Hi Gardeners
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| Tropical hibiscus 'The Path' |
Before my second eye
surgery I hustled to bring my tender plants inside, working in the rain on some
days. I moved over 100 pots inside. About 10 of these are huge floor pots with
5-6 feet tall plants. It’s getting
harder and harder to move these in and out and I am seriously thinking that
they will not be moved outside next year.
Once inside I have
to weave the plants into the available space while leaving space to water them.
I have to find saucers for each pot. Grow lights must be hung and timers adjusted.
It’s a week or so of hard work. But when
I am done it makes me happy to be inside such a nice green spot, add my birds
singing and it’s my personal jungle.
Every year I say I
will salvage fewer plants and end up doing the opposite. Every window is packed
and there are grow lights all over. I am a sucker for things that bloom all
winter inside, and I hate letting perfectly good plants die when I know I could
save them for next year. I was sitting outside yesterday and admiring some of
the gorgeous cane type begonias I have on the deck and thinking “I could bring
that one or this one inside.” And put
where?
Back in September I
wrote about tender perennials you can save for next year. Many people don’t
realize they can save some of these plants so they won’t have to buy them again
next season. Here’s the link to the
September blog;
I still have just a
few pots of bulbs that need bringing inside. This year I am going to dump the
pots after frost kills the foliage and separate the bulbs, since the pots are
so packed, and they didn’t bloom well this year. These are bulbs like
crocosemia, peacock glads, rain lilies, eucomis, and so on, which aren’t winter
hardy here.
Some things
multiplied over the summer. The violet
stemmed taro put runners out into the pond it was sitting in and now there are
4 plants. I left two in water filled containers and potted two in soil, I’ll
see which over winter the best. The burgundy leaved canna produced a new plant
too, I have 3 of these now. Did you know cannas in bright light will stay nice
looking through the winter inside? Little spider plants fell off big plants and
rooted that had to be potted and brought inside too.
Although I have
disrupted the garden by digging out this and that and moving pots inside, a lot
of things are still blooming. The dahlias got a late start this spring and are
just now at their best. Roses are in bloom again and anemone and toad lilies.
The sweet autumn clematis and asters are spreading drifts of white. Mums are
blooming and of course the annuals are still going. The verbena bonariensis
is blooming again. Some snapdragons, violas and cleome are reblooming too. The verbena bonariensis
isn’t reliably hardy in zone 5-6. I’m
wondering if I can overwinter it some way.
There I go again.
The leaves seem
slow to color up this year. The oak is
starting to shed some leaves, the maples are beginning to turn but most of the
trees seem to be carrying on with summer.
That’s ok, a slow, long fall is always welcome.
I am slowly
adjusting to my new eyes. I no longer
need glasses for distance but still need them for close work. That means
instead of wearing glasses all the time I carry a pair of reading glasses in my
pocket. It’s interesting since I didn’t realize how often one switches between
close vision and distance vision. Try weeding without being able to see up
close. And medium range vision like working on the computer, is especially
challenging. So is looking through the viewfinder on the camera and getting it focused. And since the cataracts
were removed everything seems so much brighter.
But I will adjust.
The month ahead-October gardening
For gardeners in many parts of the country
October brings a new period of activity in the garden. It’s time to plant bulbs and start the garden
clean up. There is always a debate among gardeners whether or not to clean up
the garden in the fall or spring. It’s a personal decision but there are some things
to consider before making the decision.
The vegetable garden should be cleaned in
fall if possible. It’s time to put away
the tomato cages, stakes, sprinklers and other equipment. Remove plant debris
to the compost pile. This helps prevent insects and disease over wintering in
the garden. Add manure and compost to beds. I would suggest waiting until a
hard freeze or two before adding amendments.
That’s because the freeze may kill insect eggs and disease spores on the
soil surface. Adding manure or compost
before a freeze may protect them.
If you need to harvest anything like carrots
or potatoes, it’s time to get it done. Yes, you can cover the carrots with
straw bales and then go out and shovel a path to the garden, move the heavy
soaked bales and dig up some carrots in winter and then move the heavy bales
back over the patch. But that’s not a
really practical solution is it? Carrots can be stored in a more accessible
space indoors for a long time.
Flower bed cleanup in fall can be done,
especially if you like a neat look going into winter. Many gardeners do fall
clean up. But leaving the cleanup- or at least most of it until spring does
have some advantages. Birds and beneficial insects can use the seeds and plant
parts left behind over winter. Seed heads, stalks and stems, and grass clumps
can provide winter interest in a bland environment.
But the most compelling reason to leave
cleanup until spring is that it is the way nature does it. The dying foliage
protects the crowns and roots of plants and traps snow, which also protects
plant parts. The decomposing foliage returns nutrients to the soil. One plant
to leave alone until spring is the chrysanthemum. Removing stems in fall often
removes buds for next years foliage at their base. You can carefully cut dead
stems back to about 6 inches but don’t remove stems.
If you want to collect
seeds of various plants get it done soon. Some seeds of various flowers can be
sown in fall for spring germination. To
read more about seed storage and fall sowing you can go to this page;
Before a freeze you need to dig up summer
bulbs such as glads, dahlias, canna, and so on if you want them for next year.
Pick a stretch of sunny days so that after you dig them you can let them cure
in the sun for a day or two. Make sure
they won’t freeze outside at night; you may have to bring them in at night.
Shake off the soil after it dries but don’t
wash the bulbs/tubers. After a day or
two of curing you can cut off any foliage and pack the bulbs/tubers in slightly
dampened wood shavings and store them in a cool, (above freezing) dry, dark
spot.
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| Dahlia tubers curing |
It’s time to get bulbs for spring blooming
plants planted. They can be planted from the time the soil starts to cool down
until it freezes but don’t leave this until the last minute. I’ve been writing
about bulbs in the last few blogs and there’s an article below on the actual
planting process.
Don’t prune roses, shrubs and trees until
they have gone dormant. Pruning some plants
before dormancy will cause them to put out new growth, which takes energy best
conserved for spring growth. The new growth will probably be winter killed
also. After a few hard freezes and the
loss of their leaves, roses, shrubs and trees can be pruned. Spring flowering shrubs like forsythia and
lilac, may not bloom in the spring if you prune them now, however.
You may still need to mow through October.
Grass should not be too long when it gets covered with snow. Grass naturally
starts growing slower as the day length gets shorter, but it will grow until
the ground freezes. In most of the
country, zones 7 and below, it’s too late now to seed and fertilize the lawn.
Get those bird feeders filled. You can use just black oil sunflower seed and
suet cakes and attract most birds without a lot of waste. Add thistle seed and
a very small amount of cracked corn, maybe some chopped peanuts and you will
have pleased just about every bird species that visits feeders. Most wild bird feed is filled with things
like milo, red millet, oats and other seeds most birds really aren’t fond
of. It gets wasted below the feeder.
There is concern among conservationists that
bird species are vanishing, and bird populations are down in numbers. Feeding birds in winter does help them and it
is a pleasant thing to sit and watch the birds in the winter. Put your feeder
just outside a window so you can sit
and watch the birds.
Don’t waste time raking leaves unless you are
collecting them for composting or covering plants. Mow over leaves and let the
small pieces fertilize the lawn. A thick layer of dead leaves could harm the
grass but a light layer or chopped leaves won’t. Putting leaves in plastic bags or any bags
and sending them to a landfill is blasphemy for a gardener. You are wasting a valuable resource. Leaves
are natures fertilizer and mulch.
Don’t get me started on leaf blowers. Gardeners do not need a leaf blower, which
uses fossil fuels, pollutes the atmosphere and causes noise pollution. There
might be some limited value in leaf blowers for those who need to clear off
lots of paved areas in commercial settings, but a home gardener does not need a
leaf blower. To use such an environmentally unfriendly machine to blow around a
valuable garden resource is just nuts.
One thing to make sure you do this October is
to get some time outside. It’s a
beautiful time of year but it’s fleeting.
Enjoy it while you can.
Almanac
October’s full moon
occurs on the 13th. This full moon is called the Hunters moon, Dying
Grass moon or Traveling moon as Native Americans often moved to winter grounds
during this time. The Hunters moon is named such because at this time of year
the moon rises early in the evening and stays bright until almost dawn, letting
hunters easily track animals in the night. (It’s now illegal to hunt most game
animals after the sun goes down.) The grass isn’t dying (Dying grass moon)
around here- I am still mowing, but it will die soon I suppose. The moon’s
perigee occurs on the 26th.
Apogee is the 10th.
If you like sky
gazing, you may want to look for the Draconid meteors which will be at their
peak Oct 9th. This meteor
shower isn’t as frequent or showy as others but who knows what you might
see. Look for the meteors in the
northwest sky just after dark. Peak is
near the full moon so viewing may not be at its best. Later in the month the Orionid meteor shower
peaks around October 20-21st. Good viewing times for this meteor
shower are around midnight. These
meteors can be seen in all parts of the sky.
The meteors are debris from the tail of Halley’s Comet.
October’s
birthstones are the Tourmaline and Opal.
October’s birth flower was the calendula originally, but now is listed
as marigold. Calendulas were the
“marigold” before the African plant we now call marigold was discovered. So now
either calendula or marigolds is considered correct. The meaning in flower language is warm,
undying and contented love.
October is National
popcorn popping month, vegetarian month, seafood month, cookie month, pizza
month, and applejack month. If you are
not into food it’s also National Diabetes month, National Adopt a Shelter Dog
month, National Domestic Violence Awareness month and of course the most used
and abused “cause” of all, Breast Cancer awareness month. I’m not against
breast cancer awareness just the commercialization of it.
Holidays of note in
October include the 10th –World Egg Day – National Dessert day, 21st
–Sweetest Day, 20th, National Pumpkin Cheesecake day, 22nd
– National Nut Day, 24th –and then there’s two of the world’s
favorite holidays, 30th -Devils night and 31st -
Halloween.
Tips
for planting bulbs
I wrote about
buying spring blooming bulbs last month.
Hopefully every gardener did buy some bulbs this fall and is waiting for
them to arrive. Once you get them try to plant them promptly. If you need to
hold them a few days store them in a cool, dark place.
Package directions
will tell you how far apart to space bulbs.
Generally large bulbs should be about 6 inches apart, small bulbs 2-3
inches. Arrange your bulbs in a
staggered way, not in straight lines for a more natural look. Small groups of
the same color or type of bulb look better than single bulbs. Bulbs can be layered- plant larger bulbs deep
and smaller bulbs less deeply, but don’t place small bulbs directly over the
large, just close by.
Try not to remove
any papery covering some bulbs have, but don’t worry if some of it falls off.
Don’t separate the scales- or sections – which lily bulbs have and don’t try to
divide daffodils with double or triple “noses”.
Yes, experts propagate bulbs that way, but it isn’t as easy as it seems,
and your best bet is to plant the bulbs as they came. You’ll get larger flowers this way.
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| Do not separate the scales ( sections) of a lily bulb before planting. |
You can plant any
bulb sections or tiny bulbs that fall off bulb clumps and hope some of them
also bloom. It can take another year or
two in some cases.
A little mold on
bulbs that still feel firm will not harm them. Just plant them as normal. Mushy
or rotted looking bulbs should be discarded. If the bulbs arrived that way, I
would contact the company you bought them from and ask for a refund.
Don't add bone meal to the
Don’t use bone meal
in the bottom of your hole. Bone meal should not be used at all. Old books suggest it and some new references
just copy that but in our times bone meal is steamed and processed for safety
and little is left in the way of nutrients. It can attract some animals, which
dig up your bulbs looking for it. Blood meal will also attract, rather than
repel some pests.
You can use a general-purpose
garden fertilizer or fertilizer formulated for bulbs but mix it with the soil
you are back filling with or sprinkle it on the soil surface, don’t dump it in
the hole. That may burn roots.
Never add peat or
compost to holes for bulbs. These can retain water, especially if the native
soil is clay, and bulbs do not like that. They may rot before they root.
After planting
You probably won’t
need to water bulbs after planting. If
it’s very dry all fall a good soaking before the ground freezes might be
indicated. Don’t add thick mulch after planting as this may impede the bulbs
emergence. A light mulch of 2 inches or
less is ok and helps disguise the planting area from animals. If thick layers
of leaves blow over planted bulbs remove some of the matted leaves in
spring
so that bulbs don’t struggle to emerge.
Mark the spots
where you planted bulbs, so you know where they are. Some fall planted bulbs and rhizomes are slow
to emerge in the spring and you don’t want to damage them or plant over them.
When bulbs just
begin to emerge in the spring a small amount of slow release granular
fertilizer sprinkled on the soil around them, especially if you can do it just
before a spring rain, will improve their vigor and size. This practice may help bubs that aren’t
reliably perennial return the next year too.
And if spring is dry make sure to water your bulbs.
What do I do about animals eating or digging
up bulbs?
Narcissus,
daffodil, and allium bulbs are not eaten by animals, although they can be dug
out of the ground and left to die. If you have problems with animals like deer
eating the flowers in the spring these bulbs are also good choices.
If you have trouble
with animals digging up bulbs to eat you can lay a piece of wire fencing over
the planted area until the ground is frozen. Make sure you remove it early in
the spring if you don’t remove it in the fall after the ground freezes. A piece of lattice, with 2-inch holes can be
placed on the ground and the bulbs planted through the holes. This discourages
widespread digging, such as from pets, which really aren’t after the bulb to
eat. You can leave it and disguise it with mulch or remove it before the plants
get very large.
I cover my bulb
planting areas with leaves, evergreen branches, rose trimmings or straw to
disguise the freshly dug area and discourage animals from digging there. Mulch
can be used too, if it’s not over 2-3 inches deep. Planting bulbs under the remaining foliage of
things like hosta is also a good disguise.
Moles do not eat
bulbs, but their tunnels attract other animals which do and their tunneling can
sink bulbs too deep to emerge. If you have lots of moles you can plant bulbs in
pots, which you sink in the ground to their rim. The pots should be deep enough
for the type of bulb planted in them. Several bulbs can be planted in each pot
if there is enough space. Pots sunk in clay soil may hold more moisture, even
with good drainage holes.
You can also build
a cage of hardwire cloth, (woven wire mesh) – with ½ inch or smaller
openings. Dig a hole and place the cage
in it. Place the bulbs inside and add
the soil you removed from the hole. The
roots of the bulbs easily grow through the mesh and drainage isn’t impeded.
Folk remedies like
sprinkling red pepper or mothballs on the ground do not keep bulbs from being
dug up. Some birds and other animals actually like red pepper and it’s quickly
washed away in fall rains. Mothballs are very poisonous to children and pets
and add harmful chemicals to your soil when they dissolve. They should never be used outside.
Did you forget to plant bulbs and the
ground is frozen?
Don’t try to keep
bulbs in a dormant state until the next fall or until spring. While peonies and lilies can be spring
planted, holding over plants or bulbs you bought in the fall isn’t a good
idea.
There’s still time
to buy bulbs online for most gardeners.
See the list of garden catalogs to the right of the blog if you need
links to online sources.
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| Plant crocus now for spring blooms |
Kale
chips
Do you have kale
growing in your fall garden? Here’s a
quick and delicious way to use up some of it.
Spray a cookie
sheet with pan spray. I like to use an
olive oil spray.
Arrange your kale
pieces on the sheet so they don’t overlap.
Spray them with your cooking spray lightly. Sprinkle with salt, I like fine sea salt.
Bake the kale in an
oven set at 250 degrees F. for about 5 minutes or until crispy. Watch the kale carefully so it doesn’t burn.
For variation try
sprinkling on other spices such as red pepper, or adding some powdered cheese
as you take the chips out of the oven.
“October,
baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea
soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a
thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”
― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments
― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
And So On….
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I write this because I
love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across in my
research each week. It keeps me engaged with people and horticulture. It’s a
hobby, basically. I hope you enjoy it. If you are on my mailing list and at any
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