Fall planting tips for the Greater OKC area:
Plant cool-season annuals like pansies, ornamental cabbage or kale, snapdragons, and dusty miller when temperatures begin to cool.
Begin planting spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, hyacinths, crocus, and daffodils.
Good companion plants for bulbs are ground covers such as ajuga, vinca, English ivy, alyssum, moneywort, thrift, phlox, oxalis, and leadwort.
Peonies, daylilies, and other spring-flowering perennials should be divided or planted now.
Dig and store tender perennials like cannas, dahlias, and caladiums in a cool, dry location.
Purchase trees from nurseries and garden centers during this time to select the fall color you prefer.
Many perennials can be planted at this time and the selection is quite nice.
Plant fall mums and asters and keep them watered during dry conditions. Don’t crowd since they take a couple of years to reach maturity.
Plant container-grown trees and shrubs this month.
Check and treat houseplants for insect pests before bringing them indoors and repot rootbound plants.
Turfgrass
You can continue to replant or establish cool-season lawns like fescue.
The mowing height for fescue should be lowered to approximately 2½ inches for fall and winter cutting.
Broadleaf weeds like dandelions can be easily controlled during October (HLA-6601).
Mow and neatly edge warm-season lawns before killing frost.
Fruits & Vegetables
Dig sweet potatoes and harvest pumpkins and winter squash.
Remove green fruit from tomato plants when frost threatens.
Harvest oriental persimmons and pawpaws as they begin to change color.
There is still time to plant radishes and mustard in the fall garden.
Use a cold frame device to plant spinach, lettuce and various other cool-season crops for production most of the winter.
Plant cool-season cover crops like Austrian winter peas, wheat, clover, and rye in otherwise fallow garden plots.
Remove all debris from the garden to prevent overwintering of various garden pests.
Start new planting bed preparations now with plenty of organic matter.
Water Gardens
Take tropical water garden plants indoors when water temperatures near 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Close the water garden for the winter by placing hardy plants in the deeper areas of the pool. Stop feeding the fish.
Cover water gardens with bird netting to catch dropping leaves during the winter months.
Plant Spring-Flowering Bulbs Now
The latter part of this month and into November is the time to plant spring-flowering bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, etc. Be sure to get to the garden centers early so you can pick out the largest and healthiest of bulbs. They will bloom better for you than the smaller, discount types. Most bulbs should be planted to a depth that is about 2 times the diameter of the bulb. Be sure to plant your bulbs in well-drained soil; most will rot in our heavy, wet, clay soils during the winter if proper drainage is not provided.
To increase the spring bulb display, plant pansies at the same time. Pansies don’t mind the cold weather and can even provide a little extra color during the winter months. Come spring, they really take off and provide an understory of color to the overstory of color provided by the spring bulbs.
Download the entire list of tips here.
Thank you to Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Oklahoma State University and David Hillock, Consumer Horticulturist for this great information, courtesy of the Myriad Botanical Gardens!
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