Maine Home Garden News – October
In This Issue:
- October in the Maine Garden: The Quiet Work of Preparing for Winter
- The Importance of Fall Watering for Trees
- Seasonal Sightings: Goldenrod, Cranes and Chestnuts
- Featured Plant: American Witch-Hazel
- Composting in Maine’s Fall: Building Better Soil from Everyday Waste
- Maine Urban Soil Health Project
- Maine Weather and Climate Overview
October in the Maine Garden: The Quiet Work of Preparing for Winter
By Sandra Mitchell, Penobscot County Master Gardener Volunteer, Maine Master Naturalist
By October, the Maine garden begins to speak in softer tones.
The urgency of summer has passed. Tomatoes blacken after the first hard frost. Annuals collapse almost overnight. Migrating sparrows rustle through drying stems, and every clear morning carries the smell of fallen leaves and cooling earth. The wheelbarrow sits unused, except perhaps to move wood to the stove. The seed catalogs haven’t arrived yet. To many gardeners, October feels like an ending — the uncomfortable gap between the garden that was and the one that will be.
But some of the most important work of the gardening year is happening right now, and most of it you can’t see.
Beneath the soil, roots are still extending into ground that remains considerably warmer than the air above it. Trees and shrubs are drawing carbohydrates back into their roots and woody tissue, completing the slow work of hardening before freeze-up. Pollinators are working the last available nectar sources with a focus that seems almost desperate. Amphibians are moving toward their overwintering sites. And the fallen leaves — the ones many are already bagging for the curb — are beginning to fuel the next cycle of life through fungal and microbial decomposition before they’ve even finished falling.
The October garden is not dying. It is getting ready.
Leave Some of the Mess
One of the most valuable things a gardener can do in autumn is also one of the hardest (unless you are a lazy gardener like me!): resist the urge to clean everything up too thoroughly. Somehow, I always find this an easy recommendation to follow, unlike my weeding advice!
Many solitary bees — mason bees, leafcutters, and others — overwinter inside hollow plant stems. Bumble bee queens dig into loose soil and leaf litter at garden edges. Butterflies and moths overwinter in various life stages tucked into standing debris and leaf piles. Chickadees, finches, and the juncos that arrive in October from the north all work dried seed heads through the winter months. Standing perennials trap insulating snow and slow soil erosion in ways that a sheared-down border simply cannot.
Leaving portions of the garden structurally intact through winter creates functioning habitat rather than a purely ornamental space — and in a Maine winter, that distinction matters.
This is not an argument for abandoning maintenance. Diseased plant material should still come out. Heavy wet leaves sitting on lawns through freeze-thaw cycles can smother grass and should be managed. But the impulse to put the garden completely to bed — to leave it looking neat and finished — works against the very systems that make a garden healthy.
October is often when the garden becomes most useful to wildlife. That is worth sitting with for a moment.
The Leaves You’re About to Bag
Every autumn, an extraordinary amount of organic material departs from Maine homes in bags. Leaves are hauled away as though they were a problem to be solved, when in fact they are one of the most valuable resources a garden produces.
Leaf litter moderates soil temperature through freeze-thaw cycles, reduces moisture loss, suppresses weeds, and slowly releases nutrients back into the ground. It supports a diversity of insects, fungi, salamanders, and soil microorganisms that form the foundation of a functioning garden ecosystem. The forest floor maintains itself this way without any assistance. Garden beds can benefit too.
Shredded leaves are especially useful around perennial beds, vegetable gardens, and newly planted shrubs — run the mower over a pile and apply several inches where you need them. Intact leaves under trees and in naturalized areas improve overwintering habitat significantly. Even moving leaves from the lawn to the bed edges rather than to the curb is a meaningful shift.
Planting for Spring Begins Now
October is also one of the best months to plant garlic, trees, shrubs, and spring-flowering bulbs in Maine. Cool air reduces transplant stress while soil temperatures — still in the 40s and 50s in most of the state through mid-month — support root establishment before freeze-up. Tulips, daffodils, alliums, crocus, and hyacinths all require fall planting to bloom in spring; they need the cold period to complete their development. Plan to get bulbs in the ground before a hard freeze locks the soil, which in northern Maine can happen earlier than gardeners expect.
This is also a useful moment to evaluate the garden’s bones. With foliage fading, gaps in winter structure become visible that were invisible in July. Bark texture, seed heads, evergreen mass, and branching patterns matter no
w in ways they didn’t all summer. A garden that holds interest in January — that gives you a reason to look out the window in February — is usually one where someone made thoughtful decisions in October.
A Different Kind of Attention
Summer gardens are generous to the point of demanding nothing from us. October rewards closer attention.
As the weather chills and the air goes still, look for juncos working through the dried remains of the coneflower bed — often eight or ten of them, methodical and quiet, moving through stems that were not cut down in September. You might even spot a single monarch, late and moving purposefully south, stopping briefly in the asters. The tamaracks along the wetland edge may turn completely gold overnight, the way they do every year as though it surprises even them – as it does me.
None of this requires a particularly special garden. It requires leaving enough of the structure standing for it to happen.
The beauty of October is quieter than summer’s. Frost crystals along the edge of a browning hosta leaf at seven in the morning. Milkweed pods splitting open in a cold wind, silk catching the low light. The particular clatter of frozen ornamental grass against a fence post before the rest of the neighborhood is awake. These are not consolation prizes for the end of the season. They are what the season actually is, if you’re paying attention.
Beneath the fallen leaves, next spring has already begun. October is when you decide how well it starts.
The Importance of Fall Watering for Trees
Excerpt from the Maine Forest Service Forest & Shade Tree – Insect & Disease Conditions for Maine September 14, 2026
As temperatures drop and trees begin to senesce, it is easy to forget the importance of continuing to water your trees. Watering trees in fall is important because although aboveground growth slows this time of year, tree roots will continue to grow until soils reach near-freezing temperatures. Fall watering can also prevent the occurrence of winter burn in conifers – a condition that develops in spring when temperatures warm and tree foliage begins photosynthesis. As part of this process leaf pores must open for gas exchange also causing water loss.
If replacement moisture is not accessible at this time, a water deficit may develop. In the least serious cases, the resulting desiccation, reddening and death of tissues causes aesthetic impacts. In more serious cases, trees can be damaged severely or die. This situation is less likely if soils and tree tissues enter winter fully hydrated, so keep watering your trees into fall unless natural rain is sufficient to keep soils moist.
Read the full report for more on Maine’s worsening drought, beech leaf disease, browntail moth, spruce budworm, spotted lanternfly, woolly adelgids, and other insects and diseases to watch for this fall.
Seasonal Sightings: Goldenrod, Cranes and Chestnuts
By Maine Audubon Native Plants Program Coordinator Jocelyn LaClair. Photos courtesy of Maine Audubon.
Fall is the perfect time to look for seaside goldenrod. Well-adapted for salty and sunny areas such as saltmarshes, it can reach up to 6 feet tall under optimal conditions. Unlike most goldenrods, the leaves are toothless, hairless, and are relatively thick with a rubbery texture. The long-lasting, dense, yellow flowers bloom in a plume from August to September and into October. These yellow flowers become fluffy white seed heads that are dispersed by wind. Seaside goldenrod doesn’t spread through rhizomes like other goldenrods—instead, it relies entirely on this seed dispersal. While all late-season goldenrod blooms provide critical pollinator value, Seaside Goldenrod is perfectly matched with monarch migration. The bloom time and location along the coast create a highway of yellow flowers for monarchs to move south.
Other October signs of wildlife to look for:
This is the best time of year to see sandhill cranes in Maine. In the floodplain of the Saco River, north of Fryeburg, many of the sandhill cranes that nested or were born in the fields and marshes of central Maine stop over on their southward migration. Keep an eye out for these large birds as they forage for leftover grains, insects, and other small animals.
Spiky American chestnuts (Castanea dentata) are dropping. Most pure American chestnut trees succumb to chestnut blight before reaching maturity, but blight-resistent hybrids are available and some wild trees fight the blight for years. Maine has more living wild chestnut trees than any other state. Locations of wild trees can be reported to the American Chestnut Foundation.
Visit maineaudubon.org/naturalist for more seasonal sightings.
Featured Plant: American Witch-Hazel
By Lynne Holland, Horticulture Professional
Photo credit: Liz Stanley
October is the time for sweater weather, pumpkins, ghosts, ghouls, magic and witches. It is the time for witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). Witch-hazel is a woody shrub, is native to the eastern half of the US and supports over 60 pollinators. This very versatile shrub grows well in both sun and shade and is best planted in the very early spring. It can be planted in the fall as well, but not past October in most areas. One of only a few shrubs that bloom in the fall, it often holds onto its flowers well into the colder months, which makes it a standout in the winter garden.
Like most woodland shrubs native to the Northeast, this plant prefers slightly acidic soil and somewhat moist conditions. Planting in an area with clay and organic matter in the soil mimics its forest understory roots. If amending the soil is called for (taking a soil test is really easy so you can know for sure), then amend the area where the future roots of the plant will be. Allow for the finished size of the plant when siting the hole (6-15 feet wide) and then dig a hole only as deep as the root ball (or pot) and twice as wide. A newly planted shrub will not need fertilization for about three years. As a native plant, witch-hazel may never need additional fertilization if grown in the right conditions.
Site Selection
Photo credit: Liz Stanley.
The growing requirements for witch-hazel are pretty liberal.
Sunlight – Full sun to partial shade. More sun produces bright flowers and a denser growth habit, while partial shade in hot and dry sites prevents sunscorch.
Soil type and moisture – Average to moist with good drainage and a little on the acidic side. Provide 1.5-2 inches of water per week in the first season. Natural precipitation should suffice once established, but always be mindful of supporting woody plants with supplemental water through periods of drought.
Hardiness – This plant can grow easily in zones 3-8.
Photo credit: Liz Stanley.
The blooms of the witch-hazel plant are a little twisted like the fingers of an old hag, but that is not where witch-hazel got its name. Many believe it is from the Old English “wice” or “wiche,” which means bendable. The limbs of the witch-hazel plant were often used in dowsing or water witching.
Although research-based information says that finding water with a stick doesn’t add up, there is science to prove witch-hazel’s worth in the garden. This plant is one of the latest sources of pollen in the year. During the summer, its green leaves are also a source of food for over 20 caterpillars. While these caterpillars munch on the leaves, their feeding has little impact on the overall health of the plant and is a sign of a healthy ecosystem.
A few types of aphids also are known to induce interesting looking leaf galls. Again, these don’t typically have a significant negative effect on plant health.
No one can argue that the bright yellow of the flowers is a seasonal spark in the fall garden when even the asters have started to fade and summer warmth is but a memory. That is magic indeed!
Composting in Maine’s Fall: Building Better Soil from Everyday Waste
By Dawn Dowd, Sagadahoc County Master Gardener Volunteer
As summer winds down and Maine gardens shift into fall, many gardeners look and ask, ‘what am I going to do with all this? How can I make use of all these mounds of leaves, spent flowers, and kitchen scraps?’ Fall is the perfect time to begin, or refresh, a backyard compost system. Cooler weather keeps odors down, outdoor chores ease up and there’s plenty of material ready to use that would otherwise become waste.
Composting blends simple techniques with nature’s chemistry to create a useful soil amendment. A successful compost pile needs a balance of air, water, nitrogen and carbon. Your best method depends on where you live, how much and what kind of material you have and how much time you want to spend.
Ingredients for Composting
All composting relies on two basic types of materials:
- Low‑nitrogen “browns”: such as autumn leaves, small sticks, shredded paper and straw.
- High‑nitrogen “greens”: such as kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, grass clippings and plant trimmings.
Air and water round out the essentials. With these ingredients, you have everything you need to create a rich garden amendment.
Collecting Food Scraps Indoors
For most households, composting begins in the kitchen. A small countertop container or lidded pail makes gathering daily food scraps simple. Many gardeners use a one‑gallon crock, stainless steel bucket, or a repurposed jar—whatever fits easily on the counter. Vegetable peels, coffee grounds, eggshells, apple cores and stale bread all make excellent “greens”. Avoid adding meat, dairy, oils or pet waste.
Fall’s cooler temperatures make storing scraps easier than in midsummer. If fruit flies are a concern, keeping the container in the fridge or freezer works well. Frozen scraps break down just fine once added to the compost and help maintain moisture as they thaw. When your container fills, it’s time to empty it outside. Two backyard systems work especially well for Maine gardeners: the traditional compost bin or pile and the continuous‑use tumbler.
Fall is a good time to collect and save those “browns” also. Using chicken wire, make a large round corral. As you rake up leaves, dump them loosely inside the wire. Now you have an ongoing source of “browns” to blend with kitchen scraps and other “greens” throughout the year.
The Backyard Compost Bin: A Low‑Maintenance Option
A classic compost bin—made of wood, recycled plastic, or wire—is a good choice for gardeners who want a slow, steady system that can handle large inputs of leaves and garden cleanup debris. Adding a bottom layer of ¼ inch hardware cloth helps keep out rodents and raccoons.
How it works
Layering is key. Start with a base of leaves, add your bucket of kitchen scraps, then cover with another layer of leaves, leaves always on top. This helps keep the odors down, pests away and keeps the right carbon‑to‑nitrogen ratio for a balanced diet for the various decay organisms doing the work in your compost pile. Continue layering until the bin is full.
Alternatively, fill the bin entirely with shredded leaves and other “brown” materials and simply bury the food scraps and other “greens” whenever you have a deposit.
Maine’s fall rains usually provide just the right amount of moisture. The pile should be damp like a wrung‑out sponge. Over the winter, microbes and insects break down the layers. Although the pile looks frozen, deep inside, microbes continue to break down the organic material, generating their own heat. By late spring, the bottom of the bin often holds dark compost ready to enrich garden soil.
The Compost Tumbler: Clean and Great for Small Spaces
For gardeners who prefer a more controlled system, a compost tumbler works well. These enclosed barrels sit on a stand and turn easily with a hand crank. They’re especially helpful where wildlife is active, since they’re fully sealed. It is good to keep the tumbler near a back door, so you don’t have far to walk in winter. The same “greens” and “browns” go into a tumbler, but the enclosed design and daily rotation for aeration can help materials break down faster. Tumblers are typically smaller in volume than most compost piles so that might be a limiting factor if your site produces a lot of material to compost.
How it works:
After adding materials, turn the tumbler daily. This introduces oxygen, which is essential for the microbes to break down the organics. Even in chilly weather, the insulated barrel retains warmth, speeding decomposition. Many Maine gardeners find they can produce usable compost in a few weeks, even through the fall. Once the contents freeze solid, decomposition stops until the spring thaw. The tumbler still functions as an animal proof outdoor storage bin for your kitchen scraps. So keep adding them.
The Passive Pile: Slow but Simple Method
My most successful composting effort was my “lazy compost pile.” I took kitchen scraps, leftovers from the garden harvest and canning and plant debris and simply dumped them at the edge of my yard. I raked up a huge pile of maple leaves and laid an unused piece of chicken wire over the top. No calculations, no turning, no fuss. Eighteen months later, I had the most beautiful dark compost I’d ever made. It worked. All I needed to do was get the infamous “browns” and “greens” together.
Of course, this wasn’t truly lazy composting—it was slow, or cold, composting. And it has limitations. The pile never heats up, so weeds and diseased plant material aren’t sterilized. Wildlife may dig into it, you can’t easily add new material once it’s established, and it can be challenging to collect the finished compost to use in the landscape. That said, it’s a simple way of disposing of organic materials without having it go into the landfill.
Use That Waste
Whether you choose a simple heap, a backyard bin, or a tumbler, the only essential step is getting your kitchen scraps and yard debris together. With a good supply of fall leaves and a little setup, you can create a compost system that works through the winter and rewards you with rich, dark compost in the spring. Nature’s chemistry does the work.
Quick Tips
- Collect kitchen scraps in a tightly lidded container or freezer bag to reduce fruit flies.
- Build a leaf corral to stockpile when they’re plentiful.
- Always cover food scrap deposits with leaves to discourage wildlife.
- Do not add weeds or diseased plants to cold piles if you plan to use it as an amendment.
Maine Urban Soil Health Project
By Carrick Gambell, Urban Agriculture Professional UMaine Cooperative Extension and Natural Resources Conservation Service
The Maine Urban Soil Health Project is an initiative by UMaine Extension to strengthen soil health technical assistance for growers in urban settings. Farming and gardening in urban soils is uniquely challenging. Many urban soils have been compacted by heavy machinery, construction and human traffic. Contaminants like lead have accumulated to dangerous levels in some urban soils, threatening the health and safety of growers. This spring and summer the Maine Urban Soil Health Project has been hard at work establishing two demonstration sites to help growers visualize and interact with strategies to manage these common urban soil challenges. We hosted the first round of workshops, with more to come later this fall and throughout 2027.
Boyd Street Demonstration Site
To showcase strategies for managing heavy metal contamination, we established one site at the Boyd Street Urban Garden in the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland. Boyd Street is a thriving urban agriculture site managed by the Portland-based nonprofit Cultivating Community. The site has community garden plots, fruit trees, berry bushes and a youth garden. Our demonstration space highlights many of the practices already in place throughout Boyd Street to grow produce safely. We built a new raised bed to EPA standards, filled the existing raised beds with a tested mix of soil and compost and mulched the pathways. With the help of UMaine Senior Madison Veilleux, we designed and installed a welcome sign. On May 28 we hosted our first workshop at Boyd Street. Alongside Cultivating Community, Fresh Food Gardens, the Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District, American Farmland Trust and the Maine Soil Testing Service, we were able to share strategies for growing food safely in urban soils.
Hurricane Valley Demonstration Site
Hurricane Valley Farm in Falmouth is a perfect spot to showcase practices for improving compaction. Part of this farm was once used as a landing strip for a private plane and the heavy clay soil holds moisture agonizingly late into the spring. Today the site is operated by Cultivating Community for farmer training and farmland access. To build the demonstration site we first loosened the soil with a BCS Subsoiler, then formed permanent raised beds by double-digging the pathways. On several beds we spread 4-5 inches of compost to demonstrate a deep compost mulch system. All beds are planted with culturally important crops like African eggplant, amaranth and corn, along with a mix of deep-rooted cover crops. We have hosted several educational events at the site and plan to document the changes in soil health over time through video and written resources.
The Maine Urban Soil Health Project is funded by a Maine Healthy Soils Technical Assistance Capacity Grant. For more information contact Carrick Gambell by email at carrick.gambell@maine.edu. To stay up to date on workshops and educational offerings, subscribe to our Maine Urban Soil Health Project newsletter.
Maine Weather and Climate Overview
By Sean Birkel, Assistant Extension Professor, Maine State Climatologist, Cooperative Extension, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine
Maine Weather & Climate, October 2026
Monthly Recap
September average temperature was near or below normal across most of the state, except in the Midcoast region where some locations were above normal due to warm temperatures through first half of the month. Frost was reported in northern Maine as early as September 9th, and patchy frost in central areas on the 24–25th. Drought expanded statewide due to growing precipitation deficits, especially across an area spanning Midcoast to coastal Hancock County where extreme drought (D3) was introduced on the U.S. Drought Monitor in the third week of the month. An early-season nor’easter developed a few days later, stalling off the mid-Atlantic, and producing rainfall across Maine September 27–29. Storm precipitation totals generally ranged 1–3.5 inches across the southern half of the state, whereas Aroostook and northern Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset counties received less than 1 inch. This beneficial rainfall increased soil moisture, but hydrologic drought continuous, especially for the hardest-hit areas where groundwater levels have yet to recover from last year’s drought. As a result of these continuing deficits, the U.S. Drought Monitor map issued September 29 continues to show areas of severe (D2) and extreme (D3) drought. Additional information is available on the Maine Climate Office.
Outlooks
October: Above normal temperature and equal chances of above or below normal precipitation.
Oct–Nov–Dec: Above normal temperature and equal chances of above or below normal precipitation.
The NOAA Climate Prediction Center reports that El Niño is strengthening with greater than 90% chance of a very strong event during fall and winter 2026/27. There is a 75% chance of this event exceeding the strength of previous El Niños since 1950. Strong to very strong El Niño events tend to deliver above normal winter temperature and precipitation.
Maine Statewide 2026 Temperature & Precipitation Rankings
- Sep: Monthly summary not yet available
- Aug: 11th Warmest (much above average), 46th Driest (near average)
- Jul: 33rd Warmest (above average), 4th Driest (much below average)
- Jun: 12th Warmest (much above average), 35th Wettest (above average)
- May: 60th Coldest (near average), 29th Wettest (above average)
- Apr: 32nd Warmest (above average), 28th Wettest (above average)
- Mar: 34th Warmest (above average), 58th Driest (near average)
- Feb: 52nd Warmest (near average), 2nd Driest (much below average)
- Jan: 54th Warmest (near average), 28th Driest (below average)
- Summer (Jun–Aug): 5th Warmest (much above average), 38th Driest (below average)
- Spring (Mar–May): 30th Warmest (above average), 34th Wettest (above average)
- Winter (Dec–Feb): 60th Warmest (near average), 5th Driest (much below average)
For additional information, including historical temperature and precipitation data, weather forecasts, and seasonal climate outlooks, visit the Maine Climate Office website.
Do you appreciate the work we are doing?
Consider making a contribution to the Maine Master Gardener Development Fund. Your dollars will support and expand Master Gardener Volunteer community outreach across Maine.
Your feedback is important to us!
We appreciate your feedback and ideas for future Maine Home Garden News topics. We look forward to sharing new information and inspiration in future issues.
Subscribe to Maine Home Garden News
Let us know if you would like to be notified when new issues are posted. To receive e-mail notifications, click on the Subscribe button below.
University of Maine Cooperative Extension is an equal opportunity institution and provider committed to nondiscrimination.
For more information, visit extension.umaine.edu/nondiscrimination.
University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Maine Home Garden News is designed to equip home gardeners with practical, timely information.
For more information or questions, contact Kate Garland at katherine.garland@maine.edu or 1.800.287.1485 (in Maine).
Visit our Archives to see past issues.
Maine Home Garden News was created in response to a continued increase in requests for information on gardening and includes timely and seasonal tips, as well as research-based articles on all aspects of gardening. Articles are written by UMaine Extension specialists, educators, and horticulture professionals, as well as Master Gardener Volunteers from around Maine. The following staff and volunteer team take great care editing content, designing the web and email platforms, maintaining email lists, and getting hard copies mailed to those who don’t have access to the internet: Abby Zelz*, Barbara Harrity*, Kate Garland, Mary Michaud, Michelle Snowden, Naomi Jacobs*, Phoebe Call*, and Wendy Robertson.
*Master Gardener Volunteers
Information in this publication is provided purely for educational purposes. No responsibility is assumed for any problems associated with the use of products or services mentioned. No endorsement of products or companies is intended, nor is criticism of unnamed products or companies implied.
© 2023
Call 800.287.0274 (in Maine), or 207.581.3188, for information on publications and program offerings from University of Maine Cooperative Extension, or visit extension.umaine.edu.