It's hard to believe it's October and time to put my garden to sleep for the winter. Fall clean-up has been a bit challenging this year. We've had many days of rain, and my days off from work have not always coincided with the nice weather. I finally had some great gardening days last week, despite the fact that I had to wear my winter coat.

Here are a few of my routine fall garden tasks:

• Remove any annuals that I don't want to re-seed. As you can see from the first photo, I removed dozens of marigolds. Not to worry, I still have dozens more blooming that keep my yard looking very autumn-ish. And yes, it's hard for me to pull these pretty annuals out of the ground, but it has to be done. There's only so much re-seeding I want to deal with next year.
• Transplanting - As all of you gardeners know, gardening is a trial and error experience, and I excel at trial and error. Consequently, there's always an ongoing transplant list waiting for me.
  
• Replace/re-do any rock borders that have cracked or fallen apart in our landscape, or re-situate the rocks where the moles have made them heave. Dang moles!
• Complete a thorough weeding of all my flower beds. I am always thankful I did this when spring arrives.
• Trim all the plants around the perimeter of our home to make sure no mice or rabbits decide to take up residence over the winter.
  
• Place a tomato cage over each one of my daylilies to protect them from getting trampled by the herds of deer that frequent our yard. The deer can do a lot of damage and the tomato cages really do help, especially with the new transplants.
• And finally, cleanup all of my garden tools and storage cabinet.
  

Every fall I make a point of giving my daylilies what I call their 'medical' checks. I like to examine each individual plant, pull out any weeds, determine that no moles have tunneled under or around them, and make sure that squirrels haven't buried any walnuts close by. When I do checkups I occasionally find a proliferation on an old daylily scape.

"A proliferation is a leafy shoot from a node or bract found on scapes of many cultivars. Small roots often form and occasionally a flower is produced while the proliferation is still on the scape. (Definition from the American Daylily Society.)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with daylilies, their seeds are not identical to either parent plant. A proliferation is one way to get an exact replica of the plant you have (in addition to plant division). I have had good results growing daylilies from proliferations. In fact, I have huge daylily clumps growing in my garden that started with just one tiny proliferation! It's also a fun way to share plants with friends.

When I find a proliferation I cut the scape off of the plant and place it in a plastic cup of water to grow roots. I have found that the roots will grow quicker if you use a clear plastic cup (as opposed to an opaque one). Important: Be sure to keep the water in the cup clean. The roots generally grow large enough to plant in a week or two.  I like to leave a good portion of the scape on both sides of the plant. When I eventually plant the proliferation in dirt, the scape gives the tender new daylily stability. The scape above the dirt will eventually dry up and fall off. I leave my proliferations in a pot for a few weeks to form roots, and from there I place it in the ground. In two or three years the proliferations pictured will bloom and look exactly like the beautiful 'Red Volunteer' pictured in the first photo. 

I have grown 'Red Volunteer' ever since I can remember having daylilies. It is reliable, consistent, big, tall, and gorgeous. In addition to other awards, Red Volunteer won the 'Lenington All-American Award' in 2004, which goes to one daylily each year voted the best performer over a wide geographic area. This midseason, dormant tetraploid was hybridized by William Oakes and introduced in 1984.   My plant grows 38" tall and the blooms are 7" or more in size. It is a definite wow! There will always be a place for Red Volunteer in my garden.

My three burgundy  ornamental fountain grasses have grown to almost 5 feet tall in front of our sun room. For fall landscape plants, they really makes a bold statement. When I planted them in spring, they were so tiny it seemed like they would never fill up the large space they were in. As you can see, they not only filled up the space -- they almost ran out of space!

Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum' (commonly known as Red or Purple Fountain Grass) is native to Africa, southeast Asia and the Middle East. In the U.S. it is hardy in Zones 9-11. In all other zones it is considered an annual. The genus name comes from the Latin penna meaning feather and seta meaning bristle referring to the flowers looking like feathery bristles, and rubrum means red.

I have done next to nothing as far as taking care of this grass. I just made sure it was watered well until it was established. Other than that, I pretty much just admire it. At only $4.99 per plant, it was totally worth it. I don't buy too many annuals, but this burgundy fountain grass is always a must-have.

Pictured is a portion of one of my backyard flower beds. All of my daylilies are tucked in, ready for their journey through winter. Each individual plant has had their annual "medical check-up," which includes gently pulling out the old scapes, removing any weeds, making sure no moles have tunneled around or under them, and no bunnies have made homes in them. The foliage has been cut so I can more easily see what is going on with each plant and to discourage any pests/insects to take up residence. I protect the newer plants with tomato cages so the deer don't try to eat or pull on any newly planted roots. I also use the tomato cages as reminders of where I have other things planted.

Fall is a great time to get rid of weeds. Consider this: Weeds that are spread by seed produce thousands of seeds. Lambsquarter can bear up to 72,500 seeds per plant, curly dock can bear up to 30,000, purslane 52,000, and redroot pigweed 117,000.  If even 50% of the pigweed seedlings germinated next spring, you'd have 58,000 pigweed plants to pull or otherwise get rid of. Better to get rid of them now! Here's a comprehensive list of Wisconsin weeds with photos.  I was glad to see Morning Glories appear on this list - I have been trying to get rid of them in a place I no longer wanted them for years.

Hopefully, you have all of your fall garden work done; winter is on the way.

Weed facts from the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension