JoAnne Skelly: So much to do in fall

I was thinking that autumn was supposed to be a slower time of year for landscape and gardening chores. I have so many tasks lined up, I don’t know where to begin – fertilize the lawns, shut down the garden, finish picking apples, prune trees, decide whether to deadhead perennials or not, shut down the irrigation system, and winterize the tools and machines.

Although the list seems fairly small, each task has multiple levels of required actions before completion. To fertilize the lawns, first I have to pick up all the fallen branches, branchlets and apples the recent windstorm knocked down. Then, my husband will vacuum all the leaves with our riding vacuum mower. I have to buy enough 16-16-16 fertilizer for all the lawns and find a calm day to apply it. Finally, I will water in all the fertilizer.

After 28 degrees two nights in a row, the vegetable plants are definitely done. I will take off all the screening, fold or roll it up and put it away in the garage for next year. After emptying the ceramic pots of soil, they too go into the garage. I probably should clean the garage first to fit everything in. And finally, all that dead plant material has to be cut down to fit in the trash.

We donated over 400 pounds of apples to The Greenhouse Project with another 50 pounds to 100 pounds left to be picked. Even the ground squirrels can’t keep up with the fruit volume this year. Good sanitation, making sure all the apples are off the tree and the ground, will reduce the potential for codling moths overwintering and causing wormy apples next year.

I have made an appointment to have the trees pruned, so that’s one less task for us. I can’t make up my mind about deadheading the flowers. If I remove the seed heads and spent flowers, it will look neater. On the other hand, the seed heads and stalks not only feed the birds, but also catch the snow into the plant for added moisture retention during the winter.

With the warm weather forecast for the next 10 days, it’s too soon to winterize irrigation systems. Tool and machine winterization can wait for the cold weather too.

Even when John and I get all these chores done, the real work hasn’t even begun. There will weeks of raking leaves and removing a hundred piles. So silly of me to think chores would be less. There is still so much to do!

JoAnne Skelly is Associate Professor & Extension Educator Emerita at University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Email skellyj@unr.edu.