Fall Cleanup

November 5th 2012

Another Autumn full of rain, leaves and the colors they bring.
Thankfully, the cold isn’t too much to bare yet and there are still plenty of flowers blooming. I still have many Picotee Cosmos and several different Dahlias in my garden. 
Many gardeners suggest unearthing Dahlia tubers and storing them for Winter. I don’t often do this, really only every 2 or 3 years to divide them. Once the tops die back, I plan to dig up and divide my Dahlia tubers. If you do dig yours, be sure to label them somehow. One can see which tubers are new as they look younger and less weathered. It’s best to store them somewhere dark and dry for the Winter and cut the new tubers away from the old a few days before planting in the Spring. Alternately, you can leave them in the ground to over-winter as long as you’ve prepared the soil with plenty of pumice or such to promote good drainage. The main enemy of Dahlia tubers is too much water and thus, rot!

If you have Peonies and would like to see them continue to bloom in the years to come, don’t mulch them at all. They don’t like to have their crowns buried too deeply.

I decided it was time to say good-bye to the Sungold Cherry Tomatoes and Zucchini bush with it’s final fruit… see you next time, then!

I’ve started planting the Garlic bulbs I bought. This year I’ve decided to grow Early Italian Purple and Persian Star, both favorites from past years. For me the hardest part about planting Garlic is… where to put it?! While much of their growing season (October to June-ish), the land is not in high demand and in truth they don’t take up much space, I usually get restless in about March and want to cultivate everything! With this in mind, I usually plant them all over the yard, around the fence line and such. I like the way they look flowering near the fence. I don’t recommend putting them in raised beds or wherever you may want to plant tomatoes, Garlic just needs a bit longer to mature than the Summer growing season will allow.

Now is also a great time to get Winter greens like Kale and Broccoli in the ground. At this point, both are probably best to grow from starts.
Red Russian Kale is a particularly beautiful as the cold really brings out the red color.