What To Do In Your Zone 3 October Garden

While the warmer zones are still growing and planting their winter and spring crops, harvesting their fall crops, for most of us zone 3 gardeners, the season is done. 

We had a lovely t-shirt weather day on Friday (20 °C) to help us get the last of our must do gardening tasks done.

We may have a few brassicas hanging around, as they can stand a bit of cold temps and snow. If you grew broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels, and rutabagas, they are still doing fine. I did not grow them this year as it was an odd year for us. Next year! 

Some of you may still have your carrots, parsnips, and beets in the ground, too, getting sweeter with the frosts. 

For all intents and purposes, though, with this last bit of snow and cold temps, our season is done for the year.

• Mowing✔
• Plant garlic✔
• Transplanting peonies and asters ✔
• One last good deep soak for trees ✔
• One last water for perennial gardens ✔
• Cut back peonies ✔
• Left all other flowers and stems standing for the bees and birds ✔
• Emptied composter to use for spring seed starting ✔
• Washed up the last of the pots for next year (I hate leaving them till spring as spring is so busy!) ✔
• Turn on the heat to the lowest setting in the potting shed, for winter (it's not going to warm up by much for the rest of the year) ✔
• Top dress beds with compost  ✔ (ish) 

If you have not yet deep watered, you can still do so. It is not cold enough to freeze your hoses yet. Go for it. Give trees a good 15 minute deep soak at their base. I only do this for newly planted trees (3 years and younger), not well established ones. 

You can also still put the sprinkler on your flower beds, if you had a really dry fall, like we did here. 

• Raking leaves onto garden beds X
• Plant spring bulbs X
• Weeding X
• Edging the beds X

The leaves have not yet fallen from most of our trees. If there is a warm spell after they have fallen, I will rake them on top of my garlic and raspberry beds. 

It will not hurt anything if the leaves stay on the ground all winter. All is fine! 

Leave flower seed heads standing for the birds. Leaves raspberries and hollow stemmed flower stems standing for the solitary bees! Leave the foliage for the ladybugs. In spring, they are super easy to clean up.  

I sharpened up the edges of the beds in spring, but they really need a touch up again. 

I did not get to the weeding or edging this year as I just got my new hip transplant 7 weeks ago. Hubby was really busy with all the fall clean up, so we will just have to leave these two tasks till spring. 

They should be done twice a year, at minimum, as the grass will grow into the beds and soon create a big mess otherwise.  

Most all spring flowering bulbs can be planted as long as you can chip a hole in the ground. I would love to plant some more alliums out front. They make such a great deer-resistant pop of colour in spring... and they last a really, really long time. 

The white stuff is soap bubbles from washing out the bird and bee baths ; ) 

• We top dressed the garlic bed, as garlic is a heavy feeder. with 2 inches of compost. 
• We top dressed the bed that runs along the back fence line as it had not been fed for a few years. We have planted three new trees in that bed, plus flowers in summer, so it was long due. 

• The three big raised beds were filled up with compostable material when we built them, so they sink a bit each year, as everything breaks down (and feeds the soil). 
• We had hoped to top them up with compost this fall, but ran out of time and energy. May do them in spring, but likely will wait till fall as they are still producing really well.

What I still hope to do... sow some carrot and spinach seeds for earlier crops next summer. This is the perfect time to do it. You can also try some beets, onions, dill, and lettuce this way. 

Last but absolutely not least... this is the time to journal your thoughts, while everything is fresh in your mind! What worked, what didn't, what you want to do different. Flowers you loved, did not love, what you want to grow next year. Plan for next year... your big projects, little projects that niggle at you, plants to buy, trees to plant, plants to move in spring.... everything! 

I spend so much time picking out the right journal, each year. I went with this gorgeous desk top journal this year. It is the size of a sheet of paper, has a month at a glance (where I keep track of the daily weather, plus what to plant when), weekly daytimer, a pocket for plant tags, receipts, etc..., and taking notes plus garden planning pages until 2028! I'm also pretty cheap so it has to be at a good price, and this one is.  

White, pink, green foliage, of course... plus a light gold colour? 

Pick your colour scheme in your journal, too. 

Yep, I already have mine picked out. It may change in spring, but the white and blush pink scheme is what is hitting my soul right now. The only thing up in the air is what the third colour will be? Gold? Pink? Purple? Rust is kinda calling my name! 

Last of all, I washed the back windows... yes, again! If you have followed me for any length of time, you know that I do these windows on the regular! I am obsessed. They get so dusty from the road traffic. We have planted some new trees that will evening block some of the noise, dust, and prying eyes, but they will need a few years... so till then, I wash these windows a few times each month! 

I use this SWOPT window cleaner thingie. It is so easy to use, does such a good job, which is why I do them so often, lol. It is no longer on Amazon, or at least not at this time, but this looks like a similar window squeegee  at half the price I paid! and it gets 4.8 stars. If you do your windows obsessively, you need something to make it super easy to do. 

I also bought a brand new machine washable rug for the living room. I love these rugs as the dogs track in so much of that dust and dirt. I simply throw them in the machine. Sometime once a month, sometimes once a week! Check this one out for just $50! 

I switch them out seasonally. Lighter ones in summer and darker, cosier ones in fall/winter. Full disclosure - some have lasted me for many years, despite all the washing I do, but a couple of them have only lasted a year.   

This year, I am going green for Christmas (the colour green!) so I went with a green rug to go with my cosy green velvet curtains. 

If you were to buy something from one of my links, I would make a wee small commission. Thank you so much! 

I have the velvet curtains in blue for the living room, green in the tv/sitting room. Aren't they so cosy! They look amazing in winter, soft and thick and warm, but surprisingly look so good in summer, too! 

Any who... that is what was on my mind on this sunny, cold Saturday morning. 

Happy Weekend ~ Tanja