Late Fall Gardening in Missouri

Here in Missouri, the weather is 20 degrees above normal which means the days are in the mid-’70s and the nights are in the low 50s. The weather now compares to the spring season and I find that I am spending time working in the garden.

This week my husband and I are working on removing the leaves by hand that is embedded in the flowering shrubs and evergreens. The oak leaves are notorious for carrying mites that are harmful to plants. I have also noted that leaves that are left in gardens over the winter do damage the gardens, especially irises because the leaves attract insects that eat the rhizome.

Another garden project that must be done in the late fall would be cutting back any remaining annual or perennial plants. Then remove any weeds, and grasses from the bed before applying mulch. The vegetable and tomato gardens are nearly spent but there are still crops that I will harvest for the composter

When the leaf removal, cutting back of perennials, and harvesting are completed

I will cover all garden beds with two to three inches of cedar bark mulch. In addition, I will also encircle the flowering shrubs and add a layer of mulch under the evergreens. If there is a hard winter then the mulch will protect the plants with roots close to the soil surface from shifting or becoming damaged. Mulch also makes your cold-season gardens look more eye appealing and deters weed growth in the early spring.

Note: irises will get a thin layer of mulch, but that mulch will be removed in early spring.

The weather has been warmer than normal during the fall season and gardening in late fall has been enjoyable. 

Gardening in November

The fall season has been unseasonably warm and many of my flowers, zinnias, chrysanthemums, and black-eyed Susans are still blooming. I am thankful that the weather is mild as I enjoy gardening in November.

Here are photographs of late-blooming flowers in autumn gardens.

My neighbor today visited me in the gardens and could not believe that my flowers had many blooms and buds. He told me that he cut back all of his flowers the first week of September because he thought it would be a cold season.

Know that most people stop tending to their gardens in September but I am not one of those people. If the weather is warm then I continue to tend to my flower and tomato gardens. This year I planted tomatoes in self-watering containers and thought instead of cutting them back I would move them to the mini walk-in greenhouse. If the weather should turn cold the greenhouse will protect the plants from frost and I may be able to harvest cherry tomatoes in January.

When I looked at the weather for my area I saw that it is not supposed to get cold until January so I will continue to tend to the flowers that are blooming in the garden. After a hard frost, I will gather seeds for next year and cut the flowers back to the soil then cover them with a layer of mulch.

By extending my growing season into November I was able to make fresh herb wreaths with cut zinnia and mum flowers for my home's décor. On Thanksgiving, I will cut flowers for bouquets for my elderly neighbors.

Know that I reseeded my zinnia gardens in August for late summer blooms and also deadheaded the chrysanthemums and fertilized them with bloom booster by miracle-gro. This is why I have so many flowers blooming in November.

Autumn Season Gardening

The autumn season is a busy time for me as I was able to line up a few contracts for garden cleanup, and planting mums and as soon as the weather is an average of 64 degrees during the day I will plant the spring bulbs.

The first part of September was warm with temperatures in the high 90’s so I worked only in the mornings.  Basically, I got the garden beds ready for planting.  Last week the weather was cooler so I finished planting the Chrysanthemums.   This week we have three days of rain which is good for the newly planted mums.

Tomorrow I plan to work in my yard and garden to clean up the garden beds so they are ready for planting in a few weeks.  I bought the spring bulbs Crocus Pickwick which look like they were painted with purple stripes on white they will bloom in early spring, and then the 100 narcissus Dutch master bulbs will bloom in mid-spring followed the purple grape hyacinth in late spring.

The spring bulbs will be planted in my feature garden which is located next to my sandstone patio.  I can view this patio through my picture window and think the location is perfect.

In addition to planting spring bulbs in feature garden beds, I also plan to keep a few narcissus bulbs in cold storage and force them to bloom.  I want to plant the bulbs in pretty containers and give them as Christmas gifts to my elderly neighbors as the blooms will good cheer for them this winter.

Attribution: Morguefile