It will soon be the fall season with its cooler, less humid days! That means we are returning to a routine of tending to and enjoying our gardens before the coming of winter. This is absolutely the best time of the year for planting many items in your landscape. You have probably heard the slogan….”Fall Is for Planting”. Did you know that when you accomplish planting in the fall, the roots of the new plants become so well established that trees, shrubs and perennials grow better and will not be as sensitive to weather extremes next year? Growth that occurs next spring is also much stronger when fall planting takes place. So, go ahead, plant those remaining bare spots in your garden and reap the rewards next spring! Remember, though, to protect these new plantings with a layer of mulch over the winter. This helps prevent some of the heaving, the upward movement of the plant due to the ground freezing and thawing, that can occur during this time.

If you need to establish a new lawn or renovate your existing turf, fall is the best time of year to do that. Planting grass seed from the end of August to the end of October takes advantage of nature’s perfect timing here in the Miami Valley. The energy in the grass goes more towards root growth than blade growth allowing for thicker, healthier grass. There are also fewer weeds with which the new grass competes.

During a plant symposium we attended this past summer (one of the many), a speaker told the audience that trees and shrubs planted in the Fall are way ahead of those planted at any other time of the year. We were also informed of the many new plant introductions, trials and tests that occurred during summer so the public can be confident their plant selections will perform well in our gardens here in the Miami Valley. Meadow View has our own test garden in full view for the community, right along Rt. 235. Stop and take a look at the plants in the All American Selections Display Garden and the rest of the landscape to see how well these varieties perform here where we live. Another test or trial garden lovely to visit is the Clark County Agriculture Extension and Master Gardeners’ plantings in Snyder Park on the west end of Springfield just off Rt. 40. The Master Gardener Volunteers work diligently so you can see how the plants that are available today perform in this area. Take advantage of these valuable and beautiful resources…..they are FREE. Take your own snack, a cold drink and enjoy a couple of hours of beauty!

Your vegetable plants, namely your tomatoes and peppers, are on the downside but they should still produce for the next month or so. They could benefit from a light application of a granular fertilizer like 14-14-14, or something similar, due to the recent rains. It would have been best if you could have put this on your plants in mid-July, but it isn’t too late to ‘squeeze out’ the last of this year’s produce.

Enjoy the rest of the gardening season!

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