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...because all the best garden advice is local
September 11, 2014

Veronica with garden harvestThe Gardener's F-Word
 

     

I hate to say it, but it's almost f-f-f-all.  There. Said it.

   Fall is many people's favorite time of year, but for a gardener, it's the end of long, lovely growing season. No more warm, wonderful mornings in the garden. No more homegrown tomatoes. No more bouquets of flowers, cut fresh from the back yard.

   September feels like the final hours of a visit with a beloved family member. It's not quite over, but it almost is. And pretty soon you're going to have to drag your suitcase downstairs and do the whole sad goodbye ritual, complete with a tear in the eye.

   I comfort myself by buying some beautiful mums for the front step and plotting my spring bulb purchases. But I look around at the increasingly ragged foliage and fading flowers in my garden and know it's almost time.

   Oh well. Reap and sow. If fall weren't so sad, spring wouldn't be so sweet.

 

Yours in sad, sentimental gardening,

Veronica Lorson Fowler

 

Use Hanging Baskets In Your Flower Beds 
 

Hanging baskets are now on deep discount at many garden centers. They're great to hang, but I like to get creative with them. I cut off the plastic hangers with a garden shears and set them, still in their plastic pots, on the steps by my front door for instant cheerful color that spreads nicely over the steps.

     Another handy trick for this time of  year: Slip a hanging basket planting out of its basket/pot and plant it in a bed or border that's looking a little bare, or tired. For just a few dollars, it covers a lot of ground with fresh, pretty blooms! 

Love Those Clearance Sales! 


 

Now is a great time of year to stock up on patio furniture, garden tools, fertilizers, and other garden supplies. They're often marked down 50 and even 75 percent. 

   * Don't limit yourself to what you see in the stores. Browse online at your favorite sites (most have special "clearance" sections if you look for them). 

Even more rewarding: Google "clearance" and then the name of an item you're interested. Or Google a general category, as in "clearance solar path lights" or "clearance garden tools."   

A sale at Holub's near Ames earlier this month

   * Buy marked-down trees, shrubs, and perennials only if they look healthy. Don't purchase anything diseased or seriously struggling. You're likely to introduce more disease pathogens into your yard and waste your money to boot. 

 

Clean Up Your Act 


Late summer is when a little garden cleanup pays off big.

* Tear out annuals that are no longer doing well.

* Keep things watered.

* Do another round of weeding.

* Cut off spent flower heads and remove diseased foliage (it will prevent it from occurring again next year.)

* Consider adding more mulch if it's getting thin.

   The end result will be a landscape that looks much more attractive and saves you some work next spring, when everything is so busy in the garden.

   The one thing not to do: Don't do any serious pruning of trees, shrubs, or roses right now. It will stimulate tender new growth that won't have time to get hardened off before winter and will be more susceptible to winter cold and damage. Wait until after the first hard frost, when plants are no longer actively growing.


 

   Find out more by looking over our handy-dandy 

checklist for fall clean-up!

Garden Quote  

 

"If it could only be like this always -- always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe... "  

 --Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
Issue: 102

Monthly To-Do

 Nope, it's not time to plant bulbs just yet. Wait until October. Go ahead and buy them now, but keep them in a cool, dry, dark place.

 

 Steel yourself and tear out annuals that are struggly. They just look ugly and won't look much better before frost. 

    My impatiens last week got very ugly during a battle with aphids. They're in the compost heap now. Better bare dirt than sick plants.If a perennial is struggling, simply cut it back to the ground.

 

 Continue to mow at the ideal height of 3 inches. With warm season grasses, such as zoysiagrass, keep mowing at about 2 inches. 

    If you prefer a shorter look, start mowing cool-season turf, such as Kentucky bluegrass, ryes, and fescues, lower (about 2 inches) now that temperatures are cooler.

 

 Fertilize cool season lawns, such as Kentucky bluegrass, ryes, and fescues, to encourage good root growth. Do not fertilize zoysiagrass this month.  

 

 Continue to harvest early and often for the most tender, sweetest produce and to keep plants producing well. Here's a link for information on a plant-by-plant breakdown on when to harvest.

 

 Keep things watered. You'll enjoy your garden longer, and it will prevent plants from going into winter dehydrated, which can make them die out over winter.  

 

 Brighten your garden with mums.

   Choose from either florist's mums, which aren't winter hardy but are very tidy-looking with large flowers or from hardy mums, which are more rough-looking but will come back again next year.

     Florist's mums are great for pots indoors and out while garden mums are good for planting in the ground for a permanent display.

 

 Get a jump on getting organized for next year. Right now is the time to capture what did well and what didn't in your garden. To help keep you on track, we created a printable monthly to-do lists and handy garden references so you can make your own garden journal. 

Editor's Choice 
Garden Events  
 
Sunday, Sept. 14
11:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tour eight different gardens growing vegetables and other edibles throughout the Ames area. Includes private gardens and community gardens alike. Organized by ISU agriculture students.