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October Garden Calendar Preparing For Winter While In The First Blush Of Fall
October is the real beginning of fall, the end of the harvest season so the October garden calendar is busy and full. It is the first real month to be devoted to getting your garden ready for next spring. The demand for water in October is almost none – it's one of the wetter months of the year, getting 15% of
California's
total rainfall. The days are shorter and cooler, and plants that need a bit of a chill to finish their fruiting are eagerly awaiting the briskness that is fall, ready to play their part in the symphony of landscape design.
Planting In October
October is one of the best months for planting – it's still warm enough to be pleasant, the soil is still warm and easy to aerate, and there's plenty of evening rainfall to get your new plantings off to a good start. Don't neglect new planting when filling out your Garden Calendar.
October's garden calendar is when you should separate and divide your perennials to avoid overcrowding. Good candidates include day-lilies, callas, and Shasta daisies. You'll want to get in close with the pruning snips, and clear away dead and overgrown stems. A number of perennials can be cut close to the ground without ill effect; if you've got woody perennials, they'll look better if cut back far into the shrub than if they're sheared.
The October garden calendar indicates the time to prune pine trees – trim and shape them to suit your overall gardening and landscaping plan; you'll be able to remove the needles that will fall next spring, and should – pine needles have a natural astringent in them and keep other plants from growing under the tree. What you want to do is coax the tree into growing out and filling in during the growing season of the summer.
October is also the time to plant your cool weather holdover plants, and most shrubs and creepers. Anything that blooms in summer and can over-winter in a cool and damp climate is a good candidate for this segment of your October garden calendar, as is anything with an extensive root structure you want to cultivate. Most roots are active and grow throughout the winter months.
Lawn Care
Yes, you still have to mow the lawn; it's one of the hazards of living in California and one reason why lawn development is an integral part of landscape design. You may not need to water it much; watch your watering needs and cycle it with rainfall patterns. At the end of the month aerate the lawn around Halloween, and lay in with a complete nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium (NPK) fertilizer. This is really the only time of the year that a complete fertilizer is recommended; the potassium and phosphorous feed the root systems over the winter, and keep them from drying out.
If you're not happy with your lawn, this is the best month of the year to plant a new; be sure to allocate the time appropriately for your October garden calendar. Grasses that work well in California are rye-grass blends and tall fescue, both of which work better than bluegrass blends. They need less water, are more disease resistant and can handle shade better. They don't need nearly as much fertilizer and stand up better.
If your lawn is thin, this is the time to over seed it. Pull out dead crabgrass and patch over bare spots with the seed mix of your choice. To keep the seed in place, top dress it with mulch and keep everything moist.
In October, the optimum mower blade height is 1.5" or so. This also cuts down on your water use.
Water Use
While we've touched on it earlier, the best part of October's garden calendar is the reduced water use – you can expect to cut your water needs by 20-70%, depending on local drainage and climate. You should reduce the watering times on your automatic sprinklers, and turn them off when it rains. You can even cut back on the drip pots for deciduous trees, even fruit trees.
Pest Control
With the return of cool winter nights, and damp mornings, keep a vigilant eye out for fungal parasites, and cool weather insects and diseases during your October garden calendar. Aphids, in particular, like the cooler weather, and scurry out from the underside of leaves. Look for black spot and powdering mildew and red thread on the lawn.
Weeds like cooler weather too – most germinate at this time of the year.
Mulching regularly will stop that from happening, especially when combined with a complete weed preventative cycle as part of your October garden calendar.
Still keep to spot spraying weeds on lawns – towards the end of the month, a weed-and-feed might be suitable for a heavy infestation.
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October's garden calendar is when you should separate and divide your perennials to avoid overcrowding. Good candidates include day-lilies, callas, and Shasta daisies. You'll want to get in close with the pruning snips, and clear away dead and overgrown stems. A number of perennials can be cut close to the ground without ill effect; if you've got woody perennials, they'll look better if cut back far into the shrub than if they're sheared.
If you're not happy with your lawn, this is the best month of the year to plant a new; be sure to allocate the time appropriately for your October garden calendar. Grasses that work well in California are rye-grass blends and tall fescue, both of which work better than bluegrass blends. They need less water, are more disease resistant and can handle shade better. They don't need nearly as much fertilizer and stand up better.
While we've touched on it earlier, the best part of October's garden calendar is the reduced water use – you can expect to cut your water needs by 20-70%, depending on local drainage and climate. You should reduce the watering times on your automatic sprinklers, and turn them off when it rains. You can even cut back on the drip pots for deciduous trees, even fruit trees.
Weeds like cooler weather too – most germinate at this time of the year. 
