MASON BEES, A LOOK AT SALLY’S PERENNIAL BORDER IN WINTER, COMPOSTING, AND POINSETTIAS.

So, okay, I got a little behind in my posting, but I don’t want to neglect the last couple of "Down in the Dirt with Diana" radio shows on KMUZ 88.5 FM. So here is the information on these shows, and links to the podcasts, then I can get to more current posts.    

About the Nov. 26, 2013 show:  

To hear this show, click this podcast link: 

Down in the Dirt Diana"  KMUZ 88.5   Nov 26, 2013

This episode of ‘Down in the Dirt with Diana’, broadcast on 11/26/2013, was so much fun. My first guest was Carol Horning, ‘the Bug Lady’, from the Marion County, Oregon, Master Gardener program, talking about raising Orchard Mason Bees. These little black bees are one of our native species and very hard working pollinators for about 6 weeks in early spring, just when most of the fruit trees are blooming. And they are industrious, buzzing so fast from flower to flower that one bee can do the work of 100 honeybees! Because they carry loads of pollen on special hairs on their abdomen, instead of in packets on their legs as honeybees do, they are 95% effective at pollinating the flowers they visit, as opposed to the honeybees at 5% effectiveness. They are also speedy, visiting twice as many flowers in a day than honeybees do.   

Mason Bee

image courtesy of wikimedia 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orchmason.jpg  

They are solitary bees, setting up their home alone and laying their eggs in any convenient tube-like hollow about 6” deep and about 5/16” wide. They are easy going, cute little critters, and do not sting, so they are easy and fun to raise and to keep around. There are easy ways to make appropriate nesting tubes to keep them where you want them. Carol talks about their life cycle, their needs, and how to make nesting tubes for them. If you are in the Salem area, you can see how the mason bee houses are constructed at the Marion County Master Gardener demonstration garden at 3180 Center Street NE, in Salem.

One way to make a Mason Bee Box 

For more information on Mason Bees and what you need in order to raise them, try one of these sites, or search out more on Google.   

http://county.wsu.edu/king/gardening/mg/factsheets/Fact%20Sheets/Orchard%20Mason%20Bees.pdf

http://clackamascountymastergardeners.org/10-Minute%20University/10-Minute%20University%20pdf's/Orchard%20Mason%20Bee.pdf

http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2010/02/with_some_other_pollinators_in.html

My second guest on this show was Sally Herman. Sally is an extraordinary Salem gardener, both in the organic vegetable line, and in ornamental gardening. She is an extremely knowledgeable plantswoman, a collector of unusual plants, and so not much is in ordinary in her garden. The topic of our discussion this day was her long curved double sided perennial/shrub border. She is of the garden philosophy that it is best to leave the plants to die back naturally, letting the leaves and seed heads lie, mulch it all, but wait until spring to do the major cleanup. By this time most of the leaves and stems, etc., will have decomposed to become a healthy soil addition and to help feed the plants for next year. I like her thinking. She does cut back the seed heads of some particularly problematic reseeders like Ligularia, but, for the most part, she just deals with reseeding when it comes. And because she has a fairly dense covering of plants, most of the perennial and weed seeds never have a chance to germinate. There is always something in bloom in her garden. The day that I was visiting, there were Camellias, Daphnes, and some beautiful bright yellow Mahonias in flower. As of this writing, we have just come out of an extended deep freeze. Before this freeze occurred, I would have said that Witch Hazel  (Hamamelis), Garrya (Silk tassel), Edgeworthia (a Daphne relative) and Wintersweet (Chimonanthes praecox) would be in bloom soon. Now I'm not so sure. It will be interesting to see what buds have been damaged beyond repair. For sure, the Edgeworthia and Winterweet buds are frozen, based on previous experience.

Hamamelis (Witch Hazel) flowers  

 COMPOST AND POINSETTIAS

Click here to hear the podcast of this episode :  

"Down In the Dirt with Diana" - Dec 10, 2013

Our first guest on this episode was Beth Myers–Shenai, Waste Management Coordinator for Marion County in Oregon, and a compost specialist. She gave us some great information on what compost is and how to use it. We will be talking about compost frequently on this blog and on the radio show.  

Compost pile in the snow - 85 degrees inside the pile, 25 degrees air temp. 

Our second guest was Ellen Egan, the owner of Egan Gardens, who told us all about Poinsettias. Listen in and learn!  

                         

Mulch Mode, Lasagna, and Daffodils, Oh My

I took a trip to Seattle this week to give a talk to the Seattle Chapter of the North America Rock Garden Society on ‘The Sex Life of Plants’.

What a great and receptive group of people they are. It feels like my 3^rd home (after Salem and Battle Ground). I spent the night with my good friends Judith and Vanca in Judith’s beautiful log home on 5 gorgeous acres studded with giant Sitka Spruce, Douglas Fir and quirky artwork, on the Skykomish River, in Gold Bar, WA. Judith Jones, as some of you might know, is the proprietor of Fancy Fronds Nursery, one of the premier fern nurseries anywhere. In fact Judith herself is one of the world’s experts on ferns. If you are interested in ferns, (and really, can you have too many?) check out her informational web site at

http://www.fancyfronds.com/ 

She knows her stuff and won’t steer you wrong !

I’m in mulch mode. The wind and rain has finally knocked all the leaves off the nearby trees. The house next door sits empty for now and that property is where most of the leaves are coming from. I can only hope that the new occupants will be as generous with their leaves as the last owner. They never minded that i would help rake them and haul them away. Perhaps the new owners will be gardeners and want to keep all the leaves for themselves. But that would be good. There is certainly no shortage of leaves around here. Over the weekend, I picked up 8 giant black plastic bags full of Linden Tree leaves that someone had set out by the curb for pickup. I will probably set some of these aside for next summer when leaves are not so easy to come by and I will be needing some for my compost pile.    

  

The borders and beds are all covered now, to a depth of 3–6“, but I already see the leaves compacting. What I didn't use on the beds are in one of my several compost piles. There is one under the front window hidden from view by the Scarlet Runner Bean trellis, and one in the back corner of the garden by the vegetable beds. My hot compost pile will be in the back under the pear tree. I have been holding back some of the bags of coffee grounds I picked up at Starbucks, along with kitchen scraps, and bags of grass clippings for about 6 weeks now, and I will be making one big pile all at once, hopefully by the end of this week. These, along with the leaves from the pear tree and from the neighbors English Walnut tree that hangs over our fence, and a few big sacks of the Red Maple leaves and the Linden will go into making a ‘hot’ pile. The last few years, I have been able get the pile close to about 130 degrees, but this year I am aiming higher.   

I’m trying an experimental thing with the mulch of Norway Maple leaves along the fence line. There is a little dip there, so there is an extra thick layer of leaves. Maple leaves like these take longer to break down, (unless you run them over with a mower first, or shred them in some way) but if not, they usually have just barely begun to decompose by spring. So, I took a couple of buckets of kitchen scraps and added a layer of them in the mulch, and I am also going to be adding some handfuls of alfalfa meal. Alfalfa meal is a concentrated  source of nitrogen, and the intention is to see if this makes the pile break down faster. I will report on how it has worked. 

There are 'Heavenly Blue' Morning Glories blooming inside our sun porch!  Apparently one of the stems wormed its way through an opening in the window earlier this year, and it took off, now it's growing up against the inside of the window, full of buds, and every once in a while one opens. The plant is rooted outside by the corner of the house but we are expecting to get our first real frost of the season this week, and I'm guessing it will knock the whole plant out. It is another experiment.         

So, big news! The first episode of 'Down in the Dirt with Diana' (the radio show) on KMUZ 88.5 FM, aired last week, Tuesday, Nov. 12.   

A quick summary :

My first guest was Dan Fahndrich, a landscape designer and co-owner of Farwest Gardens, a design/build company in Salem Oregon, in the horticulture business since 1976, discussing sheet composting, also referred to as Lasagna  gardening. See his work at his website:    http://farwestgardens.com/

Lasagna gardening, sheet composting, whatever you call it, is a great way to start a garden bed were there was not one before, even on a grassy or weedy area, without tilling. Once you have decided on the dimensions, you can either build a frame for a raised bed, or just mound it up. If the ground is compacted, (and usually it is) take a pitch fork and poke the ground in spots, rocking the tines back and forth, just loosening the ground a little for better drainage and to let the water penetrate. Make sure the soil is moist before starting the layers. Of course this is usually not a problem at this time of year. Think of sheet composting like making a big flattened compost pile, but without ever having to turn it. 

First lay down a thick layer of overlapping newspapers, about 6-10 sheets, or a thick piece of cardboard. This will kill the grass and weeds beneath it and add a lot of organic matter to the soil as the grass and weeds decompose. On top of this layer add alernate layers of what, in the compost world, are referred to as 'browns' or 'greens'. The microorganisms that are responsible for the breakdown need a combination of a carbon source (the browns) and a nitrogen source (the greens). On top of the first layer of newspaper or cardboard, add alternate layers of the same ingredients you would add to a compost pile. ‘Browns’ are anything that have a high carbon content, like leaves, newspaper or straw, and the ‘greens’ are vegetable scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds, manure.  Add them in layers about 2–4” deep, making the brown layers about twice as thick as the greens, moistening each layer as you go, until you have reached about 2’. Add a few shovelfuls of soil or finished compost occasionally - this helps to stimulate the breakdown by adding some necessary microorganisms. Finish the pile off with a layer of leaves or straw, then just let it sit. Cover it with plastic or groundcloth if the leaves start blowing away. By spring the layers will have broken down and compacted enough to plant directly into the pile. If the newspaper layer is very thick, or if you used cardboard, this first layer may not have broken down completely. To overcome this, just take a shovel or a pitchfork and cut down into it in spots, or dig a hole under the starts you are planting to give the roots of whatever may plant there a place to easily penetrate. 

We will be talking more about the benefits of no-till gardening in upcoming segments.    

Steve Vinisky, my second guest, is the proprietor of Cherry Creek Daffodils at  http://www.cherrycreekdaffodils.com/  and an internationally known expert on bulbs. He told us that the Willamette Valley is one of the 5 best growing areas in the world for bulbs. He breeds Daffodils, mostly miniatures, and explained to us that daffodils are such great garden plants, for one, because they are ‘critter proof’ – deer, mice, voles, all steer clear of them. The three things to remember when planting bulbs are full sun, well drained soil, and no summer water. However, some bulbs are more forgiving in this area, and can take some watering in a garden situation. .  

Daffodils are easy, almost fool proof. They increase well, but only need dividing when you notice a decrease in flowering. Daffodils (as many other bulbs) do extremely well in containers, as long as you keep the bulbs from freezing. This is as simple as bringing the dormant pot into a garage or basement, or digging a hole and plunging it into the ground. For an extra show, try making a  'Superpot" - planting up a container of daffodils or other bulbs in layers. In a large 10"-12" container, add about 6-8” of soil, place a layer of bulbs with the sides touching, then add enough soil to cover the bulbs just to the tips. Add another layer of bulbs alternating with the first layer. You can stop here or add another layer. Try mixing varieties or even types of bulbs. I'm going to try this one ! 

For more information on Daffodils check out the American Daffodil Society website at 

http://www.daffodilusa.org/

There are lots of bulb-related festivals and events in spring, and I will be listing them on the garden event calendar as they come up, but a very special one to keep in mind is the Amity Daffodil Festival.

https://sites.google.com/a/amity.k12.or.us/amity-daffodil-festival/  

This festival has been on-going since 1995, and is totally organized and run by the students of Amity High School in Amity, Oregon in cooperation with the American Daffodil Society, as a part of the Hospitality, Tourism, and Recreation Program at the School.  

And in case you were wondering, Daffodils and Narcissus are the same thing (the number one asked question). Narcissus is the scientific name for what we commonly call Daffodils.   

(Nomenclature note: The Narcissus was named for the beautiful youth in Greek Mythology who drowned while admiring his own reflection in the water. After he died, the gods took pity on him, and since they could not restore him to mortal life, they made a beautiful flower out of him that would bloom every spring.)  

Until next time - 

Happy Gardening !

Diana  

Tomato update and more

I received a high compliment this week. I was working in the front garden, when 3 typically noisy teenage boys came strutting their way down the street, talking their jive, pushing each other around a bit, trying to act cool. One of the boys looks at me and says, unexpectedly, “Hey, I love your garden”. Then one of the other boys, the biggest, baddest of the bunch, smiles and says “Yeah, you have a bad-ass garden!” and gave me some sort of thumbs up type hand sign that I can’t quite remember right now. Oh yeah, I’m cool –

I finally picked the rest of the grafted tomatoes. They were still green, with some of them just barely starting to turn, but I couldn't wait any longer. I have been holding off on harvesting them, knowing that the upcoming days were forecasted to be warm and sunny, and I was trying to give them every chance to ripen on the vine. 

A pound and a half of tomato

However, waiting this long was a bad judgment. First the good news: ‘Chocolate Stripes’ yielded 20 more pounds of (mostly green) tomatoes at this last picking, bringing the total pounds harvested, on this one plant, to over 77 pounds! ‘Brandywine’, though consistently at or near the top of the taste tests, is known to be a somewhat poor producer – still, there was an additional 14 pounds picked, for a total of 52 pounds. I can live with that. The bad news is that the pounding rain we had in September took a toll. Either it was physical damage to the tomatoes, or the quick influx of water through the system of the plants from the rain, but almost all 35 pounds of the newly picked tomatoes had some sort of brown watery spot on them, and I knew it would be a race to see if they would ripen before the rot spread too far. They have been sitting on the counter now for 6 days, and a few of them that were nearest to ripening have turned red, and we were able to salvage about half of each of them. There are some pretty big tomatoes there, and even half of one of these is a respectable size. But they are going downhill fast, and I've already delegated some to the compost pile. Unfortunately, I think most of them will be a loss. So I guess I can’t honestly say that I got 125 pounds of  EDIBLE tomatoes from these 2 plants, but they were harvested nonetheless. So it counts. Next year I need to be more diligent in picking them before the rain and cold hits. Every year is a learning process. And I never consider it a waste if something ends up feeding my compost pile. It’s all part of the cycle.  

I've started to work through the spent jungle of tangled up plants, neatening up the perennials and cutting back annuals at ground level, leaving their roots in the ground to decompose. I’m trying to disturb the soil as little as possible. I see no reason to pull them out, as long as there is no evidence of root disease or insects problems. I think it will be good for the soil to let them decay in place. And I've cleared enough debris out now to see where the English Ivy, bindweed and fireweed have encroached into my space from our neighbor’s yard along the fence line. It took a while to dig them and pull them out, but I know I am just stemming the tide. They'll be back. 

The Black Eyed Susan Vine (Thunbergia alata) is still performing well, with scattered blooms, climbing up the remains of the holly trunk. This is a good plant for this situation, as it is a fast grower and a prolific bloomer. I was pairing it with 'Heavenly Blue' morning glories, which in theory sounds beautiful to me, I love the orange/blue color combo, but the morning glories never quite lived up to my expectations. Not sure why. 

Black Eyed Susan Vine 
Thunbergia alata 

(Note to self – next year plant the Black Eyed Susan vines earlier in the season, and more of them - don’t bother with the ‘Heavenly Blue’ morning glories planted as companions – it’s a fabulous color combination, but for 2 years in a row the morning glories were such a struggle, started blooming so late, the leaves would wilt easily, and they never really lived up to the image I had. And don’t bother with the expensive gallon size plants of the Thunbergia. The one from the 4” pot I planted was just as big and healthy as the one from the gallon after a few weeks of growth, actually better. And use more of them the garden next year, maybe in different colors.)  

Plant profile:  Thunbergia alata (Black eyed Susan Vine) Native to tropical areas of East Africa, this twining vine is perennial and evergreen in warmer climates (zone 10) but for most of us it is grown as an annual, blooming all summer and fall, from seed sown in spring. It is a fast grower and a prolific bloomer, with attractive, broadly toothed, elongated arrow or heart shaped leaves with a rough texture. It covers itself with a multitude of flowers with 5 spreading petals, about 1 1/2 across. The typical color is a warm orange with a dark brownish spot in the center, but there are varieties in various shades of oranges, yellows, and white, with or without the dark eye spot, Most references give the growth rate to about 8' in a season, but ours has grown over 10' this year. In its native habitat and in warm climates, overwintering as a perennial vine, it can reach 20' or more. It is an excellent choice as a seasonal covering for a trellis or a fence, up the side of a house, or as a quick cover for an unsightly corner. The thin stems twine, but they need something to twine on, so give it some kind of support to twist itelf around.  It is frequently used in hanging baskets, where it will trail to about 4'. It does best in average soil, average watering, and full sun or afternoon shade. 

Thunbergia alata 

  

showing the 'winged' leaf stems 

(Nomenclature note: 

Thunbergia - named for Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1827), a Swedish naturalist and student of medicine, who spent many years in Africa and Japan exploring for plants. considered to be the Father of South African Botany.  

       
alata - winged, referring to the ridged (winged) petioles (the leaf stems) or maybe for the ridges on the seed capsules) 

I finally cut back the sunflowers. I was leaving the heads on for the birds. I like seeing the chickadees hanging upside down, pecking out the seeds. But now the stems are cut back to stumps, (again, no point in pulling out the roots ) and the few heads that still had seeds in them are now lying face up on the ground and the birds (and squirrels ) are still working on them. A bright blue California Jay was pecking away at them yesterday morning – bossy bully birds, but what a color! Kind of like ‘Heavenly Blue’ morning glories on the wing.   

The front yard compost pile, hidden from view by the bamboo trellis that is covered with Scarlet Runner beans in summer, was decomposed enough to use as mulch, so it is now spread over the area that I just cleaned up. It looks better already, and if nothing else was done to this area, I feel like it is ready for winter. But there will still be cleanup to attend to. There were a few zinnias and cosmos with flowers, so I left those. The spots of color are nice, and the bees and other pollinators are still out looking for food. The curly parsley that I planted last year (2012) was left to go to seed this year, so I am seeing LOTS of parsley seedlings germinating under the plants. I don’t think I will ever have to plant it again if I just keep letting at least one go to seed, and keep transplanting the seedlings to better spots. They make such a lovely edging to the flower borders, The frilly foliage is so clean and rich looking, so pretty, and so tasty, and the flowers are such lovely green umbels, swarming with tiny bees this summer. Next year I hope to learn what those bees are.  

(Note to self: use more green flowers next year)

I borrowed this great gardening helper last weekend. A seat for weeding, then turn it over and you have a comfy padded kneeler! Actually, it was a gift to my Mom many years ago, when we thought she could use it, as she was getting older. You can see it's been well used. She is no longer with us, but I came across it in my dad's garage and thought, now isn't that a great idea! So, am I getting old, or just smart? Don't answer that. 

Add caption

This stately specimen of Red Maple (Acer rubrum) is in the yard next door, going out in a blaze of glory. I covet those leaves, so I've got my rake and my wheelbarrow ready. Somehow, the neighbors don't seem to mind.  

Blazing !  

  

Requiem for a Red Rose

My apologies to you, my dear rose loving friends.  I admit right off the bat that I am not a rose person. They always seem to be more trouble than they are worth, and most rose bushes lack any sense of grace, in my eyes. That said, there are exceptions - to be noted later.  

I don’t like plants that stick me. Last week, I spent way too many hours with my friend Kim, pulling overgrown blackberries out of the display garden at the nursery in Battle Ground - humongous arching canes that seemed to come out of nowhere, poking up through thickets of overgrown shrubs, sometimes arching out 20' or more - 3 big pickup truck loads worth of brambles - 3 smashed down, overflowing loads. We are both showing the battle scars.  

And blackberries are really, in a way, just little roses. Well, sort of. They are, after all, in the same family (Rosaceae). And yes, I know you shouldn’t judge someone by the family he was born into, but still – a prickle is a prickle is a prickle. (blackberries and roses technically have prickles, not thorns. Prickles are outgrowths of the epidemis - the outer skin of the stem. They grow all long the stem and are usually easy to break off without damaging the stem. Roses and blackberries have them, in abundance! 

Prickle on a rose 

Thorns are different. They grow out of the leaf axils and are really modified, pointy stems, as in this Meyer Lemon or in Pyracantha.  

Thorns on a Meyer Lemon 

Pyracantha - can't see the spines, but they are there ! 

Now, spines are something different again. They are really modified leaves, as in this Opuntia (Prickly Pear Cactus) - think of this cactus pad as a big flattened stem and the spines as the leaves.  

Spines on an Opuntia Cactus 

(Nomenclature note:  Pyracantha comes from 2 Greek words -  pyr: meaning 'fire' – think funeral pyre or pyromaniac) and akanthos – meaning 'thorn' – so, literally, ‘Fire thorn’. This is also the common name of this plant, because of the fiery orange or red clusters of berries it gets in the fall, and the sharp thorns.)     

Yes, an individual rose is beautiful, and a well tended, disease resistant plant, can be lovely. And no one can argue that the fragrance is heady and intoxicating. And those bright orange or red rose hips are very pretty and very healthy for us.    

And, I admit to not knowing as much about roses as perhaps I should and so maybe I am pre-judging. But I do know that most roses are very disease prone and need lots of maintenance, usually of the chemical kind.   

I have seen some very effective and clean looking shrub roses. In fact I have one - ‘Paprika’ in the ‘Oso Easy’ series of landscape roses. I really do like his one. The color is exactly right, the size is right (I can easily keep to about 3 x 3, with occasional selective pruning.) I like that it is bushy and forms a nice foliage mound with small, glossy, dark green leaves that have never had a spot of disease, and it just keeps blooming all summer with 2”+ open faced flowers that the bees love. There are other colors in this series, but I only have room for one. So, see, maybe I do like roses !  

Paprika Rose

There is an exception to every rule, so they say, and this is mine. A rose that I really love, and this one is BECAUSE OF the prickles, is a species rose called (get ready) Rosa sericea forma pterocantha, or sometimes called Rosa omeiensis forma pterocantha (the Flora of China lists these as  separate species - small differences , but both have the ‘pterocantha’ form - botanists don’t always agree) – nevertheless, it is the pteracantha part here that is the key. Now these are prickles I can get behind! They are huge and beautifully translucent red and they light up like lanterns when the sun shines through them. It is the main reason that gardeners grow this one. It gets much too large for our little garden in Salem, but it’s a pretty cool plant and I would grow it if I had room to spare. It has small white flowers in early summer, but they come and go quickly, lovely but fleeting.

Rosa sericea forma pterocantha

(Nomenclature note: pteracantha  from the Greek word pteron meaning 'wing' (think Pterosaurus – literally –‘winged lizard’) and acanthus meaning 'thorn' – so 'winged thorn', referring to the giant thorns (well okay, prickles, but obviously used interchangeably in this description.)  

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I said my final goodbyes to the red hybrid tea rose that was growing in the front corner of the garden this week. It has been here at least 26 years, and I am guessing that it is much older than that. Since I have known it, it has always had black spot and mildew, has been somewhat misshapen, sort of weak, and this year I started noticing viral symptoms.    

So I finally did it. I dug it up. I feel good about it, but kind of bad also, because Marc does love his roses. But we all have a life span, and this one, I’m afraid, had reached the end of hers. It had a long life, and it is time to make room for the younger generation. If it does in fact have the mosaic rose virus as I suspect, it is probably the reason that it never lived up to its potential, at least on my watch, and will just continue to get weaker with time. So it is in the compost bin now, soon to be on its way to the municipal compost heap. But I thanked it for its long life and the pleasure it gave to Marc and to anyone else who paid attention to it all these years. (yes, I really do that)

Requiem for a Red Rose   

  

Now I have an open spot to plant something else. It’s a big decision in this tiny yard, where everything counts. In preparation though, I started a little mini compost pile in the hole where the rose was. I loosened the soil to about 20” deep and a little wider around, dumped in a bucket load of food scraps, added some of the not-quite finished compost from the pile that I am using for mulch, and mixed it with the soil from the hole, making sure that any food scraps were deeply covered. By next spring, the worms and microorganisms will have done their job and I should have a nice fertile spot for something new.   

Till Later --- 

Diana       

Sunny and Warm, so GET TO WORK !

So, after the rainfest we had in September (wettest September on record in the Pacific NW) and some seriously stormy weather in the first 2 weeks of October, we are cycling around to something just a little more comfortable. Can anyone say 'perfect'? 

                           

Portland/Salem weather forecast Oct 15 - 21

And that's good because there is so much to do in the garden right now. Major clean-up is underway, and there is no telling how long this fine weather will last, so I better get busy. Most of the annuals have succumbed to the ravages of old age, coupled with cold nights and driving rain. Zinnia heads are soggy sad. The perennials are dying back, sending their energy to their roots to fortify themselves for winter. Some of the hostas have bright yellow fall color, but the leaves have started to show the dry brown spotting of decay. Dying stems are getting all tangled up in each other and browning leaves are dangling, falling to the ground, Weeds that have been hidden all summer under major leafiness are now exposed, having patiently waited for their moment in the sun, and are ready to run with it. So things are starting to look pretty shabby. I never really think of it as unsightly, it is just nature doing its thing, and even though I am intrigued by the decaying process, I do try to keep things somewhat tidy and keep the diseases at bay as much as possible. My October garden To-Do list is long, and I likely won't get to it all, but there are some projects that have made it to my Must-Do list.  

Must Do List  

Cut back dead and dying annuals and vegetables. 

Tidy up perennials, but leave any seed heads on for the birds, 

Lightly rake up most of the debris.  

Weed ! Now that much of the foliage is gone throughout the garden, it is easy to see the miscellaneous weeds (lots of oxalis!) that was hiding underneath it all. The soil is moist and many of the weeds are young  and so they are easy to pull. Spending a little time at it now will save major time later. Carefully dig and pull any bindweed. 

Put anything obviously diseased and any perennial weeds into the compost-bin for pickup. 

Compost - it's ongoing, but there is so much to put in it this time of year. Keep a pile of woodier stuff seperate to add to pile-making, for aeration and carbon.    

Mulch! Probably the most important fall activity for soil improvement. I have a couple of compost piles that I have been working for the last couple of months and they are just about ready to use. Even though there are still some twigs and straw and corn cobs recognizable, it will make great mulch as it is, bringing up oodles of worms to finish the job. It will have transformed into beautiful healthy soil by spring. 

Rake leaves  - mix into compost piles 

Rake leaves - stockpile them until there is enough to layer with 'green ' material. to make a 'hot' pile at least 3' high x 5' wide.   

Rake leaves - spread as mulch on the garden.  

Rake leaves - they just keep falling --     

One last lawn mowing - maybe.  

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So things are winding down, but there are still flashes of color.

    

Zinnia 

Coleus and Tuberous Begonia

Agastache 'Orange Nectar' 

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I have been waiting all summer for this Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia) to bloom, and had almost given up on it. Admittedly, it got off a late start. In fact I'm kind of surprised that it is alive at all. Due to lack of overwintering space, it was left out in the cold, uncovered, all winter, in a large pot. I had resigned myself to thinking of it as an annual, and had given it up for dead. (Brugmansia is native to tropical areas of South America where it can become a large shrub or small tree, reaching from 10 to 36 feet. It needs winter protection here (zone 8) to do well.) But life is persistent, and in spite of my mistreatment, it sent a up a couple of small shoots very early on, and continued to grow, though not blooming, until finally culminating this week in a late show of these loveliest of trumpet flowers, all opening within a few days. There are still a few small flower buds forming, but certainly there is not enough heat or time for them to develop before cold envelopes them, so this is it. A wonderful late season surprise.   

Brugmansia in bloom, finally   

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The pollinators are still at it, though l am seeing fewer and fewer of them. All summer long the yard was abuzz, but now, with fewer flowers, there is, of course, less nectar to go around. I have been seeing quite a bit of honeybee action at the hummingbird feeder, but the holes are too small for them to get to the sugar water. But this pretty little bee, a Halictid bee, (sometimes called a Sweat bee, as some species in this group are attracted to human sweat) is hard at work. She has an iridescent green head and thorax and a black and white striped abdomen. Very stylish. 

Little green bee (Halictid Bee) 

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These 'Sungold' and 'Sweet 100' Cherry Tomatoes trained up against the south side of the house are still going strong. They are under the eaves of the house, and this, together with the warmth of the house, should keep them ripening for a while longer. And there are still a LOT of tomatoes on them. If  'Sungold', starting to drape down on the left, was stretched out, it would easily reach 12 feet.  

   

This pic was taken about a 2 months ago,
just as they were starting to ripen

Look at all these tomatoes in one cluster! 

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I found the missing garlic! Have you ever put something away for safe keeping so well that you couldn't remember where it was ? That was my problem. I finally found them on the top shelf of a gardening shelf in the basement, right where I put them. Now I'm happy.  

      

GARLIC ! 

There are 2 kinds of garlic in this picture. The 5 in front are a soft neck variety called 'Susanville'. The four in back are 'Kettle River Giant', with qualities of both hardneck and softneck. (I'm working on a Garlic page, to be posted soon, to explain all this in greater detail, plus a lot of cultural information.) They were the biggest of the bulbs, saved from our garlic harvest this last July. The ultimate size of the garlic bulb depends on, besides cultural conditions, the size of the cloves one starts with. 

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Cloves all separated, spaced, and ready to plant !

Kettle River Giant  

Susanville 

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'Till Later -  Happy Gardening ! 

Diana