Gardening This Weekend: October 2, 2025
Mornings are great for gardening across most of the state this time of the year. Here are the most timely tips for this weekend.
PLANT
• Wait to plant pansies until daytime temperatures are consistently in the 70s or low 80s (or cooler). Planting when it’s still hot encourages them to “stretch,” and they do not recover.
• Dig and divide spring-flowering perennials such as iris, daylilies, oxalis, pinks, thrift and Louisiana phlox, Shasta daisies, coneflowers and others.
• Daffodils and grape hyacinths as you buy the bulbs. They do not require pre-cooling in the refrigerator. Buy top quality bulbs and avoid the large, late-flowering hybrids like King Alfred, Mount Hood, and Unsurpassable. They almost never come back to bloom a second year. Varieties like Carlton, Ice Follies, and Cheerfulness are the best repeaters.
• Tulips and Dutch hyacinths require prechilling (minimum of 45 days in the fridge at 45F.). Buy them now, but plant them Dec. 15-30.
• Nursery stock now. Fall plantings are better established by late spring, better able to withstand heat and dry weather of next summer. Wait, however, to plant types known to be winter tender in your area. Spring plantings are better for them.
• Ryegrass now, either to cover bare ground or to overseed dormant warm-season grass in parts of state where your lawn goes brown.
PRUNE
• Dead and drying stubble from perennial gardens to keep things tidy.
• Remove erratic shoots from shrubs but save major reshaping for late winter.
• Dead and damaged branches from shade trees while you can easily distinguish them from healthy ones.
FERTILIZE
• Lawns, shrubs, groundcovers with all-nitrogen (if native soils are clay) or high-nitrogen (for sandy soils) lawn fertilizer for last feeding of the year. 30 to 40 percent of that N should be in slow-release form. Water thoroughly after feeding.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• If you’re seeing damage to tree and shrub leaves, and if the plants are deciduous, there is little reason to spray for any pests that may still be feeding actively. It’s too late in the growing season to be of much benefit.
• Watch patio pots, hanging baskets for insects, diseases. Deal with them outdoors, so you won’t be bringing them inside over the winter.
• Except for lack of rain, conditions right now are perfect for brown patch development in St. Augustine turf. Grass will quickly turn yellow in 18- to 24-inch circles. Blades will pull loose easily from runners. Apply labeled fungicide and do not water in the evenings.