Time for Pumpkins and Fall Plantin’

Seems like lately we’ve only got pumpkins on the brain. Whether it’s bringing in fancy pumpkins and gourds, setting up our fall displays with pumpkins, setting up our fall décor, intense planning for Pumpkin Festival or just making sure we have a great supply of carving pumpkins in stock – it’s all things pumpkin all the time! But of course, it’s one of our favourite times of the year – our 16^th annual Pumpkin Fest is just over a week away! Eddie the Pumpkin Guy is carefully tending to his giant pumpkins that are the core of our fun Family event at Blue Grass! We can’t wait to see how big the pumpkins are this year!

Moving on to your gardens and to what else is growing on at the shop. We sent September out in a flurry of snow and although it seems that this garden season is now over, have no fear there is still time to get a few more things done. While the snow is taking its sweet time melting away, consider that it is slowly leaching deep moisture into your garden beds helping your tree, shrub and perennials roots to get ready for winter. The soil in your gardens has been insulated by the snow and will still be workable once it dries up, leaving plenty of opportunity to plant more bulbs, perennials, shrubs and trees. We’ve still got a great selection of all sorts of plants available at Blue Grass and most of it is on sale!

Fall planting of trees, shrubs and perennials has many advantages, including going farther with your plant budget as many go on sale as the garden season nears a close. It is less stressful when planting new plants in the fall, as the temperature cools and the day length decreases; less energy is used to produce leaves and flowers, thus allowing it to be directed to more root growth for better winter survival. While cooler temperatures give our garden plants a bit of a break in their growing prowess, it also slows down the pest and diseases that may have been inflicting their pain on them, another bonus. Ensure that existing trees and shrubs are watered in well, keeping the soil moist up until freezing. New trees and shrubs should be watered in deep and once a week to encourage deep root growth for establishment prior to freezing. Mulching will help retain moisture and keep soil at more even temperatures from fall to spring.

Garden clean up can continue as well. Harvest the rest of your root crops, clean out your containers and update them with fall or winter displays, cut back perennials, mow your lawns and clean up the leaves. All the garden debris resulting from fall planting activities is a great additional to the compost pile, make sure to add it to your own or fill up your green bins to help benefit the municipal pile. Enjoy what’s left of the season, we’re hoping for more sunshine and nicer fall weather, especially on October 12^th!

See ya’all at Pumpkin Fest!