The Last One

Despite the many frosts I still have flowers blooming.  This is one of the Mellow Yellow Echinacea that I winter sowed this spring.  Overall, my winter sowing was not particularly successful this year, but I got a few seedings and potted them up into 4" pots in late May and kept them in the vegetable garden where I could water them daily.  In late summer I transplanted them out in the landscape in four or five clumps.  They took right off, but this is the only one that shows signs of blooming.

Southern Charm Verbascum is also a rebloomer.

And my hardy Primrose are showing a little color.

Leaf situation: still going.

Once they are all down we will clean out the dry creek beds.

Frost and Fire ~ Indian Summer

This October is proving to be another beautiful autumn.  The weather has turned again giving us a week of Indian Summer weather which is perfect for enjoying the last of the garden chores.

My dahlias survived several frosts and these frosts have had a beautiful effect on the trees.  Two of our yard trees have opposite patterns of leaf color.  The Firepit Maple turns yellow on the outside from the top down.

And Ole Hickory turns on the inside from the bottom up.

Each fall we always end up with a burn pile.  Each year we think we have done all of the major clearing and maintenance and this will be a year where we do not use the chain saw or create a burn pile.  We are always mistaken.

We waited until we had a cool rainy stretch, and at the end of it, when all of the grass is well saturated, we light the fire. My husband squirts Kerosene on it while we light it, and I apply the leaf blower and it instantly springs to life.  This pile six feet tall and very compact because twice as we were building it we crushed it down with the tractor loader.

We chose a beautiful clear day in the mid-40s with no breeze to speak of.  Burning in the cool weather of autumn is so much easier on the fire tenders than say July with the heat and humidity.

A fire such as this requires constant attendance for one to two hours.  I put my flame resistant hoodie on and we take turns raking with a leaf rake to get the loose leaves and twigs back towards the bare ground beneath the fire to prevent the grass from catching.  I remember one fire when conditions were much drier when we filled the tractor loader with water and used watering cans to douse the surrounding grass.  The ground is squishy at this point so there is little danger of the grass supporting much flame.

10 minutes

Even when the flames diminish, it is throwing heat off that you do not want to get your face close to.

20 Minutes

As the center burns we use a metal garden rake so push the unburned ends of limbs into the fire.

40 Minutes

The fire reduces to a manageable size quite quickly, and we enjoy sitting out in the nice weather.  Back when I built my potting bench and compost sifter from a pile of scrap wood, we still had a few boards leftover.  From that we built three simple camp stools to replace the stools that had rotted away over the last twenty years.

It is so peaceful out here watching the golden leaves drift lazily to the ground.

After an hour and a half the fire can be left unattended.  We continue to check back through the afternoon, pushing ends into the center and stirring the coals.  By morning this will be a cold pile of ash with nothing identifiable left.

The next morning there was a colder frost, and my Dahlias are beginning to die.

Next chore: digging dahlias 

Frost and Fire

 This morning was the hardest frost we've had so far this year.  The weatherman at 6 said that we were at 29F but by the time I got out to the garden at 8:30 the garden thermometer was registering 34.

The lettuce was heavily frosted, but this isn't really cold enough to kill it.

Everything was sugar coated.

The leaves are still hanging on to the Butterfly Bushes.

The day was warm and pretty with a light breeze.  Perfect for sitting out.  When I finished my morning walk I noticed that a nearby neighbor had built himself a little campfire in the backyard.

That seemed like a good idea.

Mesmerizing.

We enjoy getting outside whenever the weather allows.

Puttering About... and Peonies

 This November is nowhere near as mild and lovely as last November was.  There have been a lot fewer days of puttering about outside.  I have gone back to recaning the dining chairs, but there are still garden related activities to be done. This week I have dug and prepared horseradish and made apple butter.  The horseradish was absolute weapons grade HOT radish.  When I first opened up the chopper lid it about blinded me.  I was so impressed that I took it out the garage to share the experience with my husband.  Thankfully when the vinegar was added it tamed it down to regular fresh, home made strength.  I think the chopper may have to be isolated for radish only use from now on so it doesn't taint things like apple butter!

The apple butter (basically apple freezer jam) was made with the last of the Northern Spy apples.  They do not store well and must be used.  We are about pied out, so I made jam instead.  Recipe Link.  It turned out real well, and was very easy in the Crockpot.  I think next time I would used about half the sugar with sweet apples, then add to taste at the end.  These Spies had been sitting around and were getting quite sweet as they aged. 

There is still some green out in the garden.  The peonies are usually last to lose their leaves.  I won't cut them down early when we start clean out, but later in the fall I give them a trim.  This one, an Itoh, is looking pretty windblown and the deer have started nibbling on it.  Since I don't like to encourage that, and provide them incentive, I will either cover or cut anything they are interested in.

You can see all of the pink growth points close to the crown.

My other Itoh puts tips out along the stems pretty high up, so I trim it high.  Depending on the severity of the winter weather, these stems and buds will probably die back.  But if we get a mild winter they will form branches, so I leave them.  The leaves are dropping off the stems anyway, and don't provide any winter protection.

Below is my Sorbet herbaceous peony that I relocated the end of August.  I only saw one new growth point at the time I dug it, and that is still alive.  I expect this to be set back significantly next year because of the move, but it was getting so huge that I don't feel too bad for it.  I hope it adapts to its new location.  Its less than twenty feet from its old spot.

I make sure to monitor other things like the Heuchera.  These here against the chicken coop are still a nice little woodland garden.  I clipped a square of bird netting to the hardware cloth to protect the plants on the ends from munching.  The net is up off the ground in deference to Mr. Toad who lives under the log.

The Heuchera in the whiskey barrels are doing well.  The covers have proven secure through some pretty good winds.  The plants are fine and the soil is moist.

There is still lettuce in the garden.  I consider this "emergency lettuce" as it can be a little bitter at this age.  I buy iceberg at the store whenever they have a nice selection at a reasonable price but if we don't happen to have any good iceberg in the fridge, I can always find enough in the garden to dress a sandwich.

We have plenty of Parsley, both flat and curly in the butterfly bed.  Mr (or Mrs) Frog lives in there.

I have both Rosemary and Sage tucked under a butterfly bush by the apple tree.  Some winters sage or rosemary might actually survive even here in our 5b climate.  But even if they don't they are still usually good until Christmas.

Bush Whacking

 We have a couple of strips along the wooded areas that used to be landscape beds but have been taken over by golden rod, aster, blackberry, rose bushes, you name it.  What a mess.  I don't mind it during the summer, because the flowers are actually quite nice. But if I don't do something about it now, all of those tall weeds will break down and lay in the drive and be miserable to clean up in the spring.

Last year I left it, but I'm not falling for that again.  And I am tired of everything laying over my topsoil box and into the compost pile.  Its not like we don't have many hundreds of feet of the same thing.  I just can't wrestle with this section anymore.  I got out the big Stihl Kombi brush cutter and gave it a good trim.

There are still some blackberries and Virginia Creeper but they will be easier to cut with a hand pruner now that they aren't all entangled.  When I got done I was covered in golden rod seed and dust and I smelled of mold.  I will need Zyrtec tonight!

I didn't cut it all, just what would lay over the drive.  Hard to believe there was once myrtle and ajuga and day lilies in there.  They've pretty much given up.

The myrtle is still holding out here but the deer will eat it down now.

And away it goes to the burn pile.

Misc Fall Chores

 It has been cold for a few days.  Light snow.  Some sunshine.  I am adapting to a more indoor routine, but still need to get outside a play a little every day.  When the sun is shining I am enticed out to button up some random odds and ends.

I put a frost cover over the two whiskey barrels full of Heuchera.  Heuchera are evergreen and do not like to be cut back.  And that makes them vulnerable to bored and hungry deer in the winter.  The deer had already begun to munch on some of the longer leaves that they could get to around the edges of the grid that I have suspended over them, so I went ahead and covered them.  The frost cover is well ventilated and will allow moisture through.  

The Heuchera in Summer.
Yup, that looks like a tasty salad.

I had finished shoveling the compost pile from right to left.  Now I am half way through shoveling it back from left to right.  The center of the left hand pile is still quite dense, so every day or two I use a fork to break up and aerate a portion and then use a shovel to tidy up and move the loose material to the pile on the right.

I sprayed the Alberta Spruce with Wilt Stop and wrapped it in burlap.  This is to block the wind and help keep the bush from drying out and browning.  These are not big jobs I just want to get them done before the weather gets too cold.  It gives me a reason to go out and get some fresh air a few times a week.

Digging and Storing Dahlias

 Once again we have reached the time of the year when we harvest our Dahlia tubers.  I say harvest not because I am going to eat these, although I could, but because I want to save my root stock for next year.  This is a multi-pronged project, harvest, clean-up and organization challenges all rolled into one.  This year I have about 40 plants and I have different goals for each variety.  One white variety I want to get rid of.  Easy.  I dug it up and threw it in the compost.  Two varieties I want to be sure to increase my numbers.  And most of the others I just want to preserve what I have.  But that includes having one or two spares for backup in case one doesn't store well.  I've written about my dahlia storage methods before, but each year I get a little better at orchestrating the whole process.  I just noticed that I finished this process in 2021 on exactly the same day.  Oct 29th.

There is a certain amount of timing to digging dahlias.  #1 they should be in the ground at least 120 days to create strong enough tubers to survive storage.  I was weeks past that.  #2 they should never be frozen in the ground.  This turns them to mush and is the main reason people in growing zones below 7 have to dig them if they want to preserve them.  One rule of thumb is to wait for a killing frost, leave them in the ground for two weeks to form growth eyes, and dig them before the ground freezes and ruins the tubers.

We have now had a couple of light frosts, but not cold enough to reach the dahlias in the warmer garden areas.  Still, the task you never start takes longest to complete.  My main Dahlia bed was a mass of foliage.  I went in with a lopper and a saw and began picking it apart.  There were also stakes and clips in there that needed to come out.  But still it doesn't take long to disassemble,  As I chopped I saved a bouquet of the nicest blooms.

Once you have the clump carefully uprooted with a fork, you have a couple of options.  You can either set them out to dry like that and simply brush the worst soil chunks off.  In fact, that was how I began years ago.  I would line some cardboard boxes with newspaper, place the dry but dirty tubers in whole, and fill around them with compost.  And that worked fine for the most part.  The downside is that it takes up a lot more storage space and in the spring you have a pile of big ugly, dirty clumps to plant and I didn't really enjoy that.  Single tubers are much easier to plant for several reasons but the main one is that you don't have to dig as big a hole!  If I wanted to replant these in the spring as they are, I would have to dig a hole a foot wide and almost as deep.

The second option involves cleaning them and the fastest way to do that is to blast them with a hose.  This is more work, but you end up with a cleaner product which is more fun to pull out of storage and plant in the spring.  You also reduce you chances of rot because you are removing damp soil and earthworms and getting a better look at the stems and damaged tubers that should be cut out to prevent them from spoiling the whole clump.  Because I want to identify my varieties, I make sure to keep a tag with each clump.

Once you have the tubers washed you have the option to divide now or wait until spring.

This one was really easy.  I just used the two stems to gently pry the clump apart and voila' - two clumps.  I also removed the large, dark "mother tuber".   I could stop there, but this wheel spoke pattern is a little fragile and I would risk breaking some or all of the necks with additional handling.

Dividing clumps is all about getting growth eyes matched up with healthy tubers.  This is the most challenging part and is an acquired skill.  Since I am mostly trying to preserve a specimen of each variety I have, it isn't important for me to maximize the number of tubers I am storing.  My goal is to get one or two nice tubers off of each clump and discard the rest.  I may have as much as 80% waste to get there.

If I divided this up, first I would probably need an oscillating saw just to start on it, and in the end I would have way too many plants next year.  All I need is one or two tubers and the rest can go.

The more you handle a clump, the more chance you have of damaging it.  But most come out of the soil with at least some damage no matter how gentle you are.  Broken necks are the most common.  The weight of the unsupported tuber puts uneccessary stress on the narrow neck. 

Each little white bump on the crown is an eye which will sprout a stem

Not only will that individual tuber not support growth in the spring, but that ragged surface is a great place for moisture and bacteria to enter and cause decomposition.  So the first thing I do is trim off any tubers with broken necks and shorten the stem down to no more than an inch.  I also remove the dark tubers (which indicates that was the original "mother tuber" planted in spring) which will grow, but have a greater risk of rotting over the winter.

The second most likely damage is a broken or speared tuber.  This would probably heal.  But a clean cut will heal better.  I always cut the tail roots off and they will regrow next year but you can cut pretty far into the body of a tuber and still have a viable plant.

Below is an example of a tuber that was blunt cut last year.  The flat end heals over and it grows a tangle of multiple roots.  The two tubers to the right are new with long pointy tail roots.

That cut was a little drastic, but I did it for illustration purposes.    I only really want one plant from this next year so when I saw how far I needed to cut this one, I ended up removing it entirely.

This is all I need

One thing that dividing causes is a bit of a labeling problem.  Below are two clumps from the same variety.  The one at the left is divided down into what I would want to plant next year.  The one on the right is the way it came out of the ground.  The one on the left present more of an identification problem.  But there are solutions for that.

I went ahead and chopped up the one on the right to show you the core that had developed because I had not divided this for a couple of years.  The multiple crowns continue to swell and produce stems and after awhile you get this big ugly knot in the center.

The Big Ugly Knot

Below is one of the salvaged tubers that now needs to be individually labeled.  If you were to wait a few days for the skin to toughen, you could write on it pretty well with a Sharpie or a GardenMarker.  But in this tender, damp stage the best solution is an indelible pencil which has dye in the lead.  When put to a damp, rough surface, the point liquifies and writes beautifully.  These are also used in the dental industry, on watercolor art, drafting etc.  

Besides developing skills of identification and cutting, years of experience leads to a good selection of the right tools.  You want at least a good sharp pair of pruners and a marking pencil.  Below is my kit.

Pruners, Snips, Grafting Knife, Sharpener, Indelible Pencil, Garden Marker, a Nail Brush, some sort of saw blade, Lysol Wipes or bleach solution for disinfecting tools between tubers, and a sorting method.

These cheap utensil trays from WalMart are good for sorting.  It may take several days over the course of a week or more for me to get everything washed, dug and divided.  Before I know exactly how much space I need for final storage, I keep tubers sorted in trays and Sterlite shoe boxes always covered in coarse Vermiculite to keep them from drying too much and shriveling.  A tuber should never be left out in the open air for more than a day or it will lose too much moisture.  As soon as the skin is dry to the touch they need to be in a storage medium which could be sawdust, coir, shredded paper or compost.  I use Vermiculite. Some people even wrap them individually in plastic wrap.

And now, after everything has been divided and individually labeled, I found that this year I could reduce my storage from two crates and a Sterlite tub... and an additional shoe box for Begonias... down to just one Sterlite tub.  Which simplifies things tremendously when I have to move it in or out according to temperature.  The tubers need to be stored between 35F and 50F degrees.  For me that is the bottom of the basement stairs in the bulkhead.  I place a remote sensor for the indoor thermometer on top of the lid and if I am concerned that the temperature may drop too low for the night I will bring them into the basement.  That only happens a few times a winter.  Once a month I will open the tub and remove a few tubers to make sure they are still plump and healthy and not shriveled and dried out.  If they are drying to much you can mist some water on the storage medium.  

Now all of the dahlias are carefully tucked into storage and that is the last gardening chore for the year.

**Footnote:  After completing my inventory I calculated that the tub holds over $1000 worth of tubers if I were to replace them all full price this year.  Of course I always buy at discounted prices.  And my value has multiplied over the years.  One Cafe' Au Lait tuber from 2018 has increased to 18 over the years and I could have three times that many had I divided more carefully.