GARDENING CALENDAR

LYNN RAWE, COUNTY EXTENSION AGENT – HORTICULTURE

TEXAS COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

October 22, 2005

• If twig girdlers have worked over your trees so that many twigs and branches are dropping, make sure these are collected and destroyed, as the eggs are deposited in that portion of the branch that drops to the ground.
• There is still time to divide and re-set such perennials as phlox, violets, hollyhocks, irises, day lilies and Shasta daisies.
• October is a good time to reduce the insect and disease potential in next year’s garden. Clean up the garden, removing all annuals that have completed their life cycle. Remove the tops of all herbaceous perennials that have finished flowering or as soon as frost has killed the leaves.
• Holly plants with a heavy set of fruit often suffer a fertilizer deficiency. An application of complete fertilizer late this month can be helpful and provide a head start next spring.