Tips for fall gardening and preparing now for next spring from Breslau garden centre owner Perry Grobe

The leaves are changing colours, there's a coolness in the air and nearly all vegetables have been picked from the garden.

As fall makes its official arrival in the next week, Perry Grobe of Grobe's Nursery and Garden Centre in Breslau offers some tips on fall gardening, particularly because many people took up gardening for the first time this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are things people should do in the fall months to prepare for spring 2021.

Below is a transcript of his interview on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition with host Craig Norris. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Craig Norris: What is the number one question you're getting about fall gardening and prepping for the winter?

Perry Grobe: Actually, the number one is: Can I still plant now? That's the number one question. And the answer is yes, you can, right up until the ground freezes pretty much because what's growing underneath the ground doesn't matter too much as to what's above the ground.

Norris: So what could you plant now?

Grobe: Trees, shrubs, bushes. A lot of folks will be replacing any plants that were damaged by frost or that are now tired with the cold, like your annual plants might be replaced with mums, they may be planting bulbs for next spring. There's lots of things that you can do right now.

Norris: Now, what impact is this cooler weather having on gardening?

Grobe: Well, like this right now, it's certainly going to cause the trees to start showing their colour. People tend to think frost is a bad thing. And yeah, it's bad for tomato plants and zucchini and such like that. But the last couple of years, we haven't had really that much frost in the fall and plants have suffered damage due to winter, not hardening off for winter.

The fact that we're seeing some cold temperatures and frost is actually a good thing. Plants should be shutting down for winter the way they normally would be.

Worst thing you can do right now is try to feed or push plants into growth because you really want them to harden off for winter at this time.

Should it stay or should it go?

Norris: So when it comes to that basil plant or the tomato plant and they're done, should we just leave them where they are?

Grobe: No, normally you would compost them or you would send them to the region for composting. So if they're no longer viable or if they're mush you'll have lots of plants that might be mush once you see frost, you'll see hosta leaves, they'll be mushy. You'll have some of the hydrangea plants will have mushy leaves. All of that sort of thing can be taken off or cut out or dug up and put in the compost.

Norris: What about bringing some stuff inside?

Grobe: Well, your tropical plants, if you had any outside on the deck in the patio, I'm hoping that you might have put them in because right now they'll take some cold temperature, but they don't like it this cold for very long. So it's worthwhile considering bringing them in for the winter.

Norris: You mentioned on the deck or the patio or whatever, like container gardening. Is it OK to leave those in and just redo them next spring or should we remove those, too?

Grobe: Well, I have to say, there's no real reason to look at plants that are all shriveled up and not looking so nice. So, normally they're removed and disposed of or composted as well at this time.

Norris: And there are things, as you said, that we can plant now for spring. Elaborate on that a bit. What are some of the more popular items people can put in the ground now and enjoy next year?

Grobe: We're seeing an awful lot of folks, have to say, that even thinking about what they're going to plant next spring and they're wanting to preorder for next spring, which is not always so easy to take care of at this time.

But in terms of what they can plant, I mean, bulbs each bulb is a flower that is already preprogrammed to come up next spring. So if you're wanting to have something in the garden that's showing in say April, May, that's what you would plant now. You would plant those bulbs now so you'd have it.

Another thing that gets planted about this time as garlic, because as a crop, garlic is an easy plant to grow. And this is the time of year that you would normally take care of doing that.

What's next for garden centres

Norris: While I have you, you and I spoke back in the spring about the challenges that garden centers were facing and continue to face because of the pandemic. How did the summer go for you?

Grobe: We were able to open not long after I had spoken to you. And it was a big relief to everyone in our industry for sure to be able to do that.

For the most part, it's been a very crazy, busy sort of time. Supply chains have been stressed quite a bit and they're getting just as tight for next year or two, it appears.

But overall, we were able to see folks in a manner that was controlled and safe. And I have to say, the people who work here full time year round or blessed that we were able to open and be open.

So right now, what plans are in works to try and see how we're going to have you have everybody here to see us for Christmas, you know, and that's going to take some planning.

Norris: Well, let's talk about that. What do you anticipate the challenges to be as we get into the winter and the holidays?

Grobe: Well, the biggest part is, people were very accommodating standing outside in springtime, even though Mother's Day weekend was much like winter. Our biggest concern is how we handle an influx of folks outside in the winter months, just like some of our friends in the restaurant business are having some concerns about dealing with customer count and customer patronage with winter months. So are we at Christmas.

So right now we're trying to figure out the best manner possible to balance what people expect to have here to what we are able to do here. So that's that's what we're working on.