October garden checklist

Pests and diseases

Remove diseased plant debris from your yard and garden.

For instance, if your lilacs had signs of disease and dropped their leaves, rake them up and place them in yard waste bins or bags or take them to a commercial composting facility that accepts diseased plant material.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has a nifty compost facility locator, so you can find the facility closest to you.

If there isn’t a convenient location near you, bury the material away from the plants. Avoid putting diseased plant material in a home compost pile, as they do not get hot enough for long enough to effectively control disease.

Just a reminder: it has been illegal to put yard waste in the regular trash since 1992 for the entire state.

Trees and shrubs

Flag, mark, or prune branches or plants that need to be removed.

Over the growing season, you may have noticed dead branches or branches that could be pruned. October can be a great time to mark or remove branches or entire plants.

Use flagging tape or paint to indicate which branches or plants you intend to prune when it is more appropriate or convenient.

Avoid major pruning on spring-flowering trees and shrubs, because you will remove the flower buds that will bloom next year.

Flowers and other garden plants

Preserve any flowers or produce you can this month. As temperatures drop, it’s a good time to can, dehydrate, and otherwise preserve anything you want to store for the coming winter.

If you have extra produce you don't plan to eat or preserve, consider donating it to your local food shelf. Only whole, fresh produce can be donated; food shelves do not accept home-jarred or preserved foods.

The Food Group has an interactive map with information on hundreds of food shelves in Minnesota, so you can connect with the food shelves in your area.

Houseplants

Give seasonal indoor plants, like small mums used as decoration, the correct growing environment to thrive.

Annual mums benefit from 8 hours of light. Put them in a south- or west-facing window if you can.

Don’t let the pots get too dry before watering. If the soil gets too dry, it can cause blooms to fade faster.

Whenever possible, keep the leaves dry and only water the soil. Water should come out of the drainage holes on the bottom of the container. If you have the container in a decorative pot or on a tray, empty any pooled water. Mums are quite susceptible to root rot when left in standing water.

Regularly deadhead, or remove spent flowers.

Lawn

You are hopefully seeing your lawn greening up with the return of rain and cooler temperatures this fall. You can fertilize these areas to thicken thin stands or where annual weeds have encroached. With limited growing weather remaining, use more soluble or quick-release nitrogen sources like urea or ammonium sulfate, which will be immediately available to the plants.

If parts of your lawn have not greened up yet, they probably died and will likely need to be reseeded. It is too late for a fall seeding, and slightly too early for dormant seeding, which you can do when soil temperatures are below 40F.

Other tasks

Start cleaning used containers, trays, plant stands, labels, etc. before you need to turn the water off outside. Cleaning now will save you loads of time come next spring.

Remove as much dirt and debris as you can, then sanitize with alcohol, bleach, or alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium saccharinate (products that include Lysol®).

For more detailed information on ideal dilutions for the chemicals listed, read how to clean and disinfect gardening tools and containers.