On a lovely Sunday recently, I had the opportunity to actually work uninterrupted in my own garden. The sky was a clear blue with a few puffy clouds, there was no wind, just a gentle breeze, and I had lots to do to keep me happily occupied. It was a perfect day for a gardener.
I am not really enamored with house cleaning, but I sure do love to clean out my gardens in the fall. For some unknown reason, I enjoy fall garden clean-up much more than cleaning in the spring. Maybe it is because the sun is so low in the sky and casts such a warming glow on the trees around me; maybe it’s because the soil is warm and easy to dig into. Maybe – on this particular Sunday - it was because I had nothing else on my to-do list other than things that involved being outside. But whatever the reason on such a perfect day, it was more fun than I had even hoped for.
I started by cleaning out my hanging baskets and putting them away for the winter. All but one that I replanted with some fall-type plants. More on that later. The petunias and the heliotropes went into the compost pile. The pots were cleaned and disinfected before stowing.
Next, I planted some spring-blooming bulbs that were delivered in the mail. All of my Iris ‘Eye of the Tiger’ had petered out over the last few years, so I splurged and bought 100 more. What was I thinking? It wasn’t easy to find space for them, but they are such a pretty Dutch iris, that I can’t do without them. So I tucked a few here, a few there, and dug up a new area where they can get the sun they need.
In the box from the bulb company were 50 Iris tuberosus. I can remember buying these, but I can’t remember where I intended to plant them. So I am hoping I recorded something about that in my garden journal when I ordered them this past summer.
My next chore was to cut back the hostas that had started turning yellow. I don’t like to leave them until the cold weather really sets in and they get slimy. So as soon as the first few leaves turn color, off they go, cut to the ground. I do remember to mark the spot where the hostas are with some sort of stick (bamboo works well) so that I don’t inadvertently dig up hosta roots in the spring. It was a hard lesson learned one year when I thought there was a bare spot in the garden that needed some sort of new plant only to find I had cut through a clump of hosta. It all worked out okay, though, as I took a garden knife and further severed the clump into two hostas that I replanted.
There are some hostas that don’t die back with the first hint of cold. Those I leave for later in the fall so I don’t have too much bare ground. Dying back for winter is the one drawback I have with hosta. I wish they were a four-season plant.
And now about that hanging basket that I left outside. Although I am not a real fan of kale – edible or ornamental - I found a photo in a magazine of a hanging basket that really took my eye. In it were several types of kale and some Spanish moss. It looked rather eerie – which isn’t really my style, even at Halloween- so I made some adjustments. I left out the moss and surrounded the kale with some fall-colored Heuchera instead. This basket should last well into the cold weather when I can find something else fun to do with it.
I am not quite ready to clean my tools and put them away because I expect to have more lovely days this month. I have found that October is one of our prettiest months here in Tillamook, at least until the last week or so. I will look forward to more delightful days in the garden finishing my fall cleaning.
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