October Gardening Guide for Northeast Ohio

Spring and summer are thought of as the time to begin your garden, but October in Northeast Ohio is actually a prime time for planting perennials, trees, shrubs, and many fall-favorite plants. We have put together a comprehensive checklist to help you begin your fall garden, know what flowers you can plant in October, and learn how to care for your garden well into the cold winter months.

• Any perennials in containers need to be sunk into the garden as a holding area or brought into the garage for the winter, given the containers alone do not provide sufficient protection during the cold winter months.
• Deadhead established perennials; cut any back to the ground that have yellowed and are dying. Leave up any that provide winter interest or food for the birds including grasses, coneflower, sedum, and clematis.
• For first-year perennials, including new fall mums, it is best to let them die back naturally. The dead foliage will provide natural winter protection, plus it also provides a marker where the plant should come back next spring.
• Prune only the damaged or diseased growth on woody plants; wait until winter to do any other major pruning or shaping.
• Start composting! Layer your grass, leaves, and cuttings from the garden and apply a compost accelerator on top.
• Plan on slowly transitioning houseplants and tropicals from outdoors to indoors; after a couple of mild frosts, rinse them with a hard stream of water to remove insects, bring into the garage or under a covered patio, apply a systemic insecticide to the soil, wait a week, cut growth back to a manageable height and shape, and bring them indoors.

• Spray all the deer favorites with deer-repellent products before a hard frost.
• If it is too late to spray repellents, wrap the deer favorites with burlap or mesh fencing to keep them from browsing.
• For younger trees, spray Plantskydd or wrap the trunk to prevent deer from rubbing their antlers on the bark, which can severely damage the tree.
• Protect roses, hydrangeas, and broadleaf evergreens with burlap, rose cones, etc. These plants are very susceptible to winter wind and weather damage, which can adversely affect next year’s growth and flowering.
• If you forgot in September, you still have time to seed a new lawn or overseed to thicken the old lawn through the end of October (grade, seed, rake it in, cover with ¼” soil, fertilize, and water).
• If you have not applied a lawn food in the past 6–8 weeks, fertilize the lawn with a step 4 lawn food or fall winterizer.