The gardening season effectively ended here in NY in October. We had our first hard frost early in the month, then had a few more weeks of milder fall weather. Most of my tasks for the month involved clearing spent plants, moving the fig trees into the basement, planting garlic, and building up the compost pile as much as possible before winter arrives.

I harvested the last of the dahlia flowers before the plants were killed off by the fall frost. In total I cut 240 dahlia flowers over the season, from 9 plants. They were more prolific than I expected, and the plants also got way bigger. I will need to utilize a more robust trellising system next year. I grew an assortment of zinnias and large marigolds that I also used as cut flowers for the kitchen table. My newest rose bush produced several lovely flowers and put on a lot of growth. I’m looking forward to seeing how much more it grows next year.

My three homegrown Howden jack-o-lantern pumpkins. We harvested the two green ones right before the frost hit and used them to decorate the front porch. In total I grew 69 pounds of pumpkins! 3 large jack-o-lantern, 2 medium pie sized, and one tiny decorative blaze. We also used the corn stalks along our front porch, I enjoyed having my own homegrown fall decorations.

The coleus plants were also killed off by the frost, but I took a bunch of cuttings beforehand. They have been relatively easy for me to root in water, and last year I managed to keep about 10 plants growing over winter. This gave me a jump start on the season and saved me from having to buy seedlings.

This year I purchased 1 Mexican heather and 1 cuphea plant from work to grow. They both did really well and were great for the pollinators. I saw humming birds quite frequently making use of the long flowers. I read online that these are both fairly easy to propagate via cuttings so I took a bunch before the frost.

I removed the leaves from the bottom of each stem and then coated them in rooting powder before carefully putting them in seed cells full of soil. I put them in a mini greenhouse for several weeks and watered occasionally.

Here they were all ready to be put in a mini-greenhouse. The extra humidity helped them to root faster.

Here’s how they looked at the end of October, nice root development. I transplanted about half of them which had visible roots up to 3-inch pots so they can continue growing.

Before the frost hit I also moved a bunch of plants into the basement. All the potted fig trees had to come in. They had been slowing down and had already lost a lot of their leaves by early October. But I didn’t want them caught out in the cold weather. I also moved in some pepper plants, and I dug up the rosemary to try to overwinter. I’ve not had success in the past, but I’m going to try again. Pepper plants are perennials in warmer areas and it would be nice to get fruit earlier in the season if I can keep a few plants alive. They are all sitting near a window and I have grow lights that I keep on all winter. Many of the dormant fig trees are at the other end of the basement where they do not get direct light. I try to water the trees once a week.

I planted out about 80 garlic cloves in their usual in-ground garden bed during the first week of October. I put down a couple of bags of fresh potting soil and compost on top of the bed to add some fertility. In each planting hole I added some slow-release fertilizer and worm castings as well. Once they were in, we added a thick layer of fall leaves to act as a mulch.

The final three strawberries from the tower before the plants went dormant for winter.

For the 2025 season I had a total of 102 harvest days, from January-October. I grew 215 pounds of fresh fruit, veggies, flowers, and herbs in my backyard garden over the course of the year. Can’t wait to see what will happen next year!