October To-Do List for Gardeners by Zone

If you're not sure what you should be doing in your garden during the month of October, here is a great resource list for garden chores broken down by zone, from zone 3 to zone 10. Find your zone and make sure you are on top of your garden tending to prepare it for the coming colder months.

Zone 3

• After a light frost, begin harvesting sweetened turnips, parsnips, and other late veggies left in the ground.
• Collect and store flower bulbs—such as gladiola, freesia, calla, and cannas—after their tops have frozen.
• Water trees, shrubs, perennials, roses, and lawns before the ground freezes hard.
• Cut back tender roses to 10 to 12 inches, and remove all foliage so insects and diseases can't winter over.
• Cover tender, hybrid roses with leaves or straw to protect against winter temperature changes.
• Harvest late apples before the end of the month.
• Clean up garden debris before the first snowfall.

Zone 4

• Harvest or heavily mulch the last carrots, beets, and other root crops; store them in a cool place that won't freeze.
• Plant garlic and shallots.
• Sow a cover crop of winter rye in vacant beds.
• Plant spring-blooming bulbs.
• Remember that it's still time to plant potted trees and shrubs.
• Dig up and store gladiolius and other tender corms and tubers.
• Cover tender roses and grapes.

Zone 5

• Thin out one-third of the oldest branches of forsythia, lilac, spirea, and potentilla for better bloom and shape next spring.
• Dig up tender tubers and corms of dahlias, cannas, caladium, and gladiolius.
• Don't cut back ornamental grasses, sunflowers, and wildflowers—leave them for winter interest and for wildlife.
• Collect leaves to shred (with a shredder or mower) and compost.
• Clean up all fallen fruits to reduce disease and pest problems.
• Work well-rotted manure or compost into asparagus beds.
• Dig up geraniums, and bring them indoors for the winter.
• Pot up some paperwhite bulbs for holiday forcing.

Zone 6

• Squeeze in a few last sowings of spinach and other cold-hardy greens, beneath row covers or coldframes.
• Have frost protectors handy to extend the harvest of tender veggies.
• Begin cleaning up the garden.
• Compost all spent plants, shredded leaves, and the last grass clippings.
• Continue planting spring-blooming bulbs, trees, and shrubs.

Zone 7

• Bring zonal geraniums and vacationing houseplants indoors before the first frost.
• Thin the radishes, carrots, and turnips you sowed last month; then sprinkle the bed with 1 inch of compost.
• Dig up sweet potatoes before winter rains cause them to split and rot.
• Set out garlic cloves and continue to plant onions.
• Sow late spinach to overwinter; it will resume growing in spring.
• Clean up the blueberry patch: Prune broken or diseased limbs, and thicken the mulch with a layer of pine needles or shredded oak leaves.

Zone 8

• Plant more lettuce, Chinese cabbage, spinach, carrots, beets, peas, radishes, onions, turnips, garlic, shallots, and cress.
• Set out strawberry plants.
• Sow a cover crop of winter rye (Secale cereale), purple vetch (Vicia benghalensis), Austrian winter peas (Pisum arvense), or ‘Elbon' rye (Secale cereale ‘Elbon') in vacant beds.
• Use rye clippings to add nitrogen to compost, speeding the breakdown of fall leaves.
• In flowerbeds, plant anemones, oxalis, and ranunculus for spring bloom.
• Also, seed annual candytuft (Iberis umbellata) in bare spots of flowerbeds for spring bloom.
• Broadcast wildflower seeds to establish a meadow.
• Plant trees and shrubs: Warm fall temps will help them get established before winter.

Zone 9

• For spring bloom, broadcast wildflower seeds over soil that has been lightly cultivated.
• Plant fast-growing, frost-resistant veggies: radishes, mustard, spinach, ‘Tokyo Market' turnips, and corn salad.
• Divide and transplant bearded irises, daylilies, phlox, cannas, and Shasta daisies.
• Harvest sweet potatoes after tops wither, but before the first hard frost.
• Harvest winter squash, pumpkins, and peanuts before frost.
• Clean up fallen fruit in the orchard.
• Build a hot compost pile to kill pathogens lurking in garden debris: Use a high-nitrogen material, such as grass clippings or seafood shells.

Zone 10

• Set out transplants of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.
• Mulch and water well—dry spells this month can last a week or longer.
• Finish pruning fruit trees so new sprouts can harden before cold arrives.
• Plant colorful bloomers, such as sweet alyssum, begonias, petunias, and pansies.
• Prepare beds for planting roses; plant them late this month.
• Fertilize plants that flower in winter.
• Plant strawberries and brassicas (except brussels sprouts—it's too warm) early in the month.
• In midmonth, direct seed root crops and beans.

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Check the Zone Map for your area.