October
- Keep harvesting, watering if needed and cleaning up
- Collect and destroy fruit drops daily
- Rake up and compost leaves
- Plant, by broadcasting, winter cover crops in any empty space; reduces weeds by outgrowing, reduces soil erosion and compaction, adds organic matter, plant per 100 square feet, 3 lbs Austrian peas, or 3 lbs. Fava beans, or 1 lb. alfalfa, or 1 lb crimson clover, or 1.5 lbs vetch or 2-3 lbs annual winter rye before fall rains start
- Spray cherries, peaches and nectarines for Coryneum blight with copper
- Record harvest dates
- Record frost date
- If you had bad disease problems this year apply another spray of copper with horticulture oil for insects, before heavy autumn rains begin
- After final harvest of ever-bearing raspberries, cut canes to ground
- Train next year's blackberry and spring-bearing raspberries on supports
- Prepare straw bed for peas and early potatoes (i.e., turn soil, cover with straw)
- Apply 3-4 lbs dolomite lime per 100 square feet to lawns and vegetable beds every 3 to 4 years
- Thatch lawns if needed (if you use organic fertilizers you will never need to thatch again)
- Mulch strawberry and blueberry plants
- Protect base (3-4 feet) of Hayward kiwi from early frost (they go dormant from the tip to the base)
- Place mulch of manure or compost on asparagus and rhubarb
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