What To Do In My Garden In October

October rolls around and pumpkin-spiced everything enters, from lattes to soups to candles. It's also the time when visions of hunkering down, cozying up, and preparing for the upcoming holidays happen. Outside, cooler temperatures marry with crisp air, clear blue skies, and warming wood-burning fireplaces. The landscape beautifully floods with autumnal colors and changes like a watercolor painting right before our eyes. The garden, thankfully, is still alive and awake even though it's slowing down too—and that's good news because fall is the new spring for planting in your garden.

1. Plant now. (Don't wait for spring.)

Echinacea pallida, native to North America, is a great flower to plant now for blooms all summer long. Photograph courtesy of Thomas Lynch Design, from Gardening \10\1: Coneflower. — Above: *Echinacea pallida*, native to North America, is a great flower to plant now for blooms all summer long. Photograph courtesy of Thomas Lynch Design, from Gardening 101: Coneflower.

Most plants in the fall start to put their resources toward new root growth before they go dormant and they can do this because they're not battling drought and heat. And so it makes perfect sense to plant now because your new plants get a head start, and by this I mean they get two seasons of mild temperatures (fall and upcoming spring) before they need to contend with summer's warm temperatures. Plus, upcoming winter rains will help the new plant develop a robust root system, protect it against diseases and drought stress, and make it more resistant to grueling harsh winter winds and temperatures.

And here's another upside: If you get your major planting done now, you've simplified your future chores and can focus on pruning, weeding, and planting a few annuals to refresh containers and flower beds come spring. So plan to get your trees, hedges, hardy perennials, ground covers, and, especially, natives in the ground now.

2. Stock up on fall offerings.

An autumn palette at Terrain&#8\2\17;s new outpost in Devon, PA. Photograph courtesy of Terrain, from Philadelphia Story: Terrain&#8\2\17;s New Shop on the Main Line. — Above: An autumn palette at Terrain's new outpost in Devon, PA. Photograph courtesy of Terrain, from Philadelphia Story: Terrain's New Shop on the Main Line.

Visit any local nursery now and you'll be offered a large assortment of autumn offerings, from cool season veggies, to annuals, to decorations for a festive holiday. Look out for violas, mums, Icelandic poppies, cyclamen, pansies, snapdragons, ornamental kale and, of course, stock.

3. Dig up and relocate plants.

Above: See Secrets of an English Head Gardener: How to Transplant Shrubs and Perennials. Photograph via Impact Plants.

October is perfect for digging up and relocating any plants that have been visually bugging you all summer, because your moved plants will luckily experience less transplant shock. Also get ready to move your tender plants into your greenhouse to be protected from any damaging early frosts, and move citrus trees indoors to a frost-free and bright spot. Tip: reduce water to your citrus trees but don't neglect them completely.

4. Fine-tune the color of hydrangeas.

Above: Photograph by Kendra Wilson, from Hydrangeas: How To Change Color from Pink to Blue.

Now is the time to treat your hydrangeas with a soil acidifier to ensure that the blue ones stay blue. And for those pinkies? Feed them with agricultural lime instead to help them stay in the pink.