{"id":20114,"date":"2025-10-14T15:51:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T19:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/?p=20114"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:05:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:05:37","slug":"october-gardening-chores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/","title":{"rendered":"October Gardening Tasks in Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FALL IS FOR PLANTING &#8211; here are some gardening tips to be done this month.<\/p>\n<p>ChrysantheMUM &#8211; No other plant represents the fall season any more than the garden mum because of its array of color from yellow, bronze, pink, red purple and white. Many of these mums have been purchased with no intention of being planted as a perennial that they are but are purchased for their color only to be tossed when finished for the season.<\/p>\n<p>The sense of autumn is in the air. The evenings are cooler and leaves are beginning to change colors. This makes for a great time to enjoy being outside and gardening. Do you know why leaves change color in the fall? In the fall, as the nights grow longer and cooler, chlorophyll starts to die off and lets the less dominant pigments of oranges, reds, and yellows to become more visible.<\/p>\n<p>A current gardening trend is to create more flowering garden beds using hardy perennials and using more native plants. Homeowners are expanding their landscape beds in order to reduce the size of the lawn. People are realizing that to maintain a good looking lawn is very costly with all the seed, fertilizing and chemicals needs for maintenance.<\/p>\n<p>The average date for our first frost of the season is around the 20th of October. Now, the recent Old Farmer\u2019s Almanac predicts our first frost to be on October 31. Let\u2019s see if the Almanac is correct this year.<\/p>\n<p>ALERT &#8211; If you haven\u2019t done so already \u2013 it is time to prep your tropical houseplants for coming inside. Prepping means to clean them. Check them for any insects. Tropical plants need to be inside before our temperatures fall into the low 50\u2019s.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">HERE ARE A FEW GARDENING CHORES FOR OCTOBER<\/h3>\n<h4>BULBS<\/h4>\n<p>It\u2019s bulb planting time. Most bulbs require at least 6 hours of direct sunlight. Daffodils with red and pink cups keep their color best in a little shade. Buy your tulip bulbs now but wait until closer to Thanksgiving to plant them. Tulip bulbs need our soil to be cooler than it is now.<\/p>\n<h4>HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER<\/h4>\n<p>I did a blog on hummingbirds recently. Keep your feeders up and full of nectar until you notice the food not emptying. This is the sign that the hummingbirds have left and are migrating south.<\/p>\n<h4>LAWN FERTILIZATION<\/h4>\n<p>October is the month to give your lawn its second feeding of lawn fertilizer. The cool season lawn ( fescue lawns) grow and take in nutrients during the cooler months of the year. The 3rd and final feeding will be in late November or in December.<\/p>\n<h4>PINE TREES<\/h4>\n<p>Pine trees are shedding their older needles noq. Take advantage of this natural, FREE, bounty by using the pine needles as mulch around your azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, and hollies.<\/p>\n<h4>WATERING<\/h4>\n<p>It is very important to continue watering all newly planted shrubs and trees. You do not want plants to be dry going into colder temperatures.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>ENJOY OCTOBER &#8211; IT IS A BEAUTIFUL MONTH TO BE LIVING IN VIRGINIA!!!<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/\">To read more posts from Doug, visit our blog<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/hours-locations\/big-great-greenhouse-in-richmond-virginia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Return to the Great Big Greenhouse homepage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FALL IS FOR PLANTING &#8211; here are some gardening tips to be done this month. ChrysantheMUM &#8211; No other plant represents the fall season any more than the garden mum because of its array of color from yellow, bronze, pink, red purple and white. Many of these mums have been purchased with no intention of &#8230; <a title=\"October Gardening Tasks in Virginia\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/\" aria-label=\"More on October Gardening Tasks in Virginia\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":19570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening-with-doug","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>October Gardening Tasks and Chores in Virginia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Get your garden ready for the changing temps with these October gardening tasks in Virginia. Prep and protect for success no matter the season.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"October Gardening Tasks and Chores in Virginia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Get your garden ready for the changing temps with these October gardening tasks in Virginia. Prep and protect for success no matter the season.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-14T19:51:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-09T21:05:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/doug-blog-october-tips.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"669\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Doug Hensel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Doug Hensel\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f1db21ab44d4f970330937ce32072893\"},\"headline\":\"October Gardening Tasks in Virginia\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-14T19:51:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-09T21:05:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/\"},\"wordCount\":529,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/doug-blog-october-tips.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Gardening with Doug\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/\",\"name\":\"October Gardening Tasks and Chores in Virginia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/doug-blog-october-tips.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-14T19:51:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-09T21:05:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"Get your garden ready for the changing temps with these October gardening tasks in Virginia. Prep and protect for success no matter the season.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/doug-blog-october-tips.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/doug-blog-october-tips.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":669,\"caption\":\"It's now time to start with your October gardening chores\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"October Gardening Tasks in Virginia\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\",\"description\":\"The plants you expect. The people you know. The experience you\u2019ll remember.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GBGH-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GBGH-logo.png\",\"width\":400,\"height\":315,\"caption\":\"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f1db21ab44d4f970330937ce32072893\",\"name\":\"Doug Hensel\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"October Gardening Tasks and Chores in Virginia","description":"Get your garden ready for the changing temps with these October gardening tasks in Virginia. Prep and protect for success no matter the season.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"October Gardening Tasks and Chores in Virginia","og_description":"Get your garden ready for the changing temps with these October gardening tasks in Virginia. Prep and protect for success no matter the season.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/","og_site_name":"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog","article_published_time":"2025-10-14T19:51:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-09T21:05:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":669,"url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/doug-blog-october-tips.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Doug Hensel","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/"},"author":{"name":"Doug Hensel","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f1db21ab44d4f970330937ce32072893"},"headline":"October Gardening Tasks in Virginia","datePublished":"2025-10-14T19:51:06+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-09T21:05:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/"},"wordCount":529,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/doug-blog-october-tips.jpg","articleSection":["Gardening with Doug"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/","url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/","name":"October Gardening Tasks and Chores in Virginia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/doug-blog-october-tips.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-14T19:51:06+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-09T21:05:37+00:00","description":"Get your garden ready for the changing temps with these October gardening tasks in Virginia. Prep and protect for success no matter the season.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/doug-blog-october-tips.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/doug-blog-october-tips.jpg","width":1000,"height":669,"caption":"It's now time to start with your October gardening chores"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/october-gardening-chores\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"October Gardening Tasks in Virginia"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/","name":"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog","description":"The plants you expect. The people you know. The experience you\u2019ll remember.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization","name":"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GBGH-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GBGH-logo.png","width":400,"height":315,"caption":"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f1db21ab44d4f970330937ce32072893","name":"Doug Hensel"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20114"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22255,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20114\/revisions\/22255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}