in early November. If you want to apply a pre-emergent weed killer to prevent winter weeds you can apply a herbicides or weed seed killer with your last round of fertilizer over the next two to three weeks. These combination products are often sold as “Weed and Feed” fertilizers.

We have been blessed with a very mild summer this year across Oklahoma, especially compared to the very hot and dry summers of the last three years. We have rarely knocked on the 100 degree door and have actually gone into triple digits less than a handful of days in most parts of the state. As a result of the milder daytime high temperatures, the much milder nighttime temperatures and several nice rain showers through June and July much of our vegetation is a beautiful green. It has been a long time since we have enjoyed such lush green trees, shrubs and grass across Oklahoma in the outdoor oven that is August on the plains. We never know what weather the seasons will produce for us until it is happening or by reviewing it after we have enjoyed or survived it. Even in a very moderate year like this we still have stretches that get hot and or dry where your landscape and gardens will need water besides that provided by natural rains. You can further reduce your water needs by mulching your flower beds, vegetable gardens and container gardens with a mulch of bark or natural hulls to cool the soil and reduce evaporation losses. You may want to consider installing drip irrigation to further reduce your water use.

Schools and college classes are back in session which makes it easier to believe that fall is just around the corner. Gardeners learn to think ahead to get the most out of their gardening experience. Hopefully you are still harvesting and picking fresh nutritious veggies off your spring garden but now is the time to do the final planting on your fall garden. You can still plant seeds of tender vegetables like: bush beans, lima beans, cucumbers, and summer squash but these should get planted within the next week to get a good harvest before the killing freezes later this year. There are much semi-hardy vegetables available as plants including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, collards, leaf lettuce, leek, parsnip and onions that should be planted right away for harvest this fall and even for a period of time after the first mild freezes. You can still plant seeds of many semi hardy vegetables including beets, carrots, collard greens, leaf lettuce, leeks, mustard, onions, parsnip, green peas, radish, rutabaga, spinach, Swiss chard and turnips. Most of the semi-hardy crops are cool season leafy crops or root crops that can tolerate early cold spells and keep producing. You can further extend their season with mulching, row covers or other light protection once we start dealing with freezing weather.

If you want a green lawn this winter we are at the beginning of the planting period for tall fescue and rye grass. You can overseed fescue and rye grass from mid August to mid October across Oklahoma. These cool season grasses will germinate and provide green color to your landscape all through the cold days of winter in sunny or part shade turf areas. They will succumb to the heat next spring and yield to your Bermuda grass summer lawn.

Enjoy our best summer in years and spend time in your yard and gardens enjoying the wonders of nature.