Garden Detective: finishing fall chores

Annuals are fading, late-summer perennials are on autopilot and leaves soon will be changing colors. The garden is going to sleep, so there's nothing left to do but kick back with some cool cider and enjoy the view, right?

Not so fast.

There's a lot of work to be done now to keep plants and soil healthy and ensure that, come spring, you won't be buried in cleanup work or under a pile of crowded, overgrown perennials. Stay on top of your autumn chores and you might even get to enjoy that drink come April.

I'll start by letting you off the hook with a couple of don'ts: You don't have to fertilize and you don't have to prune, so scratch those off your list. Pruning is for February and March, with an exception for spring-bloomers -- wait to cut them until just after the show has ended. And fertilizing anything now (including grass) will stimulate growth that won't have time to harden up before frost, leading to winter injury and a loss of energy that shouldn't be spent on growth right now.

What's more, much of that expensive fertilizer won't get absorbed by plants anyway, and instead will leach into groundwater, where it will pollute the water table.

Here's what does need to be done, broken up into three manageable groupings of just five chores each. Tackle one at a time and you'll really enjoy the beauty of your autumn garden.

Some plants, like Echinacea (purple coneflower), have seed heads that can feed birds over the winter, when other food sources are scarce. Those heads also catch the falling snow, adding an ornamental element even in the dead of winter. Others, like butterfly bush, bishop's hat, fern, lavender, Lenten rose, chrysanthemum and ornamental grasses should always be left in place until spring. In fact, cutting a butterfly bush nearly to the ground, which should be done each year, could prove fatal to the plant if undertaken in autumn.

Still, there are plants that should be cut back in fall. Any that have been affected by mildew or disease over the past season should be removed and the surrounding area cleared of debris, with all plant matter discarded in the trash. Low-lying plants with large leaves, like hosta, should be cleared away, too, before frost turns leaves yellow and mushy, making cleanup more difficult. Those leaves also would provide shelter and a nice breeding ground for unwanted insects and rodents over the winter.

Most trees can be planted in fall, too, except for red maple, hickory, crape myrtle, dogwood, tulip poplar, magnolia, callery pear, oak and silver linden; for best results, hold off until spring for those. At the nursery, look for potted trees whenever you can; those that are balled-and-burlapped (B&B) were dug up from the ground and may have suffered root damage in the process. Dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball and exactly as deep, and mix one-third compost to two-thirds of the soil removed from the hole. Backfill, tamp tightly and water well. Shrubs should get the same treatment.

As a general rule, bulbs should be planted pointy end up, 2 1/2 times deeper than their diameter, so a bulb with a 1-inch diameter, for example, should be planted 2 1/2 inches deep. From a design standpoint, avoid planting in straight rows, opting instead for drifts. It's easiest to plant entire beds all at once because you can dig up the whole area, lay the bulbs in place, and cover it all up fairly quickly. Adding bulbs to existing beds will require one-by-one planting using a dibble, spade or auger.

Sow seeds of spinach directly into the ground. They'll start growing in early spring, before your neighbors even plant theirs.

When selecting grass seed, look for disease-resistant, drought-tolerant varieties. For light shade conditions a 100 percent fine fescue blend sown at a rate of 4 to 5 pounds per 1,000 square feet is best; for a low-maintenance lawn in a sunny area, consider a 100 percent tall fescue blend sown at a rate of 7 to 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

Lightly rototill the soil and incorporate compost before seeding and then immediately give the area a good, deep soaking. After the initial watering, provide a light sprinkle once or twice a day to keep the soil from drying out until grass fills in.

To fill in bare patches, simply seed spots once a week and water lightly every day until new growth fills in. Hold off on mowing until new growth is 3 to 4 inches high.

Never fertilize newly planted grass, but apply an organic slow-release nitrogen fertilizer to existing turf as soon as possible this month. Core aerate the lawn to break up compaction and allow oxygen to reach down to roots.