Oct 2024 Newsletter

Harvest festivals, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, carnivals and costumes are common in our community in October. Wildflowers, humming birds, butterflies, harvest of sweet potatoes and butter beans, and fall planting —the garden is busy too! This is a great time to garden — the weather finally cooling down just enough to comfortably get outside.

We still have active insect pollinators while the weather is warm, but their activity begins to slow down late in the month with cooler weather. The Monarch butterflies begin their long migration to Mexico in the fall. If you are on the bay or the sound, keep a lookout for Monarchs. The monarch populations are far less than we used to see, but they seem to travel along the coastline. Saltbush, (Baccharis halimifolia), one of our most undervalued native shrubs, blooms along the coast this time of year. This native evergreen shrub has “hairy blooms” (small hairs attached to the blooms) so it looks fluffy when in flower. But saltbush is a nectar source for migrating butterflies and other wildlife.

or Ft. Pickens, or anywhere along the inland shorelines, so watch for this amazing collection of nature. When the butterflies “lift off” to continue their travel, it is not in a “flock” — one by one they float into the sky.

The life cycle of a butterfly is brief, and depends on temperature. Monarchs in the last generation of each year can live several months, but most butterflies in warm weather go from egg to adult in five weeks. Adults live only several weeks, so they are intent on mating and reproducing in that stage.

Butterflies have a genetic memory of places where a food source can be found. Monarchs, for example, are seen in the same valley in Mexico year after year, but each year is a new and different generation.  Only the descendants of previous generations make the trip.  At The Garden Gate in 2000, we planted pipevine to screen our greenhouse. That year we had several generations of the beautiful pipevine swallowtails lay eggs on the pipevine. The eggs hatched into caterpillars that fed on the newest pipevine leaves.

The next year, we moved the greenhouse and transplanted the pipevine to the front fence. For the remaining fifteen years that we occupied the space, we had adult pipevine swallowtails fly to the spot where the original vine was planted, taste the plants nearby, and then finally move on to the pipevine up front. That is a lot of butterfly generations!

When the nights begin to cool down, it’s time to plant the winter veggies: greens (spinach, mustard, collards, cabbage, kale, and lettuces), root crops (radishes, carrots, beets), broccoli and brussels sprouts to name a few. Although the weather gets too cool for pollinators to be active, we can still grow the leaf crops and root crops because they do not need pollination through the winter. In Spring when the temperature warms and the pollinators become active, these vegetables will bloom and set seed for next year.

Fall and winter are also a great time to grow tomatoes here — especially the heirloom varieties. Most tomatoes need a nighttime temperature under 70 degrees to set fruit. By late spring and summer, we are usually well into nighttime temps of 70 degrees and above. Tomatoes are self-pollinating, but also tender to freezing temperatures, so you will have to cover them in freezing weather. Freezes are usually brief in our area, so we usually get a fine crop of tomatoes in the cool weather of early Spring.

Other edibles to plant this time of year are fruiting trees and shrubs — figs, blueberries, persimmon, pear and plum to name a few. (It is usually best to plant citrus around February, when we are less likely to get a hard freeze). Some fruit trees require a longer “chill time” than we usually have, and won’t readily set fruit. Apples and peaches are two examples. There are varieties that grow and produce here, but be sure to have that information before you purchase plants.

And our native plants need to be pollinated to produce seed for next year. Nature is perfect for time and place.

The trees that produce fall colors, then drop their leaves are also perfect for their time and place. When traveling north from Pensacola, you will see that we have an abundance of evergreen canopy trees: live oaks, pines, magnolias, cedars, etc. As you approach the Alabama line, you will begin to see more deciduous trees mixing with the evergreens. The further north you travel, the more deciduous trees you will see. Soil temperature is an important part of this process. In Florida, where it is so hot, our evergreen trees keep the soil at the temperature to support the important soil organisms that feed our ecosystem. Further north, the falling leaves not only let in more warming sun, the fallen leaves act as a mulch to regulate the soil temperature. Even further north, a snow pack will insulate the soil from freezing temperatures. Nature is amazing!

This time of year is the best time to plant trees and shrubs. I am so glad that I planted trees my first year in this house!  After living in the Midway area of Gulf Breeze for decades, I moved to Pensacola seven years ago.  The only tree on the property when I moved here was a large grapefruit tree. I planted several more citrus and other fruiting trees and shrubs, but most the front yard is planted with native plants, including trees. In the approximately five to six years they have been planted, the growth has been incredible! The birds that were nonexistent when I moved in are everywhere now — nesting in the wax myrtle and the cedar, feasting on beauty berries and holly berries, taking care of insect pest populations. (I willingly share the blueberries with the birds, but get a little defensive about sharing my tomatoes!)

Since foliage growth for woody plants is triggered by warming weather, trees and shrubs planted in cooler weather have the opportunity to establish their root systems before having to support a spring flush of foliage. Woody plants (trees and shrubs) have root systems with a different structure than herbaceous plants. As well as taking in water and nutrition, the root systems play a major role in stabilizing the canopy. It is said that the root system of a tree is equal to the trunk system, and that the bio-mass underground is equal to the bio-mass above ground. This makes sense if you think about this “stabilizing” in terms of people: without two legs, feet, and most of our toes, it would be like walking around on one tiptoe. (We would be falling over all the time, and it would certainly be harder to get back up!)  So, getting the root system out into the surrounding soil to support the tree is crucial.

Here are some tips for planting trees and shrubs:

• Buy small plants. Larger trees that have been grown in a container have larger root systems, but the roots have been forced to grow in a circular way in the pot. It takes longer for them to get out into the surrounding soil to support the top growth.
• Feed your soil, not your plant. Dig your planting hole about twice as wide as the container that holds the plant, but no deeper. Add organic soil amendments, such as composted cow manure and/or fine pine bark and mix with the existing soil. This starts the composting process that ultimately feeds our woody plants. Beware of adding fertilizers that foster foliage growth, since the root system is not yet established to support it. It might look pretty above ground, but be struggling below ground.
• Plant your tree no deeper than it was in the container.  There is a growth ring at the juncture of the trunk system and the root system that must remain uncovered. If this growth ring is buried, the tree will struggle and may eventually die. Water regularly until your tree is established.
• Let the tree grow at its own speed, without adding fertilization. Allow the root system to establish. One the tree is stabilized, the leaf drop will provide mulch and will fertilize the soil.

We are still in hurricane season for another month. As I write this much of Florida and the Southeast has been devastated by Hurricane Helene. After 2004, the year that produced such devastating hurricanes over the entire state, (including Hurricane Ivan that caused so much destruction in our area) various agencies and scholars researched which trees withstood the winds and which did not. A book called “Stormscaping” by Pamela Crawford compiled this research. Since hurricanes occur in our area, the information is important to consider as we plant or change our landscapes:

1. Growth rate: Faster growing trees have a more open cell structure and are more brittle than slower growing trees. Most of us want to plant fast growing trees after hurricanes, but this is often a poor choice. Dense cell structures (like long leaf pine and live oak) get off to a slower start but are far less likely to be wind damaged.
2. Root structure: Canopy trees that have both wide lateral roots and long tap roots are strongly anchored in the ground. Live oaks and long leaf pines both have dense cell structure and root systems that stabilize and support the top growth.
3. Layered planting: Nature grows in layers, and there are reasons for that. The conclusion in “Stormscaping” was that trees with shrubs and herbaceous plants underplanted were held in place with the intertwined root systems of the other plants. More trees survived hurricanes in layered plantings than those planted alone, and the layered planting also protected houses and nearby structures as a wind-break.

Invite the birds! The hummers are passing through our part of the world right now, and they are so amazing, and so much fun to watch. Hummers will use most any blooming plant, but they are always attracted to red and orange. Plants to add to your garden for fall hummers include: fire spike (Odontenma cuspidatum), wax mallow (Malvaviscus drummondi), lion’s ear (Leonotis leonurus), red sage (Salvia coccinea). Other birds will be migrating throughout our area this season — some passing through heading for warmer weather where insects are active. Some will stay in our area for the winter, feeding on our seeds.

Happy Halloween!