Gardening With Mark, October Edition: A Month in Search of a PR Agent.
Tags: Gardening
Oops! I'm a little late with Mark's newsletter this month but better late than never. - M
What gardener thinks of October when they think of a great looking garden? Not too many of us. That should not diminish the many redeeming features of the harvest month, just the same.
In a nut shell, the second rate blooms that my roses and veronica are giving me early in October are more than made up for by the colours of the trees in our part of the world. The very best show of colour on the trees in my garden are not nearly as interesting or spectacular as the show put on by deciduous trees in public spaces and out in the countryside.
To put it in a nut shell October is our best chance to plant spring flowering bulbs, dig and divide many perennials, save seeds for next season, harvest all of the ‘cold crops’ like squash and carrots, take pictures of leaves, walk in the woods full of leaves and frolic in the leaves (whatever that means to you…). Not to mention that allergy sufferers get some relief when the ragweed is hit by those first frosts.
All in all, October is not a bad path to take to our first introduction to another Canadian winter.
So let’s start at the beginning:
Perennials
If you have perennials that have been in the ground for 3 or more years, it is time for an intervention. In case you didn’t notice, they grew. And many are now ready to be dug up and divided.
Take hosta for example.
Dig them using a quality digging fork (a sharp spade or shovel works too, sharpened with a Mark’s Choice tool sharpener, product #1074-629) and push the fork into the ground as deeply as you can about 30 to 50 cm out from the middle of the plant. Do not wiggle your fork while digging, the first time round. Once you have encircled the hosta with the fork, do it again only this time lever up on the fork as you go, ripping and tearing the roots of the plant until you feel a relief of pressure and hear a ‘pop’.
Drag the mature hosta out of the ground and assess – how many ‘new’ plants can you salvage from the original plant? That depends not only on the size of the plant you just removed from the ground but how big or small you want to start the new ones…. Generally I take a hosta that is about the size of a 12 inch pie plate and cut it into 4: just like a pie, dividing each smoothly with either a sharp spade or old kitchen knife.
You now have 4 plants where once you had one.
Cooooooooooooooooool.
Give the extras to your friends or distribute around your garden if there is room.
This can be done with day lilies, monarda, Shasta daisies, peonies (though peonies should be 5 years or older…), Joe Pie Weed – what the heck… Most any perennial plant that has a large, fleshy root or tightly knit fibrous roots. Truth is, unless it is a fussy plant to grow in the first place, it will divide nicely in October.
Plant
“Fall is for planting”, we are fond of saying in the business.
Trees, shrubs, evergreens, perennials and even roses will put down young, vigorous roots this fall that will support spring growth next year.
In my experience, fall planted nursery stock outperforms the spring planted ones by a long shot. Try and prove it to yourself.
And save some money by taking advantage of great fall sale prices at many retailers.
Holland Bulbs
October is bulb planting month.
Tulips, daffodils, narcissus (small daffodils), crocus, hyacinth and the like are in the stores now, available in abundance from the great Canadian mail order companies and there is no better time to get to it.
Bulb planting in the fall is a great investment in a wonderful looking spring garden. More than that, spring bulbs lift our spirits after a long cold Canadian winter: a spring bloom is worth 100 times that of a mid summer bloom. Why? Because we are colour starved and there are fewer of them come spring.
Go to www.veseys.com, www.gardenimport.com, www.mcfayden.com, etc. for more info.
Harvest time
The full moon occurs on October 4 th. This is the REAL harvest moon. Leave many of your best crops past this date and you risk losing them to serious frost in many parts of Canada. Holland Bulbs
October is bulb planting month.
Tulips, daffodils, narcissus (small daffodils), crocus, hyacinth and the like are in the stores now, available in abundance from the great Canadian mail order companies and there is no better time to get to it.
Bulb planting in the fall is a great investment in a wonderful looking spring garden. More than that, spring bulbs lift our spirits after a long cold Canadian winter: a spring bloom is worth 100 times that of a mid summer bloom. Why? Because we are colour starved and there are fewer of them come spring.
Go to www.veseys.com, www.gardenimport.com, www.mcfayden.com, etc. for more info.
Harvest time
The full moon occurs on October 4 th. This is the REAL harvest moon. Leave many of your best crops past this date and you risk losing them to serious frost in many parts of Canada.
One practice that will improve the performance of everything that you grow is to compost your fallen leaves. Rake them off of your lawn and put them in your composter. Better still, drive over them with a power mower set at its’ highest setting and leave the resulting leaf chips on the surface of the lawn. Or better still again put them on the surface of the soil around your perennials and put a generous 10 cm or more layer on your veggie garden. The worms will come up to the surface, chow down on the leaves and leave behind what worms always leave behind from their behind when they eat… you know what I am talking about and it is called ‘nitrogen rich’ earthworm castings. They help everything that you grow. Everything. Guaranteed. And I am not trying to sell you anything – just the concept of hording your leaves on your garden.
That is about it for now… more to come end of October as we approach the ‘winterizing’ season in the garden. Look for your next edition of the Mark Cullen Newsletter and be sure to drop by Home Hardware for a good look at the many great Mark’s Choice products. All of them are guaranteed to improve the performance of your garden. I stake my word on it.
Feel free to contact me at www.markcullen.com and check out my weekly blog on Yahoo at http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/experts/ where you will find details on many of the topics covered here including many great internet gardening links.
Keep your knees dirty and your heart thankful.
Yours,
Mark
Oops! I'm a little late with Mark's newsletter this month but better late than never. - M
What gardener thinks of October when they think of a great looking garden? Not too many of us. That should not diminish the many redeeming features of the harvest month, just the same.
In a nut shell, the second rate blooms that my roses and veronica are giving me early in October are more than made up for by the colours of the trees in our part of the world. The very best show of colour on the trees in my garden are not nearly as interesting or spectacular as the show put on by deciduous trees in public spaces and out in the countryside.
To put it in a nut shell October is our best chance to plant spring flowering bulbs, dig and divide many perennials, save seeds for next season, harvest all of the ‘cold crops’ like squash and carrots, take pictures of leaves, walk in the woods full of leaves and frolic in the leaves (whatever that means to you…). Not to mention that allergy sufferers get some relief when the ragweed is hit by those first frosts.
All in all, October is not a bad path to take to our first introduction to another Canadian winter.
So let’s start at the beginning:
Perennials
If you have perennials that have been in the ground for 3 or more years, it is time for an intervention. In case you didn’t notice, they grew. And many are now ready to be dug up and divided.
Take hosta for example.
Dig them using a quality digging fork (a sharp spade or shovel works too, sharpened with a Mark’s Choice tool sharpener, product #1074-629) and push the fork into the ground as deeply as you can about 30 to 50 cm out from the middle of the plant. Do not wiggle your fork while digging, the first time round. Once you have encircled the hosta with the fork, do it again only this time lever up on the fork as you go, ripping and tearing the roots of the plant until you feel a relief of pressure and hear a ‘pop’.
Drag the mature hosta out of the ground and assess – how many ‘new’ plants can you salvage from the original plant? That depends not only on the size of the plant you just removed from the ground but how big or small you want to start the new ones…. Generally I take a hosta that is about the size of a 12 inch pie plate and cut it into 4: just like a pie, dividing each smoothly with either a sharp spade or old kitchen knife.
You now have 4 plants where once you had one.
Cooooooooooooooooool.
Give the extras to your friends or distribute around your garden if there is room.
This can be done with day lilies, monarda, Shasta daisies, peonies (though peonies should be 5 years or older…), Joe Pie Weed – what the heck… Most any perennial plant that has a large, fleshy root or tightly knit fibrous roots. Truth is, unless it is a fussy plant to grow in the first place, it will divide nicely in October.
Plant
“Fall is for planting”, we are fond of saying in the business.
Trees, shrubs, evergreens, perennials and even roses will put down young, vigorous roots this fall that will support spring growth next year.
In my experience, fall planted nursery stock outperforms the spring planted ones by a long shot. Try and prove it to yourself.
And save some money by taking advantage of great fall sale prices at many retailers.
Holland Bulbs
October is bulb planting month.
Tulips, daffodils, narcissus (small daffodils), crocus, hyacinth and the like are in the stores now, available in abundance from the great Canadian mail order companies and there is no better time to get to it.
Bulb planting in the fall is a great investment in a wonderful looking spring garden. More than that, spring bulbs lift our spirits after a long cold Canadian winter: a spring bloom is worth 100 times that of a mid summer bloom. Why? Because we are colour starved and there are fewer of them come spring.
Go to www.veseys.com, www.gardenimport.com, www.mcfayden.com, etc. for more info.
Harvest time
The full moon occurs on October 4 th. This is the REAL harvest moon. Leave many of your best crops past this date and you risk losing them to serious frost in many parts of Canada. Holland Bulbs
October is bulb planting month.
Tulips, daffodils, narcissus (small daffodils), crocus, hyacinth and the like are in the stores now, available in abundance from the great Canadian mail order companies and there is no better time to get to it.
Bulb planting in the fall is a great investment in a wonderful looking spring garden. More than that, spring bulbs lift our spirits after a long cold Canadian winter: a spring bloom is worth 100 times that of a mid summer bloom. Why? Because we are colour starved and there are fewer of them come spring.
Go to www.veseys.com, www.gardenimport.com, www.mcfayden.com, etc. for more info.
Harvest time
The full moon occurs on October 4 th. This is the REAL harvest moon. Leave many of your best crops past this date and you risk losing them to serious frost in many parts of Canada.
One practice that will improve the performance of everything that you grow is to compost your fallen leaves. Rake them off of your lawn and put them in your composter. Better still, drive over them with a power mower set at its’ highest setting and leave the resulting leaf chips on the surface of the lawn. Or better still again put them on the surface of the soil around your perennials and put a generous 10 cm or more layer on your veggie garden. The worms will come up to the surface, chow down on the leaves and leave behind what worms always leave behind from their behind when they eat… you know what I am talking about and it is called ‘nitrogen rich’ earthworm castings. They help everything that you grow. Everything. Guaranteed. And I am not trying to sell you anything – just the concept of hording your leaves on your garden.
That is about it for now… more to come end of October as we approach the ‘winterizing’ season in the garden. Look for your next edition of the Mark Cullen Newsletter and be sure to drop by Home Hardware for a good look at the many great Mark’s Choice products. All of them are guaranteed to improve the performance of your garden. I stake my word on it.
Feel free to contact me at www.markcullen.com and check out my weekly blog on Yahoo at http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/experts/ where you will find details on many of the topics covered here including many great internet gardening links.
Keep your knees dirty and your heart thankful.
Yours,
Mark