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...because all the best garden advice is local
October 5, 2012

Cold Weather Settles In

Greetings!

   

Freezing temperatures as low as the 20s are predicted for Iowa tonight and tomorrow night, and they may hit freezing again next week. In southern Iowa, it's supposed to get even colder for a true killing frost. 

   You can still try to cover plants to help them along a while longer, but when we get repeated nights of frost, that's when I throw in the growing season towel. 

     Still, I'm surprised at how much loveliness is left among all the ragged remainders of my garden. Mums have kicked in, ornamental grasses are in their glory, annuals I managed to keep watered are still vibrant, and every dull dry green leaf is suddenly turning.

   The foliage is so pretty that I've cut just plain perennial foliage--the flowers are long gone--now turned russet and gold. I've put them in to a vase on my kitchen table, shown here. In past years, I've done branches from trees, too. Simple and beautiful.


Happy post-frost gardening! 

Veronica Lorson Fowler

 

P.S. For more ideas on filling vases and outd oor pots and windowboxes with materials gleaned from your garden, check out The Iowa Gardener Facebook page. Click here !  

 
garden journal binder on potting bench

Bulb Planting Blues  


My bad. I can't find the little map I made last spring of where to plant my tulips and hyacinths. 

   My daffodils and crocuses are going strong, but the other larger bulbs tend to peter out after a couple of years. 

   I thought I'd stuffed it in a drawer, but apparently not. Time to do what I write-create a more functional, user-friendly garden journal. To that end, we've created a nifty do-it-yourself one, shown here.

   Just buy an inexpensive white 3-ring notebook binder with a sleeve on the front. Click here and print off the pretty cover, as well as monthly  printable garden to-do lists and other checklists and info. A great place to put all those winter garden planning dreams!

The Summer of Lost Lawns
racoon damage to V's lawn
Veronica's lawn, post-racoon raid

 

Just when I thought 
my drought-damaged
lawn couldn't get any uglier, raccoons came in the night and power-raked a big dead portion right in the middle of the backyard. Actually, they did me a favor. Turns out an infestation of grubs was killing the grass. Not only did they eat the grubs, they also power-raked the dead turf. I'll replant this weekend and crossing my finger for an attractive lawn come spring. Click here, by the way, for a very good article by the ISU extension folks about grub control.
 

Fall Gardening Tips and Tricks  

  

We've been working to build up the good, solid garden info specific to Iowa. Check these out:

   

 What to cover and how to protect plants when frost threatens? Click here for tips and hints.

   

 For a good Iowa checklist of everything you should be doing in your garden each fall, click here.

   

 If you have little evergreen trees in pots, you can overwinter them. Click here to find out how.

   

 Ben Allen has taken some seasonal photos that are perfect for brightening your computer desktop, including this gorgeous tree shot. Just click here. ash tree leaves in fall against azure sky

Garden Quote  

  

"Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter."

 --Southern garden writer Carol Bishop Hipps 
Issue: 72

September 

To-Do List 

 

 Now that we've had a frost, pull up all annuals, including those in the veggie garden. Pitch on the compost heap.

   

 Cut back perennials damaged by the first frosts..

 

 Dig up and store indoors any tender bulbs, such as gladiolus, cannas, dahlias, and caladiums, that you want to store over the winter. 

  

 Empty all pots and store indoors for the winter. In Iowa's harsh winters, even plastic containers will crack and clay pots will definitely shatter. .

 

 If you have any newly planted trees, especially fruit trees, wrap them with a protective tree wrap now. It prevents sun scald and also prevents rabbits and rodents from nibbling the tasty bark. Remove in spring. 

   

 It's been dry so keep up with watering potted plants. Also be especially sure to water smaller evergreens and newly planted trees and shrubs. They need to go into winter at their strongest! 

 

 Perennials and strawberries do best with 1 to 4 inches of a loose, removable mulch over and/or around them. Leaves chopped by running a mower over them are perfect.

 

 Protect roses. Mound all but rugosa roses around the base with 8 to 12 inches of compost or rich, dark soil to protect the bud union (right above the roots) from winter cold. Hybrid teas, grandiflora, and floribunda roses--the least cold hardy types--are more likely to survive the winter if you also wrap their stems in burlap and twine. Click here for more into on types of roses for Iowa.

 

 Plant spring-blooming bulbs. Water well after planting.

 

 Plant mums as desired. You can buy them now in full bloom.

 

 Force bulbs now, as desired.

 

 Fertilize cool season lawns, such as Kentucky bluegrass, ryes and fescues, to encourage good root growth. Also fertilize warm-season grasses, such as zoysia, also to prompt them to green up faster in spring.

 

 Rake leaves as needed. Keep them off the grass--they can suffocate turf.

 

 At the end of the month, when you won't be doing any more watering, remove garden hoses, drain, and store indoors for the winter. 

 

For our printable monthly to-do lists and handy garden references, click here. 

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