six acts of garden love for this week
Suddenly our leaves and pine needles are blanketing the lawn and garden with a beautiful, soft cover. Nights are dipping down into the 40’s here in Nashua, and there is a slight chance of frost Tuesday night into Wednesday morning!
Since I don’t concern myself with ‘cleaning’ the gardens and will leave perennials and grasses to stand until spring, I have time for other fun activities which I will list in terms of urgency:
ONE: Protect tender/potted plants
The forecast shows the potential for frost very soon, so I pulled all of my planters in to the garage and have started the process of preparing them for winter inside. I gradually acclimate them to indoor conditions and attempt to shoo away as many insects as possible.
Euphorbia tirucalli, aka ‘Pencil Cactus’ and Asplenium ‘Bird’s Nest Fern’ will will be potted up to larger containers then set back down into decorative planters and moved to the bright, indirect light of the living room.
Philodendron ‘Zanadu’ is currently soaking in a 5 gallon bucket of water in order to flush out insects and get the root ball well saturated before bringing indoors. After a few hours soaking, it too will then be sunk into a decorative planter. This process of potting up in plastic nursery pots paired with decorative ceramic planters works really well for me.
A large low planter of assorted sedum, both tender and hardy, will once again spend the winter on the south facing window sill. This will be the third winter inside! The hens & chicks bloomed and spread like crazy outside this summer.
two: clover lawn care
Now is a great time to overseed as temperatures are cooler and lawns aren’t so stressed. We started overseeding our lawn again with more mini clover seed, focusing on the areas beaten down during six months of construction this past February to July (click first photo for a larger view). In the third photo, you can see how a late April spring seeding where the drywell (second image) was installed has almost filled in. We will also overseed in the front where crabgrass is going dormant. You can see in the last photo the area that I heavily seeded with clover last year looks great. I just need to overseed more along the curb. Read about our clover lawn experience here.
I also picked up a bag of Espoma Organic Turf-Tone Fall Winterizer at Nashua Farmers’ Exchange today. While our lawn is looking really good, the folks at NFE explained that a fall application will get everything set up for a healthier spring! They also sell clover and grass seed and everything else you need to make your lawn look amazing.
three: get ready to plant seed garlic
While at Nashua Farmers’ Exchange, I picked up two heads of garlic to plant in my horse trough. This worked really well last year, and even with limited space, I had a pretty good crop to harvest this July.
Their seed garlic is selling fast, so better get in soon! This year, Kate recommended ‘Georgian Fire’ and “Katterman Organic’. She also gave me a handout for complete instructions on how to grow them for next year’s harvest. Tell them Barb sent you (tip: they are closed on Sundays and Tuesdays!)
four: keep building that compost pile!
The recent lawn preparation for more overseeding depleted the compost bins a bit, but we had fresh grass clippings (nitrogen) and I still had some Mainely Mulch (carbon) hanging around, so the bins are looking good again. I will continue to layer grass clippings and switch from Mainely Mulch to fallen leaves as they become available, building the 3 bins until they are overflowing, I will thank myself next spring!
We put almost all our kitchen scraps in the bins and our home-grown compost is better than anything we can buy! If you need to learn a bit about starting your own compost pile, this is a great book (affiliate link).
five: don’t stress out over brown needles
Remember, this is the time when conifers shed up to one third of their needles (hence the raining down of white pine needles in our back yard today!) This is an entirely normal and to be expected event this time of year. I took this image today of the ‘Schoodic’ jack pine in our front gravel garden. As long as the brown needles are showing up near the interior of the branch and not on the tips of the branch, there is nothing to worry about. I always refer readers to this great post about browning conifer needles by my favorite garden blogger, Margaret Roach.
NOTE: if you have planted any conifers or other evergreens this year, please continue to water them until the ground freezes. They need 1-2” of water weekly, depending upon the specimen size. Unlike deciduous trees, evergreens (azalea, rhododendron, conifers, etc.) transpire all through the winter. When the ground is frozen, they can’t access and uptake water to replenish what they are losing. Proper hydration is critical for winter survival!
six: clean and fill bird feeders
Everyone has been asking ‘what happened to all the birds?’ The reason for the slump in feeder activity can be seen hanging from all the trees and shrubs this time of year. We are seeing an abundance of fruit and berries and the birds are naturally going to seek out nature’s harvest before choosing our bird feeders. That said, I am noticing activity picking up again. So, this is a good time to wash, sanitize and refill your feeders with fresh seed. I personally love the golden safflower seed. Cardinals, finch, titmouse, nuthatch, chickadee and other songbirds love it, but the less desireable grackles and highly invasive European starlings don’t! It is highly nutritious with a high fat content that helps our birds survive cold temperatures. Find it at Nashua Farmers’ Exchange, and note that their annual bird seed sale is happening November 12-14. I never miss this opportunity to stock up on high quality seed that will keep my feeders well filled all winter long!
It’s going to be a stunningly beautiful week of weather, so get outside for some sunshine and garden fun!
~ Barb