Gardeners Checklist: Here is What to Do the Week of October 9

By Ron Kujawski

• Drain garden hoses before storing them indoors. With all the recent rainfall, it is unlikely that you will need to water gardens any longer this year. Store hoses in the basement or other location where they will not be subject to freezing temperatures.

• Prepare soil now for planting raspberries in spring. A pH of 5.8 to 6.5 and sandy loam soil are best for raspberries. When planting in an existing garden, avoid areas where tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplants have grown since that soil may possess the fungi responsible for verticillium wilt, a disease common to those vegetables and to raspberries.

• Dig up a clump of chives from the herb garden. Pot up the clump in a plastic pot and place it in an unheated garage or shed, or leave it outdoors in a protected location where it will be subject to freezing temperatures - yes, freezing temperatures. In mid to late December, bring the pot indoors and set it on a sunny windowsill. Soon new shoots will appear. Snip these as needed for your recipes. Fresh chives taste so much better than dried chives.

 • Wait until after the first frost of the season before planting garlic. It’s best to buy garlic bulbs at a garden center rather than at the supermarket. Garlic sold at supermarkets is typically a soft-necked variety grown in climates milder than ours. Also, this garlic is often treated with a sprout inhibitor. Though soft-necked garlic may be grown in this region of the country, hard-necked varieties are better suited to our climate. Some hard-necked varieties include ‘Music’, ‘Polish Jenn’, ‘German Red’, ‘Purple Glazer’, and ‘Spanish Roja’.

• Make regular applications of animal repellent to shrubs at two-week intervals, or more often if rainfall is frequent. Our yard is known to residents of the Wild Kingdom as the Deer Diner. Deer favor plants in managed landscapes because the plants tend to be more tender and succulent than the slower-growing plants in woodlands. If you are using a commercial repellent, as opposed to a homemade concoction, be sure to read the label for safe application.

• Chop up at least some of the leaves on your lawn before raking them.

“How?” Run over the leaves with a rotary lawn mower.

“Why?” The chopped leaves can be set aside, i.e., stored in plastic bags or garbage cans, until needed.

“Needed for what?” Chopped leaves can be worked into garden soils this fall to increase the level of organic matter or they can be applied as winter mulch over herbaceous perennials once the ground begins to freeze.

“Can I use pine needles as mulch over perennials?” Yes!

“Do I have to shred the needles?” No!

“How deep should the mulch layer be?” A three-inch deep layer is sufficient.

“Should I cut back the stems of my perennials before applying the mulch?” Yes! And discard the leaves and stems that may be diseased.

“How do I discard the diseased stuff?” The easiest way is to bury it.

“Where?” You don’t really want me to answer that, do you?  This is a family publication.

Ron Kujawski began gardening at an early age on his family's onion farm in upstate New York. Although now retired, he spent most of his career teaching at the UMass Extension Service. He serves on Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Horticulture Advisory Committee. His book, Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook, is available here.