By Oscar Phillips

October is the beginning of the major planting season as the days are shorter with cooler temperatures, which signal the time to prepare for cooler months.

Roses: Continue to cut back faded blooms to a healthy outside bud with leaflets. Clean up dead and diseased leaves that have dropped from your rose plants. Continue your program of pest and disease control. Feed your plants with a soluble rose fertilizer and remember to keep your plants well watered.

Flowers and bulbs: Divide and replant overgrown spring bloomers. Plant new perennials and cut back your growing perennials after they have completed blooming. Spray your plants to control aphids, white files and scale.

Flowering trees and shrubs: Plant evergreen shrubs and keep the ground around the trees clear of fallen leaves. Place cyprus organic mulch around the base of the plants. Prune back summer bloomers, hydrangeas and broadleaf evergreens enough to shape them. Check Ixorias for white flies and spray if necessary.

Vegetables and herbs: Since this is the beginning of the planting season, sowing your vegetable seeds as outlined in the planting guide. Put out or transplant your seedlings that were started during the past month. Look out for slugs and snails that will surely attack your young plants. Continue to harvest your vegetables and don't forget to turn over your compost heap. Remember, if you have a small garden, you can purchase seedlings from your local nursery.

Fruit trees: Prune all fruit trees that have completed bearing fruit. Apply liberally the granular fertilizer (10-20-20) to these plants. Put mulch around your fruit trees, except citrus plants which do not like their feet (roots) covered. Remember to seal all wounds with pruning paint or sealant.

Lawns: During this month, you should feed your lawn with a granular fertilizer or a soluble fertilizer (36-6-6). Continue your program of weed control and look out for chinch bug damage, army worms, white flies, and sod web worms. For control, spray with an insecticide containing Diazinon, Malathion or Dursban Lawn Insect Spray. For fungus disease on lawns, spray with a mixture containing Chlorothalonil or Triforine.

Watch for: Beetles, leaf rollers, mealy bugs, scale, white flies. For control, teat with an insecticide containing Diazinon, Malathion, Orthene Systemic Insect Spray or Insecticidal Soap or Black Leaf 40.

Slugs and snails: To control, use a bait containing Melaldehyde or Methiocarb which should remain effective after rain or sprinkling of your garden.

Root knot: This is a disease that attacks the roots of plants and make them weak and sickly as knotty warts appears on the roots. To control, treat with Nemagon or Nemacide, or similar products that will kill this disease. Check your local nursery for available products.

Planting guide for October

Flowers: Alyssum, african daisy, aster, calendula, baby's breath, candyturf, carnation, celosia, dianthus, gaillardia, hollyhock, lupin, marigold, nasturtium, pansy, periwinkle, petunia, phlox, painted daisy, Queen Anne's Lace, shasta daisy, sunflower, snapdragon, stocks, sweet william, sweet peas and verbena.

Vegetables: Beans, beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, collard, cucumber, garlic, leek, lettuce, okra, onion seed, onion set, parsley, peas, radish, spinach, squash and tomato.

Grasses: Bahia, Bermuda