Autumn is my third favorite season.  It would probably be higher, but it has that really cold season following it.  Whatever I think of the seasons, I have to get my garden ready for Winter.  This usually involves lots of mulch, at least in my case.

A couple of weeks ago when the nighttime temperatures were expected to dip into the 20s, I figured I had better try to winterize my butterfly bushes.   They are all located on the “hill” on the south side of the garden.

We have four of them and I took a couple of bags of mulch and piled them around the base of the plants.

The black dot in the middle of the picture is our neighbor’s dog, Rugger.  We have permission to let him out of their yard and play with him in ours, which we did.  However, he tried to help a little too much… he kept trying to eat the mulch and chew through the back.  We tried to wear him out and then we had to put him back.   He pretty much wore us out!  He’s still a puppy, so he has an infinite source of energy.  He wasn’t too happy to be put back in his yard.  He still wanted to help, as you can tell!

I finished piling the mulch around the base of the butterfly bushes.  Butterfly bushes are marginally hardy in Zone 4 so I try to give them all the help they can get.

Since it was going to be even colder this night than the previous night, I moved the pots.  I put the mums up next to the house, along with the boots and the hen and chicks.  Dwayne had already unhooked the hose, so I didn’t have to worry about that.

We have a few pots in the front of the house.  The one with the mum and lantana was already tucked in between the smokebush and the juniper, so I left it alone.

I tucked the snapdragons and impatiens under the junipers.

They got a little nipped, but they are still alive.  Actually, they are still tucked under the junipers.  I suppose I can move them back now!

I have some snapdragons that keep coming back in the Ash tree bed.  I don’t remember planting them there and they have come up the last three years.  Since they seem to be able to survive, I didn’t do anything with them.

The mum in the background looks even better from the front.  Especially with the asters in bloom.

The celosia, or cockscomb, did not survive the freezes, but the pink flamingo still looks pretty good!

Fall decorations are starting to show up in the garden, too.

A smooth pumpkin has now joined the garden, so it is really looking like fall.

The weather has been nice enough that my roses are still blooming.

I have not been deadheading them and will not for the rest of the year.

I let the “seeds” form.  These are called “hips” in the rose world.  Birds will eat these for energy through the Winter and early Spring.

When the hips form on the rose, it starts to put the energy into producing the seeds and this tells the plant that it needs to start storing energy in the roots for next year.

Essentially, it begins shutting down.  It will continue to grow, although slowly, until a few hard freezes occur.

Depending on how the Fall plays out temperature-wise, I will hold off winterizing the roses until it gets closer to Thanksgiving.  These roses are on the south side of my house, so will have protection from the Winter winds, but I will still mulch them.  I have had previous posts on different ways to winterize roses, but I usually only mulch.  I will take a bag of mulch and dump it on the plant to protect the roots.  I will do this on the southern roses and my Chinese miniature rose (although, it isn’t very miniature), won’t protect Sven, Ole or Sigrid….

… they were developed in Minnesota and have survived in our yard for a few years without extra help from me.  I will also not cover our Knock-out rose.  It is somewhat protected by surrounding plants in my garden, and it is generally hardy in our zone.  I have had it several years now and haven’t covered it in at least three.

While I have been getting the garden ready for Winter, I don’t think my brain has grasped the realization that it is near the end of October and Winter is right around the corner.  Maybe if I close my eyes real tight….

 

Dig it!

Posted under Autumn

We have been having some pretty nice weather for Fall.  I thought I had better take advantage of that and get my garlic in the ground.  Well, the raised bed, anyway.

We have four 4×8 and two 4×4 raised beds.  Last year’s garlic bed has been empty since the end of July, but I wanted to put the garlic in a different bed and save this year’s for tomatoes next year.

The near bed will be the home for the best tasting vegetable in the world!

Dwayne finally pulled up the tomatoes last week.  With the weather cooling down later this week, I figured I had better get the garlic in the ground now.

I brought out the tools and some of the garlic that we started last fall.

As with any job, in order to be done correctly, you have to have supervision.

That is one of the stray cats in the neighborhood.  I must have been doing an okay job by him, since he just sat there.  Until Dwayne came home and chased him away, anyway.   His brother and mom hang around, too, so we should have plenty of supervision when something needs done in the yard.

This summer we ended up with 84 bulbs of garlic.  Not nearly enough to get us through the year, and, of course, I am using some of those to get next year’s crop.  So, this year, I am planting as many as I can.  Without going back into the basement to raid the remaining bulbs.

I managed to get 14 rows hoed in the bed.

I separated the cloves from the bulb…

The pointy end goes up….

The light brown stuff is some bone meal.  That is the only amendment I made to the soil.  I’ll add some blood meal and maybe a little more bone meal in the spring, but that will be about it.

In the end, there were 148 cloves planted.

Before I covered up the rows, I need to mark them.  We plant stiff-necked garlic, so I use the stem as row markers.

This also tells me how many heads I used.  There were 21 “necks”.  Yep.  Dwayne’s not happy that I have depleted our winter supply of garlic.  Honey, it is a sacrifice for the good of the next crop!  And, anyway, I’m the one who should be upset…. I at least triple every recipe’s amount of garlic.

I mark both sides of the rows, so for the ends that didn’t get a garlic “neck”, I used some bamboo sticks.  Then the rows get covered up.

The next step is to cover everything with straw.

This will help retain moisture and provide a layer of protection from the coming winter.  But first, I need an assistant…. and he comes abounding….

This is Rugger, the neighbor’s puppy.  He is about 13 weeks old, a lab/water spaniel mix, chews on everything and only stops moving when he is crashed out after a hard day’s playing.  The neighbors allow us to let him off of his lead and then we play.  This time, we had some work to do.  Lesson learned…. letting the puppy help just slows you down.  He got into the bed, chewed on the straw, ran around and chewed on everything else.  And then one of our other neighbors got to talking to us over the fence.  And her 3rd grade daughter came over to play with Rugger.  The two of them wore each other out.  It was pretty fun to watch.  But I didn’t get much done for awhile.  It was pretty nice taking a break to have some friendly conversation.  After the “kids” were all worn out, we took Rugger back to his yard and I got back to work.  The little gnats were all over the place, busy biting everyone.  Dwayne wimped out and went inside.  I finished putting the straw on the bed.

I gave the bed a good soaking.  And before the winds pick up later this week, I will put our garlic drying rack on top of the straw to weigh it down.

Garlic is usually planted in the fall in late September to early October.  It should be covered for winter with straw, mulch or anything to protect it from the winter winds.  Take the cover off in Spring, cut off the flowers (or scapes) before they bloom and when the plants die back, dig everything up.  Clean the heads off, dry them for two weeks and then hang them in a cool dry place to enjoy through the winter.  The scapes can be used as a seasoning when cooking or just add them to a salad.

Now the hard part.  Waiting for that garlicky goodness to be ready for harvest!

Dig it!

Posted under Autumn