Los Gatos Weekly-Times Gardens may rest in fall, but gardeners keep busy By Tony Tomeo For gardeners, mid-September was already the begining of autumn. As with any change of season, our whole gardening strategy must change to keep up with the needs of our landscapes and gardens. This is the time of year when we clean up after summer and get ready for winter. Autumn is also the time for planting evergreen trees, shrubs, vines or perennials that are cold-hearty. The next few months of cooler, wetter weather will give these plants an opportunity to get established, so they'll be ready to flourish in the spring. Spring bulbs should also be planted as soon as they become available. Dutch iris, freesias, daffodils, grape hyacinth, crocus and watsonias are some of the bulbs that have been in nurseries since late September. Cool-season vegetables planted in October include broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, chard, beets, carrots, radishes, celery, parsley, garlic, onions, leeks, chives and peas. All vegetables requiring the whole plant to be removed at harvest--cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and beets--should be planted in small groups repeatedly every two weeks until December. That way you'll get a usable amount of each at various times through the season, instead of being overwhelmed one week but not having enough the next. Divide perennials such agapanthus, bergenia, heuchera, Shasta daisy, bearded iris, African iris, yarrow and daylily in the fall, but wait to be certain that the warm weather is over. Division is done in the fall, because the plants are not as active as they were earlier in the year, and they have time to establish their root system prior to the spring rush. For the same reasons, tip cuttings, another form of propagation, can be taken from ivy, marguerite daisy, fuchsias, geraniums and pelargoniums (more about tip cuttings in the next column). Don't fertilize anything indicating dormancy. Only newly planted perennials and annuals, including vegetables, need feeding at planting, and then regularly every month. Hold off until spring for all other fertilization. Clean-up is very important in autumn. Young weeds grow up very fast and need to be kept in check; get them out before they seed. Remember not to use weeds for compost because the seed will germinate. Camellia blossoms should also be disposed of because they contain camellia blight spores. Likewise, rotting stone fruits, such as peaches, apricots and nectarines not properly disposed of, encourage brown rot. Most other vegetative matter can be mulched as it is collected through the season. Raking up leaves and plant debris will help minimize problems with snails, slugs and other pests which flourish in such material. Tree of the Week: Sugar Maple Sugar maple, Acer saccharum, is a great tree for fall color, but due to limited exposure, it's not widely planted in this area. It seems that people who know maples from colder climates are not aware that they will also grow here. When someone who is not familiar with maples wants a colorful autumn tree, the most obvious choices are those commonly seen in our area--the sweetgum, which was very popular in the 1960s, and the Chinese pistache, which has been very popular since the mid 1970s. While the sugar maple is by no means a suitable replacement for these trees, all three have their uses. The tall pyramidal form of the sweetgum makes it the most elegant, while the Chinese pistache is much more tolerant to adverse growing conditions. The sugar maple, however, is the cleanest of the three, with small flat fruiting structures called samaras, which are usually not seen until the tree is quite mature. In their native New England, they may get quite tall; but here, if not competing with other trees, they are almost always under 50 feet tall. From my childhood, I remember several growing in a park in west San Jose. These particular trees were planted in about 1960 and by 1976 were well-formed trees about 20 feet tall. They grew well to a good size but are now content staying about 30 feet tall. I have also seen sugar maples growing with other taller trees on a lawn of a home in Mountain View, where they were compelled by lack of sunlight to reach about 60 feet with a pleasantly open structure. They are sturdy trees with good form when defoliated in winter. The trees are certainly not drought-tolerant but are happy with average landscape irrigation and fertilization. The five-lobe leaves are seen on the Canadian flag. I have always recommended the ungrafted trees grown from seed. Unless you require a particular quality found in one of the cultivars, these are the best-structured trees; and because of genetic instability in the cultivars, the fall colors are unpredictable. This is the season that sugar maples put on their show, but they should be planted in winter. Sugar maples are stocked by some of the better nurseries in our area during bare-root season, but it is best to call ahead. Lack of demand limits their availability. They are commonly available through mail order catalogue. Sometimes they can also be found in containers left over from last year's bare-root stock. Watch for them this winter. Columnist Tony Tomeo can be reached at 354-2574. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 21, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.