It’s late September, and you can feel autumn in the air. While our days are still beautiful and warm, the nights are getting cooler with fewer daylight hours — perfect weather for transplanting or adding new plants to your garden.
Why is this a good time? Cooler air is kinder to plant foliage but soil temperatures are still warm, which creates an excellent environment for new root growth. In the fall, many plants and trees (even broadleaf evergreens) are entering a period of dormancy. With no need to allocate resources into foliage, plants are transferring all their energy into roots and storing nutrients for the cool months ahead. By spring, root systems should be well-established.
So take advantage of fall planting weather. Decide what changes or additions you want to make in your garden.
Perhaps it’s time to remove lawn from banks or slopes where water runs off instead of soaking in. Replant these areas with more drought-tolerant ornamental grasses or perennials. Picture hummingbirds feeding on beautiful variegated autumn sage, their creamy white-and-green leaves topped with brilliant red flowers from summer until frost.
If you have a small lawn on flat land and want to improve water absorption and reduce water waste, rake out the thatch that accumulates at the base. Then aerate your lawn with a hollow-tine aerator or power aerator from a rental yard. After you’ve brought plugs of soil to the surface, rake compost over the holes and water well.
Now is also a good time to plant citrus and avocado. They will fare better during the cold winter months if their roots are established. Remember to give older citrus a good soak every week or so, otherwise the fruit will be dry.
If you’ve always wanted an avocado tree, there are several varieties that do well here. The Bacon avocado is hardy down to 24 degrees Fahrenheit. You can harvest medium-sized fruit from November through March. They even produce at a young age and grow up to 30 feet tall.
Fuerte avocados have excellent flavor. This tree is large and spreading, hardy to 28 degrees, and the fruit ripens from November through June. Zutano is another good variety for this area.
These avocados are self-fertile for the home gardener. You can expect your tree to live for about 25 years, which is a lot of guacamole.
If you receive frost of consecutive nights during the winter, you can easily protect a young avocado or citrus tree by erecting a simple frame of 1-by-1-inch stakes that extends above the height of your tree. Then drape it with a frost blanket or beach blanket on cold night. Don’t use plastic — the cold will go right through it.
Take advantage of this great fall planting weather. And bon appétit!
Jan Nelson, a California certified nursery professional at Plant Works in Ben Lomond, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. E-mail her at
ja******@ao*.com
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