September 3, 2013 - Kim’s Weekly
Garden Newsletter
These weekly garden notes are
written by Kim Willis, unless another author is noted, and the opinions
expressed in these notes are her opinions and do not represent any other
individual, group or organizations opinions.
Hi Gardeners
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| Hibiscus |
I love the cooler weather although I am still going to have
to do some more watering later. Some of
you may have gotten lots of rain over the weekend but our total was less than a
half inch. The weather service says our
summer has been pretty much near normal in temperature and most of the state
has been near normal in precipitation. The upper half of the thumb- close to me, and
part of the central, upper half of the Lower Peninsula has been down a little
from average precipitation.
Remember me talking about Ember Days? These are religious days that were “laid over”
pagan calendar days. They occur every
three months, February, May, September and December this year. There are 3 Ember days in each of these
months. In folklore the weather on an
Ember Day will predict the weather for the next three months. In May the Ember days were the 22nd,
the 24th and the 25th.
The weather on the 22nd would predict the July weather, the
weather on the 24th predicts August weather and the weather on May
25th predicts this month’s weather.
May 25th we had sunny, slightly cooler than average weather. So September should be a sunny, cool
month. We’ll see.
Our garden has been so great this year. We picked a 6 pound honeyrock muskmelon this
week and have a couple slightly smaller ones that will need picking soon. The
melon was delicious, so sweet and juicy.
The weather must have been perfect for melons and pumpkins as we have
never had so productive vine crops.
I have so many tomatoes I can’t keep up with processing
them. One, labeled Tigerella, is
producing huge yellow beefsteak type tomatoes, lightly streaked with red. They crack at the stem end a lot but are
tasty. However that does not fit the description
of Tigerella in the heirloom catalogs. Tigerella is supposed to be a 2 inch tomato,
red with orange stripes. So much for
keeping the labels to know what I grew.
I have dug all the potatoes as of last night, I filled a 5
gallon tall bucket to overflowing, probably 30 pounds of potatoes. I gave about 3 pounds of fingerlings to my
daughter in law Sunday, dug about 10 pounds last week and since July we have
eaten potatoes solely from the garden, easily another 15 pounds, so our 4 foot
by 16 foot bed produced about 50 pounds of potatoes.
I had mostly fingerlings, yellow and red potatoes in there,
but planted a few russet potatoes that had sprouted from grocery store
potatoes. I was amazed last night that
some of these russets were huge, the skin is very rough looking, but they must
weigh close to a half pound each. We
will be trying some baked potatoes tonight now that the weather is cooler.
As for flowers the star of the garden now is the
hibiscus. They are very gaudy flowers
but I love them. The marigolds and
sunflowers are at their peak and the snapdragons are starting to bloom
again. The tiny white field asters are
beginning to bloom, the plants are invasive as heck but the frothy little
flowers are pretty.
September almanac
This month we have the Harvest moon, the full moon closest
to the fall equinox. Harvest moon can be
either in September or October. A Native
American name for the September full moon is also corn moon. The harvest moon will occur on the 19th
and the fall equinox is the 22nd. While meteorological fall begins September 1, astronomical fall begins on the equinox. The length of the day and night is exactly 12
hours each on that day then the days get 2-3 minutes shorter each day until the
daylight reaches about 9 hours at the December solstice.
It is interesting that nature provides 13 full moons in one
of our calendar years. Native Americans
in some tribes ended a year at 12 moons and began a new year; others ended a
year at 13 moons. Each tribe had
slightly different names for a new moon, when Europeans came they took note of
the moon names that most closely resembled activities they were familiar with
at that time of the year. The Native
Americans in the Great Lakes region, the Chippewa and Ojibwa, would have called
the September full moon “manoominike-giizis”
or rice moon because they would have
been harvesting wild rice.
We have already had one holiday in September, Labor Day. Other special days in September are
Grandparents Day September 8th, Patriots Day on the 11th and
Native American day on the 27th.
Here are some weird “days” celebrated in September: 10th - TV
Dinner Day, 18th –Rice Krispies Treat Day, 21st –World Gratitude
Day, 28th – Drink Beer Day. It’s Hispanic Heritage Month, Chicken
Month, and National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. It’s also National Emergency Preparedness
month and a good time to check your emergency supplies.
The September birthstone is the sapphire, the September
flower is the aster. With the world in
a state of great unrest it’s important to note that WWII began, (1939) and
ended in September,(1945). Gunsmoke (
1955) and Lassie ( 1954) debuted in September.
The US Constitution was signed in September ( 1787). Chief Geronimo surrendered, Squeaky From
tried to kill President Gerald Ford, President McKinley was shot and later
died, Jimi Hendrix and James Dean died, and Gerald Ford was shot at again by
Sara Moore.
Things to do in the
garden in September
It’s a great time to plant grass seed, lay sod, and plant
trees and shrubs. It’s a good time to plant most perennials. It’s
time to start planting bulbs for spring flowers; you can plant most of them
until the ground freezes, but plant lilies as soon as you see them for sale or
as they are shipped to you. Dig your
summer flowering bulbs after a frost has killed the tops, or after they have
finished blooming and the tops are drying up.
Hold off on pruning roses, trees and shrubs until the plants
are dormant. Pruning in the early fall
encourages soft new growth, which is often killed during the first cold snap
and also diverts some of the plants energy which could go to strong root growth. You can keep fertilizing annuals if you wish
but don’t fertilize perennials and roses now.
Woody plants and the lawn can be
fertilized to maximize good root growth.
You still have time to plant lettuces and kale for a fall
crop. Clean up the vegetable garden as
plants finish producing or are killed by frost.
Dig potatoes if the vines are dead, if you leave them in the ground
through a wet fall, they may rot or start re-growing. Leave pumpkins on the vine as long as
possible. Remove the flowers of
tomatoes, peppers and vine crops now as they don’t have time to produce more
fruit and that will concentrate the plants energy on the green fruit left on
the plant.
Once the veggie garden beds are cleaned up it’s a good time
to add manure, compost and other soil amendments. It’s also a good time to prepare new veggie
and flower beds for next spring by loosening up the ground, then heaping on
lots of organic matter. You’ll be ready
to plant in the spring.
Get rid of mature stick tight, thistle and burdock plants
before the plants set seed and give you a bumper crop next year. Get a mulching
blade on your mower if it doesn’t have one and mulch the falling leaves into
the lawn rather than raking them, unless you want to rake them for the compost
pile.
Buy straw for the strawberries and the doghouse. Check out the garden stores for bargains on
mulch, stone, soil and other bagged items they don’t want to carry through
winter. You may want to have some row covers or old sheets handy for covering
some plants through those first early frosts, so they can continue to bloom
through Indian summer.
Collect seeds of plants you want to try to grow again next
year. Some hybrid plants seed won’t
produce plants that looked exactly like the parents but for many things like
zinnias, marigolds, morning glories, cleome, sunflowers, nicotiana, salvia,
snapdragons and so on it doesn’t really matter, you’ll still get some good
plants from the seeds. Other seeds you collect, like the seeds of perennials,
can be a challenge to grow but fun too.
The seeds of hybrid vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and vine crops usually
will not produce good crops for you next year, but if you have non-hybrid
varieties that were not close enough to other varieties to cross pollinate, you
can save seed for next year.
It’s also time to dry herbs if you haven’t already and dry
flowers and grasses for fall arrangements. Your car can make a handy solar drying area if
you park it in the sun. Put the herbs or
flowers in brown paper bags and leave them in the car for a week or so, with
the windows rolled up. It makes the car
smell good too.
Goldenrod is not to
blame for your allergies!
I just heard someone complaining that their allergies are so
bad because there is a whole field of that “yellow stuff” across from
them. They are referring to Goldenrod,
that beautiful fall flowering plant that feeds so many butterflies and bees
late into fall when nothing else is available.
Goldenrod has heavy, sticky pollen that does not float in the air. It’s carried by insects. The culprit that causes fall hay fever is
ragweed, whose inconspicuous flowers produce pollen that floats on the wind; it
blooms at the same time as goldenrod.
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| Goldenrod and a morning glory. |
Goldenrod,
(Solidago), makes a great garden plant.
There are over 80 species of goldenrod in the United States, many
relatively unknown to gardeners, which may eventually become garden
classics. This is definitely a plant
that deserves some space in Michigan gardens.
Cultivated varieties of goldenrod include ‘Crown of Rays’,
tall and deep gold, ‘Goldrush’, a compact bright golden variety, ‘Fireworks’,
very tall and arching golden sprays, ‘Laurin’, only a foot tall and perfect for
containers and ‘Golden Fleece’ a groundcover style goldenrod. Native species that are good for gardens
include Solidago decumbens, which is native to the Rockies and good for alpine
and rock gardens. At only 6 inches tall,
it has red stems and golden flowers. Solidago stricta, a native to the western
states, has straight upright wands of golden flowers.
Goldenrod’s arching golden sprays light up fall flowerbeds. Every
butterfly garden should have goldenrod. Goldenrod is good in naturalized and
wildflower gardens, but also looks good in mixed borders. It is gorgeous combined with blue asters,
Caryopteris, Russian Sage, or purple and blue Buddleia. Goldenrod looks stunning in floral
arrangements and is long lasting in a vase.
It also dries well.
How to grow goldenrod
Goldenrod is a perennial plant hardy from zone 4-9. Most over winter as a basal rosette of
foliage, from which tall spikes of leaves arise, eventually forming flower
heads on the ends. Goldenrods range from 6” tall to about 4 feet. The leaves of most goldenrods are green to
gray-green, narrow and long.
The tiny goldenrod flowers are shades of yellow from deep
golden to pale yellow and occur in clusters at the end of stems. They contain nectar and protein rich pollen
that help butterflies and bees survive the winter. Many other beneficial insects are often found
on goldenrod in the fall, such as the praying mantis, which is looking for a
last meal before winter. A small white
or yellow spider, called the goldenrod spider is a frequent resident.
Goldenrod produces seed but most gardeners will want to
start with plants. Specialty nurseries
carry named, improved varieties of goldenrod species and wildflower nurseries
have the more common species. If you
have goldenrod on your own property or permission to dig it on someone else’s
property you can transplant plants into your own garden. Choose the plants when they are in full
bloom, since individual plants vary in how pretty they are. If you keep them well watered after the
transplant, they generally do quite well.
Goldenrod prefers full sun.
Most species are drought resistant once established. They are generally not fussy about soil type,
but don’t like wet areas. Be aware that
goldenrod reseeds freely and you will need to be alert to keep it from
spreading throughout the garden. Some
species also spread through rhizomes.
The stems of goldenrod often have a swelling or gall on
them. There are actually three types of
galls that form on goldenrod but the most familiar is the round swelling, which
forms on Solidago altissema, or Tall Goldenrod stems. Tall Goldenrod is common in the Midwest and
Eastern United States. These galls
contain the larvae of the goldenrod gall fly, which over winters snug inside
the tough walled sphere. These larvae
are an important food source for downy woodpeckers and chickadees in the
winter. They also make excellent fishing
bait.
One almost unknown fact about goldenrod is that it is a
native source of rubber. Thomas Edison
experimented with goldenrod rubber and the tires of a Ford Model T given to him
from Henry Ford were made of goldenrod rubber.
Edison gave all his promising experimental information to the US
government, but they failed to ever develop the product, probably because a way
to produce rubber from petroleum was developed.
Do blame the ragweed
for your allergies
Ragweed is a nondescript plant that often goes unnoticed but
has the power to make people’s lives miserable. It has two types of greenish, almost
unnoticeable flowers on each plant, male and female, and the male flowers shed
copious amounts of pollen into the air which drifts on the wind. This pollen is a major cause of “hayfever”
in late summer and fall. Since ragweed
blooms at the same time as goldenrod, poor goldenrod with its showy yellow
flowers often gets the blame for allergic symptoms. Goldenrod pollen is carried by insects and
is not the cause of seasonal allergies.
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| Ragweed leaves and flowers. |
If you could look at ragweed pollen under a microscope you
would be able to see the cruel hooks and barbs each grain of pollen carries,
which can get into human nasal passages and wreak havoc if they don’t find
their way to the female flower of another ragweed plant. Each large plant can release thousands of
pollen grains.
Common Ragweed,
(Ambrosia artemsiifolia) can get to 5 foot high easily in a season from
seed the size of dust and Giant Ragweed,(Ambrosia trifida), has been known to
grow 10 foot high. They prefer sun and
will grow anywhere, often thickly.
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| Young ragweed plants. |
Ragweed is an annual plant that emerges when the soil starts
to warm up in the spring. Even seasoned
gardeners sometimes mistake the early plants for marigold or tomato seedlings
and let them grow. Take a close look at
the foliage. It’s fern-like, and the
back of the leaf looks lighter, it’s covered in fine hairs. The younger leaves are arranged opposite to
each other but further down the line the leaves will become alternately arranged.
If you are in doubt crush a leaf of the
plant. Both tomatoes and marigolds have
a distinctive odor to their leaves when they are crushed. Ragweed doesn’t.
Ragweed stems are covered in fine hairs. The roots are shallow and the plants are
easily pulled, especially when young.
Ragweed is found in almost every state in the US now and causes misery
everywhere it goes.
If anyone is interested I have some young Muscovy ducks,
very pretty and quiet, and some Bantam chickens for sale, (not so quiet) just
write me for details. kimwillis151@gmail.com
Try to get out there and enjoy the weather
Kim
Garden as though you will live forever. William Kent
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