Labor Day is not the start of a long fall

We still get plant lists in mid-September for a Gilford waterfront that wants a full bed redo "while the weather is nice." Nights drop. Granite till cools. A weekend house sits empty so nobody waters. The catalog's fall window was written for a longer autumn than Belknap County actually gives you. After Labor Day we have weeks, not months, for roots to move.

Belknap Landscape will plant what can still establish and we will hold the rest. Design that assumes an October install of tender material is a spring replacement bill.

Soil temperature and an empty house decide more than the date

Probe the bed. If the soil is already cold to the hand on a Meredith north slope, a thin-barked tree is a gamble. A native shrub with a tight ball can still go in. We match species to the weeks left, not to a wish list from July.

Second homes after Labor Day lose their waterers. Irrigation may already be winterized. Hand watering from the lake is a plan only if someone is there. If nobody is on site, we either plant spring or we write a watering visit into maintenance. A pretty install with a dry ball in week two is not a fall success.

Wind off Winnipesaukee desiccates new foliage. We water the root, not the leaf, and we mulch lightly. A volcano of bark on a late install holds ice against the stem.

Large trees and perennials are different clocks

A large ball needs time and a crane day that may not fit a short window. We would rather spec a smaller tree now or wait. Perennials that were in the ground by early September have a chance. The same plants on October 10 on a Wolfeboro lot often heave. Construction of walls and patios can still run later. Living roots cannot.

Turf seed after Labor Day on a cold clay lawn is a thin bet. We will say if spring is kinder. Do not mix a full lawn reno into a late shrub order and expect both to win.

Tree and plant health on a late install includes a spring check. If we plant in September, April is when we admit what did not take. Write that visit now.

Split the list: now, hold, and spring

Before we order, we want the plant list, who waters, and whether the system is still on. If a separate lighting or wall job is driving the date, say so. Plants should not be the leftover that gets stuffed in on the last Friday.

Contact us with town and the list. Related notes live on the news page. We would rather hold stock than bury a ball in cold till and call it fall planting.