The first rain is a false start. Or at least I treat it that way. Plant when the ground is really wet (unless you have clay soil, in which case you need to wait until it’s crumbly) and use the time in between to learn your own yard.
The first real rain of fall does something to gardeners. Everybody with a trowel wants to go plant something.
Don’t. Not yet.
I treat that first rain as a false start. Sometimes it wets the top inch or two of soil and not much else. Seeds wake up, yours and everyone else’s, and then the sky clears and it can be warm and dry again for a couple of weeks. Anything that sprouted in that top inch is suddenly on its own.
I wait for the next good rain, or at least until there’s moisture well down into the soil.
Let the weeds go first
No matter how careful you are, your beds are full of weed seeds. Years of it. The first rain is their signal, too, so let them come up.
Give them a week or 10 days. When the bed has a green fuzz on it, scrape it off with a hoe, shallow, without turning the soil. That’s one whole crop of weeds gone before you’ve planted the lettuce.
And don’t dig afterward. Turning the soil just brings another layer of weed seed to the surface.
How to know it’s time
Forget about whether it’s technically the first rain or the second. Check the dirt.
Push a trowel into the bed a day after the rain stops. If the soil is dark and damp 6 inches down, and a handful crumbles when you squeeze it, you’re in business. If it’s already dry just below the surface, wait.
Once the ground is ready, plant garlic and fava beans, the ones September told you to leave room for. Favas can also help put nitrogen back into the garden, especially if you’re growing them partly as a cover crop rather than hauling all the plants away.
Lettuce, spinach, peas and other cool-season crops can go in now, too. They’ll grow through much of the winter in all but the coldest spots.
October is also a good time for the big stuff: trees, shrubs and natives you held off planting in September. Get them in after the soil is rejuvenated with rain, and they’ll have winter to put down roots before the dry months return. Better still, for a while the sky does most of the watering of your new plants.
The Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens’ Fall Plant Sale runs Oct. 10 through 18 at its Fort Bragg nursery, with plants 20% off and 30% off for members. The Gardens calls fall “an ideal time for planting,” particularly for rhododendrons, heaths, heathers and natives.
Walk your yard in the rain
There is something useful to do while you’re waiting for another storm. Go outside.
Not after everything dries out. Go out while it’s raining, or just after a good storm, and see what the water actually does.
Where does it run across a path? Where does it collect? Is there a corner where it just sits? And where does the water disappear almost immediately?
A place that’s soggy after an October storm deserves some attention before you put a plant there that wants good drainage. And a spot that dries out immediately may be the place you’ll be dragging a hose to next July.
Do the same thing on the first cold, clear morning. Look for frost and heavy dew. Cold air settles into low places — the bottom of a slope, along a fence, maybe that hollow behind the shed you never think about.
You can have two places 50 feet apart in the same yard that don’t have quite the same winter.
Make a rough map if you’re inclined. Nothing fancy. Mark the wet spots, dry spots and the places that frost first. Put it somewhere you’ll be able to find it next spring.
Get ready for the water
Clean the gutters and downspouts before you need to do it in the rain. While you’re at it, see where the downspouts empty. If one is dumping water against the foundation, that’s worth fixing. Send the water somewhere useful if you can.
If you collect rainwater, you may want to let that first storm wash off the roof before filling the barrels. Dust, pollen, leaves and bird droppings have been accumulating up there all summer.
October is also a good time to cover a bed you want to start over with next spring. Put cardboard over the grass or weeds, wet it, and cover it with a few inches of compost or wood chips. Then leave it alone. Winter can do much of the prep work for you.
The rest of the month
Pull tomatoes and squash when they’re finished. Compost the healthy stuff; don’t compost plants you’re worried are diseased.
Plant daffodils. The deer leave them alone. If you have gophers, wire baskets are cheap insurance once the ground gets soft and digging gets easy.
And take a look at young trees. If they’re unprotected, cage them or cover the trunks with wrap. Fall is rutting season, and a young tree trunk can look pretty inviting to a buck with antlers to rub.
Mostly, though, pay attention to what happens when the weather changes. A garden tells you quite a bit about itself once it starts raining.
When that first rain comes, go stand out in it for a minute.
Then put the seed packets back in the drawer until the ground is ready.
who wrote this article? are you kidding, where have you been during the drought?