The Garden Almanac

Today in the garden

Thursday, October 8 · Waning crescent, 6% lit · 11h 14m daylight · winter solstice in 74 days

In the garden this October

The long nights that rebloom a kalanchoe start now.

Clemson Extension says the natural day lengths between October 1 and March 1 set a kalanchoe's flower buds. Six weeks of dark nights, one warm spot to avoid, and it can flower again by January.

Start the dark routineSee the planting calendar
A potted kalanchoe with glossy scalloped leaves and small clusters of orange flower buds on a windowsill at blue October dusk, beside a table lamp that is switched off

Tip of the day

Timing.Mulch after soil warms and after a deep watering. It locks in whatever it covers.

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A tall stand of New York ironweed in late October, rusty brown seed heads backlit by low sun above a wooden fence, a tufted titmouse perched in the seed heads

Watering & care · Oct 8, 2026

Leave Ironweed Standing for Winter

By October, the tall ironweed at the back of the native bed has traded its purple flowers for rusty seed heads. Before you cut it down, know what it is still doing: feeding winter birds at the top and housing native bees in its stems.

Drooping clusters of glossy scarlet highbush cranberry berries on a shrub with three-lobed red and orange leaves, a small jar of red jelly on a fence post

Kitchen garden · Oct 8, 2026

American Highbush Cranberry Is Edible

The shrub with three-lobed leaves and drooping clusters of red berries may be one of two plants that share a name. The American kind makes good jelly. The European kind tends to be bitter. Here is why it matters, when to pick, and what to leave for the birds.

Clumps of Autumn Joy sedum in a late October border, broad flat flower heads turned deep mahogany and rusty red, a small brown sparrow perched on one head

Watering & care · Oct 8, 2026

Leave the Sedum Standing for Winter

By October, Autumn Joy sedum has turned its broad flower heads from pink to deep mahogany, and it looks ready for the shears. Leave it. Here is what those dry heads do all winter, who uses them, and when to finally cut.

A freshly lifted clump of knobby pale tan canna rhizomes on newspaper beside a garden fork on a frosty October morning, frost-blackened canna leaves behind

Planting & timing · Oct 8, 2026

Dig Your Cannas After the First Frost

Cannas are tender. In a cold-winter garden the roots have to come out of the ground or be lost, and the first frost is the signal to start. Here is when to dig, how to dry and store the rhizomes, and how to keep them alive until spring.

“Onion skins very thin, mild winter coming in.”

Old garden saying

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Three glass jars of water on a sunlit windowsill, each holding a coleus stem cutting with red and green scalloped leaves, fine white roots visible in one

Planting & timing · Sep 12, 2026

Take the Cuttings Before the Frost Does

Coleus, impatiens, begonia, geranium and the sweet potato vine will all die at the first frost, and all of them will root from a four-inch cutting in a jar or a pot on the windowsill. Which ones root in water, which want soil, how long each takes, and what to do when the jar goes cloudy.

A groundhog at the mouth of its burrow beneath the corner of a weathered garden shed in low golden lightGarden myths · Sep 4, 2026The Groundhog Under Your Shed Is About to VanishBy late October the groundhog that has been flattening your beans will seal itself into a chamber below the frost line and slow its heart to five beats a minute. Here is what it is doing down there, what the burrow is doing to your ground, and the one fence detail that actually keeps it out of a bed.A loose flock of American robins feeding in a crabapple tree in low golden lightGarden myths · Sep 3, 2026Where the Robins Really Go in WinterThe robin on your lawn is about to vanish, and most of them are not going south. Here is what the flock does from now until March, why the first robin of spring is usually a bird that never left, and the four shrubs that keep the flock on your street.An open almanac and a pencil on a garden bench at dusk, with late summer beds softening in the backgroundPlanting & timing · Sep 1, 2026Your First Frost Already Has a DateEvery zip code has an average first frost night sitting in the weather service records, and most gardens are four to ten weeks away from it right now. Here is how to look yours up in about a minute, and the six week countdown that plans the whole fall garden for you.

Did you know

Tomatoes and potatoes are close cousins; both are nightshades, which is why they share blights.

Garden myths, tested

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A small mixed winter flock in a maple and white pine in golden October light: black-capped chickadees, a white-breasted nuthatch head-down on the trunk, a downy woodpecker and a golden-crowned kinglet

Garden myths · Oct 3, 2026

Why Chickadees Travel in a Winter Flock, and Who Tags Along

This is the month the yard's little birds start moving together: a few chickadees calling, a nuthatch on the trunk, a downy woodpecker and a kinglet keeping up. Here is what a winter flock is, who leads it, why the others follow, and how to keep it coming through your yard.

A baggy brown cecropia moth cocoon of silk fastened lengthwise along a bare lilac twig in golden October light, fallen leaves below

Garden myths · Oct 2, 2026

The Brown Silk Pod on Your Shrub Is a Cecropia Moth

Once the leaves come down, you may find a baggy brown pod of silk fastened along a twig of your maple, cherry or lilac. Inside is one of the biggest moths you will ever see, waiting for spring. Here is what it is, how it lives, and why you should leave it be.

A small red-breasted nuthatch with a black eye stripe, white eyebrow and rusty orange underparts clinging to a bird feeder in a white pine in October light

Garden myths · Oct 2, 2026

The Little Nuthatch With the Black Eye Stripe Is a Red-breasted Nuthatch

A small, rusty-bellied nuthatch with a bold black stripe through its eye may be new at your feeder this fall. In some years red-breasted nuthatches pour south from Canada when the northern cone crop fails. Here is how to know one, why it came, and how to keep it around.

A large rusty-red fox sparrow scratching backward with both feet in fallen autumn leaves under a backyard bird feeder in golden October light

Garden myths · Oct 1, 2026

The Rusty Sparrow Scratching Under Your Feeder Is a Fox Sparrow

That big, rust-red sparrow kicking leaves out from under the shrubs with both feet at once is a fox sparrow, down from the Canadian north for the winter. Here is how to know it, where it came from, and why a layer of fallen leaves is the best feeder you can give it.

2026

The planting calendar

Month by month: what to sow, what to plant, and what to bring in.

Open the calendar

Sow now

  • Spinach (early month)
  • Milkweed seed

Plant now

  • Garlic
  • Snowdrops
  • Daffodils and tulips

Harvest now

  • Winter squash
  • Apples
  • Persimmons (when soft)
The Fall Planting Planner, printed and spiral bound, on a garden table

New from the almanac

The Fall Planting Planner

Count back from your first frost, and nothing is left to chance. Sixteen crops, a complete garlic guide, and working pages to write in. Twelve pages you print at home, emailed the moment you buy.

See the planner, $9
The Garden Almanac engraved sunflower mark

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