Keven Pauling
Finally, it’s fall in the desert. For the most part, the triple digit days have left for the year and working in the garden becomes fun again!
Pruning
If you do it now, your plants will grow during the cooler fall weather and look beautiful throughout most of the winter. Prune off all the summer burn without worrying about further damage like you would in the summer. Clean dead branches out of trees and shrubs and trim unwanted sprouts from the interior of your citrus trees. This will make it easier to harvest fruit.
Planting
With the exception of palms, October is the best month for planting trees and shrubs. Water newly planted shrubs and trees once per week and then cut back watering of all trees and shrubs by about one-third as weather cools, but continue to water deeply. Don’t over water or fungus will grow. For example, if you’re watering your citrus every week, stretch this out to every two weeks. This is also the season for planting flowers and local nurseries will have plenty. Dianthus, geraniums and petunias bloom continuously. Lobelia (bright blue) and alyssum borders are popular. Wait to plant bulbs until the first of November.
Fertilize everything. Feed citrus with a fertilizer made especially for citrus trees (although they will respond to a general purpose fertilizer); everything else can be fed with an all-purpose fertilizer according to the package directions. I’m partial to Arizona’s Best from Lowe’s, but most any all-purpose fertilizer will work. Read the directions and follow them closely. It is most important that you water the fertilizer in after it is applied. Tropical plants such as pygmy palms, hibiscus and gardenias benefit from fish emulsion, which is an organic fertilizer packed full of the stuff they crave. I use Miracle-Gro® every two weeks on flowers and pots.
Adjust watering
When the weather breaks and it begins to cool off at night, be sure to adjust your landscape timer so you don’t over water. We have many how-to videos on our website, YouTube (KEVENSLANDSCAPE) and Facebook that they are free to everyone.