If you have been admiring the beautiful sunflowers in bloom and would like to plant some in your garden next year, choose a well-drained, moderately rich soil with a near-neutral pH and even moisture. Avoid too much fertilizer and too much nitrogen which will give you large plants, however, it will delay and reduce the number of flowers. Once they are established, sunflowers are drought tolerant and not bothered by pests nor disease. They are, also, particularly beneficial to the honey bees.
Now is the most important time for lawn fertilization.
Buy straw bales for mulching late fall crops, strawberry beds and garlic plantings.
Plant clusters of ‘Iris reticulata’ bulbs for color in the rock garden next spring.
Now is a good time to control poison ivy. Also keep in mind that oil in poison ivy is still active in dead stems and roots.
Don’t harvest winter squash or pumpkins until they attain their full mature coloring or until after the first light frost.
Pinch off the tips of Brussels sprout plants for larger sprouts and harvest them from the bottom up as they mature.
Plant Something Massachusetts is a project of Massachusetts Nursery and Landscape Association, and was originally established in partnership with Massachusetts Flower Growers’ Association.