Central Plains Gardener's October Checklist

Between you and me, no other season comes near beating collapse. Perhaps it’s because when I was 10, my family moved to Minnesota in late summer, along with also my very first experiences in that new place were in deliciously cold, damp woods in fall. The chill, the candy mush of decomposing leaves and soil, the brilliant colors all around — well, it was magical, and it still remains.

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

This is my backyard in mid- to late October (zone 5). The tree in back is bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), a deciduous conifer that turns lovely orange and copper. In front is amsonia gone yellowish and fragrant aster (aster oblongifolius) still in blossom. To the left is a ‘Autum Joy’ sedum with burnt-red seed heads. When summer flowers are a distant memory, this diverse color palette nearly trumps that of mid-July.

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Colorful fall foliage. Naturally, in fall you think of what you can do in order to make next fall more colorful. Here’s a ‘Fineline’ buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula), whose thread-leaf, columnar form turns bright yellow. This buckthorn is noninvasive, creates no fruit and enjoys any clay soil. It reaches 6 to 8 feet tall and approximately 2 feet wide.

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Ninebark ‘Coppertina’ (Physocarpus opulifolius) is bright reddish this season. In spring the leaves come out copper, then scads of sweet-smelling blooms follow, which early butterflies adore. This native shrub gets 6 to 8 feet tall and broad and performs well in just about any clay soil formerly established.

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Order bulbs. You have enjoyed the fall foliage; now it’s time to think spring. You should have already ordered your fall bulbs, such as crocus, so you will be prepared to plant toward the end of the month to early November (once the daylight temperatures get below 50 degrees Fahrenheit).

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Black tulips, such as these ‘Queen of Night’ ones, are some of my favorites.They prefer well-drained soil, with a bone meal for fertilizer placed in the planting hole.

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Mulch paths and some other fresh plants from this summer and fall. Mulching around perennials, trees and shrubs prevents frost heaving — if the brutal freeze-thaw cycle of our winter pushes unrooted plants out of the holes. A few inches of compost will do a world of good.

It’s time to take photos to tide you over for winter, especially as you intend for spring developments and some other renovations. Get outside and picture all elements of the backyard — and from every angle. Feel the pinch of leaves. Watch migrating sandhill cranes and geese. Gather crabapples to give away to trick-or-treaters (along with dental floss, because who desires crabapples for Halloween?) .

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Do not rake leaves; mulch them with a mower. Those finely ground leaves are free fertilizer for lawns. If you’d rather rake, toss the leaves to garden beds more than winter and early spring, then they’ll break down entirely and include rich topsoil. Perhaps you’ll even want to “slip” undesirable bags of them from your neighbors’ driveways.

Do not “clean up” the backyard. Resist the need to tidy your beds — most insects and other animals have snuggled under leaves (lots of butterflies have been in winter cocoons under leaves or on plant stalks).

Cutting down plants additionally prevents chilly snow from collecting and insulating roots from frost heave. If you reduce some hollow-stemmed crops, water may even get in the plant’s heart, freeze there and kill the plant. Let them be — perhaps you’ll have more wildlife and winter interest to get you through the cold snaps. In any case, you are tired anyway, right?

More guides to Central Plains gardening | Locate your U.S. garden checklist

See related