Want a great yard in 2023, North Texas? Now is the time to make some critical decisions

It’s felt more like late summer lately, but hear this: There have been several Octobers in recent years when our first killing freeze came around one week after you’ll be reading this! Things can change in a hurry here in North Texas.

That means there are some critical decisions that confront you about now. It’s time to make choices that will impact your successes and failures for Gardening Season 2023. You probably have your own list, but I’ll jot down some that come first to my mind.

▪ Which trees need to be pruned and which need to be removed entirely? Before your trees lose any more leaves take a serious assessment of their vigor. Dead limbs should be removed very soon. If they were killed by the cold of February 2021, for example, they’re ready to break and fall. They can do major damage to the rest of the tree, to the landscape and to structures (and people) beneath them. Have a certified arborist do this limb removal for you.

▪ What parts of your landscape functioned the way that you wanted, and what needs to be upgraded? Fall is a great time to assess things. They’re fresh in your memory. It’s also a fine time to work with a landscape designer to get your new planting plans underway. That way you’ll be ready come early spring.

▪ Have you run an audit of your sprinkler system lately? Is it functioning properly? You’ll need to run the sprinklers several times over the winter, especially if extreme cold is forecast. It’s a lot more pleasant to repair leaks now than it will be two days before a norther blows in.

▪ Do you have bare spots in your turf after a couple of hard winters and a brutal summer and early fall? You can still plant ryegrass for temporary cover over the winter and early spring. That will bridge you through until you can plant your permanent lawngrass in April. If you have pets and/or children, it can spare you a lot of mud-tracking over the winter (following hoped-for rains).

▪ Do you have a new house and bare ground? Those ryegrass comments play double here. It’s way too late to seed bermudagrass, and it’s too late for St. Augustine sod. You could probably get bermuda sod to survive, but that depends on how cold things get this winter. Seeding ryegrass is still your most dependable way of dealing with things until spring.

▪ Are you planning to grow more of your own groceries next spring to cut down on food bills? It’s a very good plan, but it does require thinking ahead — and that time is right now. If you’ll be gardening in ground that currently has turfgrass, use an appropriate weedkiller to eliminate the bermudagrass or other turf now. You must apply it while the grass is green and growing actively (assuming it’s not dried up and brown from the drought).

Use a glyphosate-only herbicide (no other active ingredient). Spray it on the specific area where you’ll be working the soil. Give it 2-3 weeks to kill the existing grass. Rototill to a depth of 8-12 inches and start incorporating shredded tree leaves, compost and other organic matter this fall to let it decay over the winter. More details on that in another column when we get nearer to the gardening start dates in January.

▪ Have you decided on spring color plantings? It’s time to plan for pansies, pinks and other cool-season annuals. They can be planted now. You’ll get color this fall, good color over the winter and outstanding color in early spring.

And it’s time to buy spring-flowering bulbs. Smaller-flowering and earlier daffodils, narcissus and jonquils will have the best chances of establishing and coming back to bloom year after year. The best of those include Ice Follies and Carlton, two of the most popular daffodils worldwide for that exact reason. Avoid large, late-flowering types like King Alfred, Mount Hood and Unsurpassable. They’ll be beautiful for one year, but they won’t bloom thereafter.

Tulips are almost always best treated as annuals, dug and discarded after their bloom. Our winters aren’t cold enough for them to perennialize (except for a few species types). The same applies to Dutch hyacinths. Both types of these bulbs do best when given at least 45 days at 45 degrees in the refrigerator. This “pre-chilling” fools them into thinking they’ve had a real winter so they can bloom properly. Plant them the last two weeks of December.

▪ Which tender plants will you save? If you have coleus, begonias, tropicals, succulents or other frost-tender annuals that you’d like to propagate for next year, you need to take cuttings now. Do a little online research first to get the fine tunings of how each should be started and be sure you have an appropriate place to keep them as they’re developing their roots. These cuttings should be taken before it gets any colder.

▪ Buy frost cloth to cover tender plants. Have it on hand for the night of the first freeze. Keep it available for when temperatures fall to record lows. You’ll gain 7 or 8 degrees’ difference in winter survival by covering your plants with it. Nurseries, hardware stores and feed stores sell it. Some even have it in extra-wide sizes, or you can buy it online. It is incredibly helpful, but it can be hard to find at the last minute. Buy it ahead.

You can hear Neil Sperry on KLIF 570 AM on Saturday afternoons 1-3 p.m. and on WBAP 820 AM Sunday mornings 8-10 a.m. Join him at www.neilsperry.com and follow him on Facebook.

This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 5:30 AM.