* Beware! Nuts are falling from trees in abundance. You can add your own punch line to that comment. The nuts I’m referring to are walnuts, butternuts, and hickory nuts, and there does seem to be a bumper crop of them this year. Many nut trees can be found alongside rural roads, making the gathering of nuts fairly easy. However, don’t trespass; be a good neighbor and ask permission if treading onto private land.
* Harvest some fruit from ornamental varieties of fruit trees including quince, crabapple, and cherry, and plum. They are not as sweet as their larger fruited relatives, but still make tasty jellies when cooked with added sugar. Be aware that cooking times for these fruit can be quite long. If you decide not to harvest the fruit, they won’t be wasted. Birds, squirrels, and other wildlife will eagerly eat the fruit. Just a word of caution: If you are uncertain of the identity of a tree or shrub, don’t eat the fruit. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
* Sharpen the look of flower and shrub beds by edging the borders. If not edged during the growing season, it is likely that grass and lawn weeds have encroached onto the beds. Use a garden spade, straight edge shovel, or half-moon edger to create a neat edge with a shallow trench at the grass line. Afterwards, apply mulch to the beds. With that shallow trench at the grass line, the mulch is less likely to flow out onto the lawn, as often happens during heavy rainfall.
* Begin raking leaves from lawns. I know there are many more leaves to fall but it doesn’t take long for matted leaves to smother grass, especially on newly seeded lawns. Besides, raking leaves is one of those fun chores. It gives us the opportunity to enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of autumn, chat with neighbors, or just let our minds wander. Some of my friends think that my mind wandered so far a field that it got lost.
* Finish fall planting of trees, shrubs, and perennials this week or next. Looking ahead, it appears that the unusually warm conditions we’ve experienced this month are about to end. With the arrival of more seasonable temperatures, soils will begin to cool. Cool soil slows root growth and makes establishment of transplants more difficult; so complete these tasks ASAP. These plants will need at least four to six weeks to get established. Getting established means getting sufficient root growth to survive the winter. Spreading a layer of mulch on the ground around the plants may help prolong the period for root growth. Don’t place mulch against the stems of plants or over the crowns of herbaceous perennials.
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While most of the attention of leaf peepers is focused on the gold, red and yellow leaves of maple, birch, and ash trees, the colorful foliage of shrubs should not be overlooked. Blueberry, chokeberry, fothergilla, staghorn sumac, arrowwood viburnum, blackhaw viburnum, and Virginia sweetspire are among the best shrubs for fall color.
