The Garden Column: October Shores
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
By Juergen Jaenicke, MG
(Courtesy Cornell Cooperative Extension)
It’s clean up time! Remember the cleaner and neater your garden is in the fall, the better you will find it in the spring! I’m just filling my sixth bag with old foliage and dead wood (tomorrow is yard waste day), and the sweat is running down my forehead. I have taken out my hearing aids so they will not get wet. This serves a dual purpose, they stay dry and I can’t hear Brigitte.
Every chore that we are doing in the garden is designed to make things easier in the spring. (according to my garden partner) I can’t wait for spring!
In any event my old bones can stand just so much, that’s why both of us always carry a chair around with us, so that we can sit down (often).
We are almost there. I would say three more yard waste days. We are already planning next years new layout. So far, the labor has been mostly in my wife’s head but when it becomes “shovel-ready” who do you think will wield the shovel?
Why can’t we move into a nice condominium and play shuffleboard or gin rummy like other sane old people do?
Enough complaining, I do like gardening. I especially treasure the first sun baked red tomato sliced thick on rye bread with mayo, onions, salt and pepper, a king couldn’t eat better! So if you want to reap, you have to plant! Which brings me to next years first crop: Flower bulbs.
Now is the time to shop for your spring flowering bulbs. There are many mail order growers around that have any bulb imaginable in their inventory. Try not to go overboard.
Herewith some tips:
1) After receiving your bulb shipment, store it in a cool, dry place with good ventilation prior to planting. (That’s means open the box and keep open until you use them.)
2) Plant bulbs in well-drained soil. (The best soil is sandy loam). Do NOT plant shallow! Follow the instructions for planting depths and sunlight requirements. Flower bulbs prefer neutral pH soil. Do not EVER add horse manure, mushroom compost or other “hot” manure or compost to your bulb flower beds. I suggest an organic bulb fertilizer of 4-10-6 composition, for best results.
3) Water the area thoroughly after planting unless heavy rain or a hard freeze is expected.
4) Apply bulb fertilizer 3 times a year: in the fall for the most root system; when the sprouts first poke through the soil for the foliage and flower; and when the flower dies for the bulb itself.
5) Do not apply top mulch until the ground freezes! Mulch should not be more than 2 inches thick. I consider the best mulch to be: straw, salt marsh hay or oak leaves.
6) To promote perenilization, do not cut flowers from your display gardens. Allow the flower to die, “dead-head” the flower (to keep seed pods from forming) and permit the foliage to die back naturally. Don’t “tie up” dying foliage. Plant a cutting garden!
7) Good Luck, depending on how much money you spent on bulbs, you should have a wonderful spring flowering bulb garden!
(Courtesy Cornell Cooperative Extension)
It’s clean up time! Remember the cleaner and neater your garden is in the fall, the better you will find it in the spring! I’m just filling my sixth bag with old foliage and dead wood (tomorrow is yard waste day), and the sweat is running down my forehead. I have taken out my hearing aids so they will not get wet. This serves a dual purpose, they stay dry and I can’t hear Brigitte.
Every chore that we are doing in the garden is designed to make things easier in the spring. (according to my garden partner) I can’t wait for spring!
In any event my old bones can stand just so much, that’s why both of us always carry a chair around with us, so that we can sit down (often).
We are almost there. I would say three more yard waste days. We are already planning next years new layout. So far, the labor has been mostly in my wife’s head but when it becomes “shovel-ready” who do you think will wield the shovel?
Why can’t we move into a nice condominium and play shuffleboard or gin rummy like other sane old people do?
Enough complaining, I do like gardening. I especially treasure the first sun baked red tomato sliced thick on rye bread with mayo, onions, salt and pepper, a king couldn’t eat better! So if you want to reap, you have to plant! Which brings me to next years first crop: Flower bulbs.
Now is the time to shop for your spring flowering bulbs. There are many mail order growers around that have any bulb imaginable in their inventory. Try not to go overboard.
Herewith some tips:
1) After receiving your bulb shipment, store it in a cool, dry place with good ventilation prior to planting. (That’s means open the box and keep open until you use them.)
2) Plant bulbs in well-drained soil. (The best soil is sandy loam). Do NOT plant shallow! Follow the instructions for planting depths and sunlight requirements. Flower bulbs prefer neutral pH soil. Do not EVER add horse manure, mushroom compost or other “hot” manure or compost to your bulb flower beds. I suggest an organic bulb fertilizer of 4-10-6 composition, for best results.
3) Water the area thoroughly after planting unless heavy rain or a hard freeze is expected.
4) Apply bulb fertilizer 3 times a year: in the fall for the most root system; when the sprouts first poke through the soil for the foliage and flower; and when the flower dies for the bulb itself.
5) Do not apply top mulch until the ground freezes! Mulch should not be more than 2 inches thick. I consider the best mulch to be: straw, salt marsh hay or oak leaves.
6) To promote perenilization, do not cut flowers from your display gardens. Allow the flower to die, “dead-head” the flower (to keep seed pods from forming) and permit the foliage to die back naturally. Don’t “tie up” dying foliage. Plant a cutting garden!
7) Good Luck, depending on how much money you spent on bulbs, you should have a wonderful spring flowering bulb garden!