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- Growing orchids outdoors
- Prune like a pro
- California native currants
- How to manage clay soil
- How to harvest rainwater
- Prune roses for maximum bloom
- Selecting and caring for garden tools
- Growing rhubarb
- Unusual edibles that love growing in Marin
- Succulents
- Ferns: ancient plants
- Fertilizers
- Harvesting summer crops
- Help cut flowers live longer
- Blueberries: healthy, tasty, and pretty
- Growing and harvesting beets
- Oak trees of Marin
- Hummingbirds, nature’s extremists
- The benefits of houseplants
- What to do with spent bulbs
- Microgreens: tiny plants, big flavor
- How to grow delicious beans
- All about citrus
- Chamomile: easy to grow and makes a nice cup of tea
- Ornamental grasses
- Beneficial insects
- Preventing a codling moth invasion
- Stop snails in their tracks
- Winter garden color
- Caring for holiday gift plants
- Artichokes
- Propagating native plants
- Japanese maples
- Container gardening
- Growing gorgeous camellias
- Redwood trees
- Pomegranates: an ancient tree
- Bulbs for spring
- Nothing quite like a freshly picked bouquet
- Seeds hold the miracle of life, so save, swap and share them
- Sold on Salvia
- Sudden Oak Death: a million trees gone and counting
- Habitat gardens
- Growing In Your Garden Now - Fava Beans
- Using water effectively in the garden
- Yikes, thrips
- Growing a salad in a pot
- Rain gardens: an attractive solution to a challenging environmental problem
- How to select bare root roses
- Lovely birds... or pests?
- Australian plants in winter
- Get a head start on spring with cold frames
- Snails and slugs: keep them out of the garden
- Sow seeds now for flowers in spring and summer
- Fire-safe landscaping
- Plants made for the shade
- Chinese pistache tree glows in autumn
- Attracting honey and native bees to your garden
- Sow wildflower seeds in fall for spring show
- Native shrubs create a visual anchor in landscapes - fast
- What to plant in the fall-winter veggie garden
- Proper pruning of wisteria for a plethora of blossoms
- Compost for every corner of your spring garden
- All about mushrooms
- Butterflies in the garden
- Growing blueberries
- How to plant a fruit tree
- Protecting plants from frost
- What's that plant?
- Bright spots of color lift the drabness of the winter garden
- Books for Marin gardeners
- Benefits of School Gardens
- Trees: not just nice to look at
- Dealing with mosquitos
- Epilobium – California fuchsia
- Why bees matter, and how you can help
- Picking the Right Plant for the Right Place in Your Garden
- What's That Plant?
- Pollination
- Keeping Cut Flowers Fresh
- Late Summer Color
- Growing Summer Squash
- Short on space? Containers!
- Herbs: tough, attractive, practical
- These plants are true companions
- Companion planting in the vegetable garden
- Get Grounded – Healthy Soil Does Matter
- Mushrooms on the March
- Our Gentle Winters are Good for Vegetables
- Rodents like it Warm
- Know What Makes an Invasive Species Invasive
- California Natives - Plant Like a Native
- Consider a Simple Water-Catchment System and Rain Garden/Bioswale Before Winter Rains Arrive
- Have You Scheduled a FREE Bay-Friendly Garden Walk?
- A Green Autumn
- Rx for Pests: Ants
- Fine Tune Your Garden
- Colorful Drought-Tolerant Plants Thrive in Marin
- Water Restrictions and Recognizing Signs of Water Stress
- UC Researcher Is Helping Plants Survive the Drought
- Summer Is Perfect For Peppers
- Do the Leaves on Your Trees Look Scorched?
- Fine Tune Your Garden
- How to Recognize Drought and Water Stress
- Spring is the Time for Potatoes, Asparagus and Citrus
- Don't Let Stink Bugs... Bug Your Vegetables
- Harvesting Berries
- Water Heroes
- Natural Cold Storage
- Fruit Trees; Why We Treat Them in Dormancy
- Fondness for Old Friends
- What Happens to Garden Bad Guys in Winter?
- Plants that aren't blown away by the wind
- A hill o' beans
- Fruit tree thinning
- Fragrant plants: Add some chocolate or Kool-Aid to your garden
- Top 10 resolutions for Marin gardeners
- Trees with interesting bark shine in winter
- Who says your garden has to be green?
- Plant bulbs now for spring beauty
- Gardener's checklist for fall
- Cover crops boost soil in vegetable beds
- Rx: Living with deer
- Growing berries in Marin
- How to build healthy soil
- Gardener's checklist for summer
- Water-saving tips for the home garden
- Gardener's checklist for spring
- Stop the popping - Controlling hairy bittercress
- How to control aphids
- Brightening up the winter garden
- Selecting a fruit tree
- What to plant and harvest in the winter vegetable garden
- Rain, rain, don't go away
- Gardener's checklist for winter
- Getting rid of rats
- Fall: a time for planning and planting
- Asparagus: spears for years
- Lawn: use it or lose it
- Rx for powdery mildew
- Echeveria imbricata
- Pruning hydrangeas to maximize bloom
- Plant sweet peas in fall
- Propagation
- What's that plant? Toyon!
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- UC Marin Master Gardeners Opportunity Fund: Providing for the Future
Gardener's checklist for fall
What to do in your garden in the fall
OCTOBER
- Compost disease-free annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing.
- Clean up diseased and damaged plant materials so the pathogens don’t overwinter. Remove dead roots, leaves and stems from your vegetable garden and pick up fallen fruit. Dispose of them in your green can.
- Add compost and soil amendments to your garden; cultivate into soil, but don’t disturb shallow-rooted plants.
- Plant cover crops, like fava beans, crimson clover and vetch, to improve soil structure and fertility in bare vegetable beds.
- Visit nurseries to see trees and shrubs with outstanding fall color; determine if there’s a place in your garden that would benefit from one of these selections.
- Plant ornamental grasses, shrubs, perennials, evergreens and groundcovers. Winter rains will help establish sturdy root systems.
- Buy bedding plants for fall and winter color, including calendulas, cyclamen, Iceland poppies, nemesia, osteopermum, pansies, primroses, snapdragons and violas.
- Plant nursery starts of cool-season vegetables. In foggier microclimates: artichoke (rootstock), fava beans, cabbage, garlic, leeks, peas, spinach, Swiss chard, lettuce, radish (small varieties), shallot sets. In sunnier microclimates: artichoke (rootstock), fava beans, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, garlic sets, leeks, peas, radish (small varieties), spinach, Swiss chard.
- Reseed bare spots in your lawn or install sod. Consider reducing the size of your lawn or removing it entirely to conserve water.
- Dig up corms and tubers of gladiolus, dahlias and tuberous begonias after the foliage dies, if you’ve lost these plants over past winters. Store them in a cool, dry place.
- Put tulip, narcissus and hyacinth bulbs in the refrigerator in breathable bags to pre-chill for six weeks prior to planting. Do not store them with apples, which emit ethylene gas that will sprout the bulbs.
- Start amaryllis, narcissus and paperwhite narcissus bulbs inside for holiday gifts.
- Visit your garden after dark with a flashlight and handpick snails and slugs. Control measures in fall will help reduce populations in spring.
- Reduce your irrigation times significantly as day length shortens and plant growth slows or stops.
- Prepare planting holes now for installing bare-root plants and trees in winter.
NOVEMBER
- Sow native wildflower seed.
- Plant perennials and evergreens.
- Dig, divide and replant overgrown perennials for more profuse blooms next spring.
- Mulch bare soil to hold in moisture, keep out weeds and prevent compaction by hard rains.
- Plant bulbs for spring color, including daffodils, crocus, freesia and hyacinths.
- Plant garlic and shallot sets.
- Prune dead or broken branches on trees and shrubs.
- Remove the bands of corrugated cardboard used to trap codling moth larvae from around apple tree trunks and dispose of them.
- For larger camellia blooms, remove all but one fat bud from each stem.
- Compost fallen leaves. Layer green and brown materials in your compost pile.
- Create new planting areas by layering sheet mulch (click here for a how-to video) over weed patches or unwanted lawn.
- Turn off your irrigation system for the season; continue to water plants under overhangs.
DECEMBER
- Plant any bulbs you’ve pre-chilled as soon as you’ve removed them from the refrigerator.
- Cover open compost bins with a tarp when the rains begin.
- If frost is predicted, cover sensitive garden plants such as citrus, fuchsia and succulents or move them under a sheltering overhang. Use stakes around the plants to suspend the covering material so it doesn’t touch the foliage.
- Clean your tools—remove all soil and wash them with a 10 percent bleach solution to avoid spreading diseases. After drying them completely, apply a light layer of vegetable oil to prevent rusting.
- Sharpen your tools.
- Take cuttings of succulents and create small container gardens for holiday gifts.
- Bring trimmed bare branches indoors for a unique decorative element.
- Tour your landscape during a heavy rainfall. See where water is coming off your house and where there are eroding torrents. Think about ways to slow, spread and sink the rain.
Contributors:
Faith Brown, Elizabeth Finley, Dot Zanotti Ingels, Diane Lynch, Marie Narlock
Sources:
A Gardener's Companion 2011 by the UCCE Placer County Master Gardeners, Golden Gate Gardening by Pam Peirce