The Hort Report: Time to plant garlic, plant bulbs now and what to do with leaves on your lawn

The fall weather is here, and we are dealing with it in many ways. Hopefully, you got much-needed rain. With the cooler temperatures, you know it is fall. 

I have noticed that people, when they mow, are mowing dirt, weeds and not much else. I have talked about mowing based on the height of the grass, not by the date on the calendar, but some people don’t understand. When mowing grass. you are asking the grass to start growing new grass blades. 

At this time of year, you want grass to grow deeper roots and store energy to help survive a hard winter. If you have cracks in the yard soil and your grass roots are small and not very deep, grass might freeze out or not come back in the spring very thick. Let your grass get several inches tall going into winter.

Now is a good time to plan for planting garlic. Garlic should be planted 4-6 weeks before the soil freezes hard. Garlic grows best in fertile, sunny, good-draining soil. Don’t follow garlic after onions. 

Plant garlic cloves in rows about six inches apart with the roots pointed down, about one inch deep. Cover the row with four inches of mulch, like straw or dried chopped leaves, to protect the garlic cloves from the cold, prevent weeds from growing and conserve moisture. Water the rows about every two weeks if you aren’t getting rain. 

You should plant spring flowering bulbs now in warm soil where the bulbs will start to grow a good root system to survive winter. The soil should be well-drained rich in organic matter in a sunny spot. Don’t plant in shady or wet areas. 

When planting bulbs, plant them in groups of six or more to create a better outdoor display to enjoy in the spring. 

Prepare the soil by digging the holes, mixing in organic matter into each hole. This will help create a well-drained soil. Each hole will be a different depth due to the type of bulb being planted. Plant the bulbs with roots down.

Water in the bulbs after you cover them with soil. You may need to water several times the first few days after planting. The water will help speed up the rooting process, helping the bulbs get a good root system started before winter. Well-watered soil will help keep the soil from a hard freeze. 

Planting spring flowering bulbs also will help early spring pollinators. They are usually some of the first to produce flowers in the early spring, along with weeds and grasses that flower in early spring, too. 

Some of you will be cleaning up your gardens in the coming weeks. What you do now will affect how your garden does next spring.

Once vegetables are done producing, clean the garden for this year. Mostly you want to be getting all diseased and insect-killed plants out of the garden. Burn them, killing both diseases and insects in all stages of life. 

Leaves are falling, and you must decide what to do with them. We use most of them as compost and mulch on top of the perennial flowerbeds once we get them cut-backed. Save the seed from the flowers to be used sow in flowerbeds this fall or next spring. 

To get the leaves ready to use as mulch or compost, we let them fall and chop them up as we mow the yard, then rake them up after the last time we mow. I will talk more about fall cleanup in another Hort Report. 

Thanks for all your questions in the past. I appreciate them and look forward to them in the future. Contact me at 573-588-2040 at Shelby County Implement in Shelbina, Mo., email me at sci63468@hotmail.com or find us on Facebook at  Greenwell’s Greenhouse Group. I enjoy visiting with people, so ask me any time you see me.

Enjoy the great fall weather.