What NOT To Do in the Yard Now

     Columbus Day - Halloween - Thanksgiving - Christmas. The busy holiday season awaits. OK, maybe you aren't going to get dressed up as the "Santa Maria" and march down Main Street on Monday, but there are still enough other tasks to accomplish this time of year to dissuade you from the garden. The good news: here are some yard chores you don't have to tackle this time of year:

• Don't deadhead your roses. Many Northern California rosarians are now advising rose growers to let those fading October flowers remain on the plant. This will force the rose bush to form hips, which helps the plant slow down in preparation for the January pruning season. Because cold winters are not a certainty here, roses have problems entering complete dormancy in our area. Not pruning roses now tells the plant, "Time to take a nap!"

• Don't prune your shade trees until the last leaf has fallen. Then, it will be easier to gaze up into the canopy of the tree to decide which branches need to be trimmed or removed. Good reasons for pruning trees include removing or cutting back branches that are rubbing each other or the house. Low branches that impede foot traffic or suckers emanating from the base can be removed at that time, too. If you think you won't remember the dead branches that will need to be removed when all the leaves are gone, go ahead and mark those branches now with ribbon or green tree tape.


But if you need to escape a houseful of pre-Halloween candy-crazed youngsters, here are some garden tasks for October:

 • Clean up the summer vegetable garden. Many garden pests overwinter in fallen fruit and twigs, too.


• After you've cleared out the dying summer vegetables, prepare for next year's garden by checking the soil pH. Test kits are available at just about every nursery.

  •  Tomato hornworms are going into hibernation in the soil beneath your tomato plants. Dig down about four inches and discard their cocoons, which resemble two inch-long, reddish footballs.

• Feed your bare garden soil during the winter with a cover crop of clover, fava beans or vetch. This will add nitrogen for next year. 

Chinese Pistache

 • This is a great time for planting new trees and shrubs, especially ones with outstanding fall foliage for California. Good specimens include Japanese maples, Chinese pistache, tupelo, red oak and scarlet oak.

 
• Vegetables to plant from seed now include radish, spinach, peas, onions and peas.


•  Despite the cooler temperatures, your lawn and garden still need about an inch of water a week. Unless the rains come, keep your automatic sprinklers operating. How much water is an inch? Here’s how to measure.

•  Cool season lawns, such as the popular fescue blends, are putting on a spurt of growth now. Mow often so that you are never removing more than a third of the total height of the grass blade.

 • Dethatch, aerate and overseed bermuda grass lawns with rye grass to keep it green all winter. At a loss of how to start? Here’s how.

•  This is a good time to plant ground covers such as low growing manzanitas, verbena and carpet bugle. This will give their root systems a chance to get established for their burst of spring growth.

• Scatter and plant tulip and daffodil bulbs outdoors for a more natural look.

• Add some indoor color for the upcoming holiday seasons by planting bulbs in containers. Your favorite local nursery has a good supply right now.

• Feed and protect rhododendron and azalea roots during the winter by adding two or three inches of mulch around those plants. More on the benefits of mulch.

• Available now at nurseries: colorful winter blooming annuals such as violas, calendulas, stock, Iceland poppies and snapdragons.

 • Temperatures dipping down below freezing can occur in many of the interior areas of Northern and Central California in early November. Prepare for that possibility by moving frost-sensitive potted plants indoors or against a west or south-facing wall.

  

• Row covers, hot caps, and water-filled containers surrounding young vegetable seedlings offer these plants a warmer nighttime environment.

 
• Prepare for the rainy season by knocking down watering basins around trees.

Winter Tree Care in Asia? Yes, and No.

My son-in-law is traveling through China and Korea currently on business. He's been sending back photos from his Blackberry of things that might be of interest. In return, I have been sending him handy phrases in the native languages to ingratiate himself with the locals.

For example, he ought to try this out on the streets of Korea: "sogdoleul bodeo ppal-a" 
("your speed skaters suck"). 

But I do admire the Koreans' winter protection plan for their thin-barked trees: broom corn! 

Winter bark protection is usually an afterthought in cold climates; it should be a regular practice, according to the tree experts at Washington State University: "Sun scald occurs on sunny days in winter when the bark of a tree is warmed by the sun, especially on the southwest side of the trunk. The bark and cambial tissues deacclimate and are not able to reacclimate quickly enough when the sun sets and the temperature drops abruptly. The result is damage or death of tissue.The bark often cracks open or it may separate from the tree without splitting. Sun scald is more prevalent on stressed, recently transplanted, smooth-barked, or thin-barked trees. Wrap the trunks of recently transplanted trees and those which may have been stressed during the growing season with a light-colored wrapping from the soil line to the first set of branches. Leave this material on for the first winter and through the first growing season."

I'm not thrilled with the large stones placed around the tree (reduces the availability of water, may get too hot in summer), but I understand why they are there: to keep people off the root area. That is one of the tradeoffs of trees in public places. 

Still, it is better than what we do here: plunk a tree down in the middle of an hot asphalt parking lot, in a 5x5' concrete frame, with a gravel groundcover, and a broken sprinkler.

 During his visit to China, he sent along this picture. I offered him an appropriate phrase, which I suggested he yell at the local Beijing arborists:

"Bu ding bu de shu!" ("Don't Top That Tree!")