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

The fall in Oklahoma is a special season to spend time in your yard and garden.

Many of the annuals and perennials have been rejuvenated by the cooler weather and shorter days as long as you have been watering them to quench their thirst in this continuing drought. Many of these plants are showing new spunk and energy as they literally sprint to the finish line of this growing season. The first real freeze in the Oklahoma City area is usually in early November but is always a moving target depending on the weather. The northwest part of the state shuts down the growing season first as they usually get the first hard freeze and it often is up to 2 weeks later before south central Oklahoma freezes as the cold temperatures march across our state from north to south. Hopefully we will still enjoy some nice fall colors, but many of our trees and shrubs have already thinned out their foliage and dropped many leaves prematurely as they battled the stress of last summer’s persistent heat and drought. This is likely to lessen the impact of our usual fall “garden foliage art show” as nature winds down for winter.

There are many projects to tackle in the fall yard. Plant hardy mums for fall color, decorate with pumpkins, gourds, straw bales and corn stalks. Sow or overseed tall fescue grass seed for a green lawn this winter in your sunny areas or to establish a shady lawn. Select and plant spring flowering bulbs that will get established and grow underground all winter ready to create the first bright colors of next growing season as they trumpet the arrival of spring. The most widely know spring flowering bulbs are tulips, crocus, hyacinth, narcissus or daffodils, but there are many varieties of lesser known bulbs that are also fun to plant. I have fond memories of throwing crocus bulbs across the lawn and planting them where they land to create a fun patchwork of crocus flowers in the lawn next year before the lawn even greens up. Narcissus or daffodils naturalize well here and will often come back year after year where tulips are usually only a 1 or 2 year show with the flowers getting smaller in future years, if they do carry over.

The warm season plants are getting ready to call it a season with the annuals headed to plant heaven and the perennials about ready to hibernate or “go underground” for the season. There are a few cool-weather crops that will shine and do their best work in the coming months. Flowering kale and cabbage will provide lots of color and interest through early frosts before a hard freeze finally gets them. Pansies will not only survive the frosts, but even most hard freezes to flower all through the winter as they add color and excitement to sunny areas through the short, dark, cold days of winter. Now is a great time to select and plant your pansies. Once you experience their spunky winter spirit you’ll be hooked to plant them again next fall.

Fall officially arrived last week and we have been blessed with at least a little rain in the last two weeks. We could definitely use several more nice rains.

This is the time to plant hardy mums, pansies, ornamental kale and cabbage for fall color. Fall garden mums recently had a name change by taxonomists from chrysanthemums to Dendranthema x grandiflora but they are still the same plant that does best in full sun planted in well drained soils. These colorful perennials make mounds of color and should be planted on 18” to 24” centers to create a spectacular display. They will make great color in container gardens as well but should be transplanted into a ground bed before a hard freeze to help insure they will overwinter to create a show again next fall as they bloom naturally with shorter day lengths. Mulching them with a layer of hulls or bark helps more tender varieties to survive the winter for a repeat performance next year. Select from the vast smorgasboard of colors and flower styles to make a “fall color” statement in your yard.

Pansies are one of my favorite flowers because they show their pretty flowers or interesting and colorful “faces” not just in fall but all through the winter. It is always inspiring to see their cute faces poking through snow or ice and still providing a dash of color and hope. Pansies and their related violas have been painted and written about since early Greek civilizations. Tough alpine varieties were discovered by the French, who called them the French word pensee which means thought or remembrance. Over time that name evolved into pansy just as the wild pansy has evolved and enjoyed breeding work to become the pansy we know today. Over the last 50 years, breeders in Japan, Germany and the United States have introduced hundreds of new varieties in most all colors. They can be of a single color or may feature 2 or 3 colors on different petals to create really interesting “faces” to charm us. They thrive in cool weather and when planted in a sunny area, in the fall, will usually grow and flower until the heat of late spring wears them out. Choose stocky plants with dark or bright green foliage and plant in a sunny, well drained area about 6” to 10” apart depending on how thick you want them. It is always good to add organic matter to the soil when you plant and pansies will benefit from a slow release fertilizer applied at transplant or soon thereafter.

Don’t forget to water your hardy mums, pansies and other fall plant material after planting and regularly whenever we are not enjoying regular rains from above.

If you plan to plant a tall fescue lawn or overseed your bermuda lawn with tall fescue for a green winter lawn you need to sow your seed now or in the next few weeks. Visit your local nursery or garden center to select the best variety for your yard while you are picking out your mums and pansies.

What a joyful week of temperature relief we enjoyed in recent days. Regrettably we did not get much rain out of the front that brought us the nice temperature change. We appear to be heating back up again so it is very important you remember to keep soaking your “still dry” trees, shrubs and gardens. They will be able to make better use of the water now that our night temperatures are cooler and the daytime highs are not as hot. We really need to help our permanent plant material produce and store as much energy as possible in the next 6 to 8 weeks before our first hard freeze. This is a great time to apply your last fertilizer application of the growing season to your warm season grasses, trees and shrubs. That will allow the new growth a chance to harden before that first freeze. Do not fertilize unless you are also watering.

Now is the time to complete applications of pre-emergent herbicides or weed and feed type products to your lawn to control winter annual weeds. Do not apply a pre-emergent herbicide if you plan to plant or overseed fescue or rye grass in that area in late September through October. If you have an area of the yard you want to convert from bermudagrass to tall fescue, now is the time to use glyphosate or Roundup to kill the bermuda before you make the switch to tall fescue in a few weeks.

The football season is in full swing and that is always a good sign that we are also in hardy mum season. I  visited several nurseries and garden centers this last week and saw many very good looking hardy mums in all size containers ready for you to select and plant. Most are covered with flowerbuds and few crops make such beautiful mounds of color. There are many styles of chrysanthemum flowers and even more colors so that you can decorate your yard and containers with red, purple, orange, yellow, white, bronze or pink. They will bloom for weeks, often right up to the first, really hard freeze. They are good perennials and if watered regularly will come back year after year to be a highlight of your fall garden.

The Oklahoma Horticulture Society will be holding their annual Garden Tour for Connoisseurs 1 week from this next Saturday on September 24^th from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. This is always one of the best garden tours offered across our state. This year you will have a chance to visit 7 great family gardens in near northwest Oklahoma City and the amazing Chesapeake Energy employee community gardens. This is the main fundraiser for the Oklahoma Horticulture Society and provides funding for their great educational programs and student scholarships. You can buy tickets in advance at local garden centers, on the day of the tour at any of the gardens or visit okhort.org for more information.

Many Oklahomans have been fortunate to get at least a little rain over the last 2 weeks and it felt fabulous. It always amazes me how efficient Mother Nature can be with so little moisture. We are still very hot and dry but even that little moisture has turned many almost totally brown Bermuda grass lawns back to green in a matter of days. Many weeds and our heartiest annuals and perennials are now producing a flush of new growth.  Much of the plant world is trying to show and live a life of hope after a summer of drought and despair. Even the trees, shrubs and plants we have been watering all summer had been fighting to survive and the rains literally seem to bring them to life. Drip irrigation and water sprinklers are good but nothing matches the refreshing nature of rain delivered in the form of cooling showers. It is depressing to drive around the state and see all the serious damage to even our deep rooted trees and shrubs. We are still battling triple digit temperatures so our crops are still drying out very quickly and still need your extra watering assistance.

If you were blessed with rains and are now getting some new growth on your plant materials this is a good time to do the final feeding of this growing season on your trees and shrubs. We don’t want to feed them too late where they are soft and just producing new growth as we approach our first freezes of early November. Fertilize in the next few weeks so that the new growth has a chance to harden up before those freezes. This new fall growth can help your permanent plantings produce a fall surge of natural sugars and energy to fortify your plants. This will allow them to store up energy to help survive the winter and to be ready to launch a new season next spring. If you are seeing new growth on your lawn and annuals this is a good time to feed all except shade grasses. Apply a pre-emergent herbicide by itself or select a good weed and feed product to kill weed seeds before they germinate as you fertilize your lawn.

Even though our daytime temperatures are still setting records and passing 100° regularly, we are experiencing slightly cooler evenings and mornings which means it is not staying so hot as many hours per day.  A couple of times we have even gotten a small taste of fall which makes it more believable when we advise that you need to rush to finish planting your fall vegetable garden. If you plan to over seed your lawn with tall fescue to enjoy a green lawn this winter you need to be locating the seed for a good variety like Crossfire III, Hounddog, Wolfpack or you can select one of the many tall fescue blends with multiple varieties in the mix to plant in mid September.  Don’t forget to focus on watering and feeding all your plants and planting your fall vegetable gardens.

This last week we finally got a little relief from the persistent onslaught of 100 degree days across most of Oklahoma. It was a real blessing to get at least a little rain and some cooling. Hopefully we will continue to enjoy some relief from these intense summer conditions. The plants that have survived in reasonably good condition will respond to cooler temperatures and your continuing application of refreshing water with a flush of new growth and renewed vitality.

However, we are still very dry. The limited rain we have received has not soaked very far in the ground and still dries out very quickly, so you still need to be watering regularly. It is particularly important to soak your trees and shrubs so that they can benefit from any reduction in temperatures and rebuild their strength this fall before confronting another hard winter.

We are still battling summer but now is the time to be planting our fall vegetable gardens. Don’t even start planting fall veggies unless you are committed to watering these tender plants until Mother Nature gets in fall mode and starts providing adequate moisture. You can still plant tender vegetables like bush beans, lima beans, cucumbers and summer squash that will need to be harvested before the first frost or freeze which usually occurs in early November. There are many semi-hardy vegetables you can plant now that will often survive and keep producing even through the first several light frosts this winter. You can plant root crops like beets, carrots, leek, onions, parsnip, radish, rutabaga and turnips. Many leafy vegetables do well in the fall garden including cabbage, Chinese cabbage, kale, leaf lettuce, mustard, spinach and Swiss chard. You can also grow great fall crops of broccoli, Brussels spouts, cauliflower, kohlrabi and peas.

Visit your local nurseryman to get plants or seeds for these vegetable crops if you want to grow some of your own fresh veggies this fall. Make sure to water the ground well the day before planting and then be prepared to water these fall crops regularly.

Several have inquired about fertilizing now. Please wait until the plants are less stressed, it cools down a little more and we begin to see new growth coming out on our trees and shrubs. Your plants are already weak and stressed from the constant heat so please be observant of any significant pest or disease problems and take action to get these problems under control. A healthy plant just like a healthy human can better defend itself from other problems and a weak or stressed plant is more vulnerable to other troubles.

Don’t forget to water, even soak your existing landscape and have fun planting your fall vegetable garden.