Plant your wildflower seeds this fall

Would you like to have your own wildflower patch in your garden next spring?  It is close to time to get them planted - end of September and beginning of October is best.  Now is the time to pick out the seeds and prepare the soil for planting.

We posted last spring about bluebonnets specifically but the advice works for most other wildflowers as well (skip step 4 for seeds that don't have the hard protective coat).  http://preferredlandscape.blogspot.com/2012/04/create-your-own-bluebonnet-patch.html

It is back to school time for most kids this week and this time of year always makes me excited about the upcoming fall and the cooler temperatures. 

Last week, we discussed what needed to be done in the vegetable garden at this time of year but what else do we need to do?

September is a great time to feed your lawn - it will help growth next spring.  You can also lay sod in October if you want to fill in some spots that didn't survive this summer.

Fall is also a great time to plant trees.  The trees will grow roots throughout most of the winter and be much more prepared for the hot weather next summer. 

You can also divide any plants that have gotten too large - Daylilies, Iris, Liriope, Ferns, Cannas and Amaryllis are examples of plants that are easy to divide. 

You can add color to your landscaping beds this fall with some new perennials.  For shade areas, Columbine and Turk's cap work well in the fall.  For sun areas, Iris, Roses, Butterfly Bush, Lantana, Salvia, Santolina, and Copper Canyon Daisy are a few of our favorites to plant in the fall.

What should you plant this fall?

So what should you plant and when should you plant it?  In the chart below, it tells you the common vegetables planted in the fall as well as the optimal timing to plant them.  As you can see, the next few weeks are key for many of them (and we are late for a few of them!). The following are optimal "windows of time" for planting fall vegetables:
Beans - 8/1 - 9/1 (lima beans 7/15 - 8/15)	Muskmelon (Cantaloupe) - 7/15 - 8/1
Beets - 9/1 - 10/15	Mustard - 9/15 - 10/15
Broccoli plants - 8/1 - 9/15	Parsley - 8/15 - 10/1
Brussels sprouts - 8/1 - 10/1	Peas, English - 8/15 - 9/15
Cabbage plants - 8/15 - 9/15	Peas, Southern - 7/1 - 8/1
Carrots - 8/15 - 10/15	Pepper plants - 7/1 - 8/1
Cauliflower plants - 8/15 - 9/15	Potatoes, Irish - 8/15 - 9/15
Chard, Swiss - 8/1 - 10/15	Pumpkin - 7/1 - 8/1
Collard/Kale - 8/15 - 10/1	Radish - 9/15 - 10/15
Corn, Sweet - 8/1 - 8/15	Spinach - 9/1 - 10/15
Cucumber - 8/1 - 9/1	Squash, Summer - 7/15 - 8/15
Eggplant plants - 7/15 - 8/1	Squash, Winter - 7/1 - 7/15
Garlic - 9/1 - 10/15	Tomato plants - 7/15 - 8/1
Kohlrabi - 8/15 - 9/15	Turnips - 10/1 - 11/1
Lettuce (leaf) - 9/15 - 10/15	Watermelon - 7/1 - 8/1

Source: http://easttexasgardening.tamu.edu/homegardens/fallveggarden.html

Fall is just around the corner...

I know it seems odd to think about fall with 100 degree days but now is the time to start your fall vegetable garden!  We are lucky in South Texas to actually have two different growing seasons when we can swap out our spring plantings and get in some plants that will soon enjoy the cooler temps. 

The first step is getting your soil ready.   You need to pull the weeds and till in some compost to the soil.  Keep any plants that are still producing - peppers planted in the spring can often continue to produce throughout the fall planting season as well as many of the herbs.

The next step is to determine what you want to plant.  Look for varieties of plants that have a fast maturity so you can get as much harvest before the first frost.

What are you planting this year? In the next post, I will go through our favorite plants for the fall season and when they need to get planted.

We are hiring!

Happy Friday to all!

These are our current job openings.  Please apply if you are interested!

Maintenance Account Service Representative

http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/bus/3194146498.html

Landscape Install & Maintenance Foreman

http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/lab/3157433573.html

Tree Climber Foreman

http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/lab/3194321128.html

Tree Climber

http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/lab/3194153166.html

Community in Action

The following is an article of a project we were honored to be a part of.  They are still looking for volunteers to help tomorrow if you have any free time!

http://betterblock.org/?p=1020