EVERGREENS
Keep watering your evergreens until the ground freezes. Evergreens can dry out during the winter. Fertilize now with Espoma Holly-tone.
SHADE & FRUIT TREES
Fertilize now with Espoma Tree-tone.
LAWN
October is a good time to repair lawns that are stressed from heat, damaged by insects or fungal diseases. First, rake out the burned and damaged grass patches to loosen the soil. Then plant the grass seed and top dress with a combination of Dr. Earth Super Natural Fertilizer and Garden Magic Top Soil. Remember to choose the right mixture grass seeds for either shade, sun and shade or full sun. Pesche's Garden Center stocks different varieties of grass blend from Jonathan Green. Keep soil moist, watering daily for at least 14 days.
Fall is also a great time to core aerate your lawn, especially if your soil contains compacted clay. After coring, you can over seed your lawn and apply fertilizer. Organic fertilizers from Dr. Earth and Jonathan Green contains beneficial microbes. These living organisms help to better absorb nutrients from the soil and also digest thatch and change it into the organic matter. Dr. Earth fertilizer contains also beneficial root fungus Mycorrhizae, which promotes hardy root system.
Our Garden Center also stocks synthetic fall fertilizers from Greenview and Jonathan Green Winter Survival. These chemicals prepare your lawn for winter hardiness.
This month you can still control weeds in lawn. Bayer Natria Lawn Weed Control offers a selective lawn Weed Killer for spot spraying derived from iron which occurs in nature. This product works fast and is rain-proof in 3 hours. If in your lawn grow tough perennial weeds like Creeping Charlie use Bonide's Weed Beater Ultra which kills over 200 broad-leaf weeds and proven cool weather performance. One great feature of this product is you can re-seed your lawn in 2 weeks after use. In fall you can also control weeds with organic Jonathan Green Corn Gluten Meal, which inhibits the tap roots on immature weeds. Many of them, including dandelions, germinate and establish root system in the fall. Do not seed grass for 60 days after applying Corn Gluten Meal.
VEGETABLE GARDEN
Do thorough cleanup of your veggie garden. Discard; do NOT compost any plant materials with any disease or insect problems. Apply 2-3 inches of compost. Evaluate your vegetable gardens production this summer. We recommend Back to Nature amendment products, such as Nature’s Blend with Alfalfa & Humates, Purple Cow Organic Activated Compost or Dr. Earth Compost rich in Earthworm Castings, Alfalfa Meal and Kelp to improve your soil. Remember healthy soil produces healthy plants. To break up very clay soils, use Nature’s Bend Cotton Burr Compost.
ROSES
Remove the petals from your rose bushes, but leave the rose hips on. Keep watering your roses until the second hard frost. If the rose bush has black spots, you must pick off all the infected leaves and clean up any on the ground. With the change in the weather, Powdery Mildew is likely to appear so continue your fungicide spraying program. Around Halloween heavily water your roses. The following day tie the canes together so they will not whip around during winter winds, this will prevent the roots from loosening. Do not fertilize roses until the Spring.
