Gardening This Weekend: October 29, 2026
Here’s my start of a list. Add in your own things and let’s compare notes.
PLANT
• Trees and shrubs. Fall is the best time for planting.
• Daffodils, grape hyacinths and summer snowflakes for spring bulb color. Put tulips and Dutch hyacinths in refrigerator from now until last two weeks of December to pre-chill them before planting them out into the ground. That “pre-chilling” is critical if you want them to bloom at normal height and time here in Texas
• Pansies, violas, pinks, ornamental cabbage and kale and in South Texas, snapdragons, sweet alyssum, petunias and other cold-hardy annual color for the winter. This may mean removing your warm-season annuals while they’re still looking good but do it. The cool-season bloomers need time to get their roots growing.
PRUNE
• Mow lawn to keep grass tidy, to keep cool-season weeds in check, and to pick up early leaves as they fall.
• Do minor shaping of shrubs and vines but save major pruning for late winter. Spring-flowering types should not be pruned until after they bloom.
• Remove spent flower stalks, dead foliage from perennials. Put remnants of old annuals into compost as they finish their season.
• Dead and damaged limbs from trees while they’re still easy to distinguish from healthy growth. Do not work above your head, and do not climb into trees with dead branches. Let a certified arborist do that work for you.
FERTILIZE
• Ryegrass and fescue turf with high- or all-nitrogen lawn food as they gear up to grow in the cooler weather.
• Pansies and other cool-season color with water-soluble, high-nitrogen fertilizer weekly until winter.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Brown patch (“large patch”) in St. Augustine. See Texas Garden Tip in last week’s e-gardens.
• Insects that are harboring in patio pots you plan on bringing indoors for the winter. Deal with them while the plants are still outside. Chief among them: pillbugs, crickets, and roaches, but plant pests such as scales, whiteflies and mealybugs are also possible hitchhikers.
• As you move bags of potting soil, lumber and firewood, stacks of pots, and other things that have been accumulating over the summer, as well as piles of leaves, watch out for snakes that may be looking for protection and warmth.