Slide is these types of a lovely season right here in Spokane and one that we all need to savor. Even though our vegetable gardens and flower beds are winding down for the year, there are nevertheless products on our to-do lists that have to have attending to.
Harvest your potatoes immediately after their foliage has been frosted and turns brown. This is 1 of my most loved jobs for the reason that it’s like digging for buried treasure. It’s flawlessly Ok for root crops such as carrots, parsnips and beets to get strike by frost. In truth, it sweetens their taste. Invoice and I have experienced superior luck storing all of these crops in plastic bins filled with frivolously-moistened straw and placing them in our chilly garage.
Plant garlic among the center of October and Halloween. If you have not developed it before, order hardneck or softneck bulbs that are licensed to be condition-cost-free from a backyard centre. Loosen the soil to a depth of about 4 inches and blend in some bonemeal. Split apart the bulbs into person cloves, then thrust each clove down – with the pointed close experiencing up – right up until there are about 2 inches of soil above it. Space the cloves 6 inches aside. Place a thick mulch on the surface of the bed to prevent frost-heaving.
If you are heading to grow cold-tolerant veggies all through the drop and into the wintertime, have your plant protection supplies on hand. This contains medium or heavyweight floating row cover and/or a sheet of obvious plastic to cover your plantings when the temperatures start off dropping appreciably.
Include the surface area of your vegetable beds with a 1-inch layer of compost to help replenish the nutrition in the soil. You don’t even have to mix it into the soil due to the fact the vitamins will operate their way down all by by themselves.
Really don’t get carried absent when tidying up your landscape. I know we gardeners like to make almost everything appear pristine, but it is significant to recall that there are beneficial creatures in our gardens that count on the go over of dormant plant product.
Advantageous insects these as floor beetles, damsel bugs and ladybugs like to spend the winter less than fallen leaves. To support them out, stay away from raking up the leaves beneath shrubs or in flower beds. You are going to be rewarded subsequent 12 months with practical insects all set to handle the harming bugs.
I go away the expended flower heads of black-eyed Susans, Gloriosa daisies, lavender and bee balm for our fowl good friends. The seeds will supply them with nutritious food in the course of the colder months and seeing the birds’ antics whilst they precariously perch on the flower heads is cheap leisure.
If you want more spring shade in your back garden, it is time to purchase spring-blooming bulbs. In the latest several years, I have been adding a lot less typical – but equally gorgeous – bulbs these types of as species tulips and rock backyard irises. After you have your bulbs, hold out till the soil temperature is 55 degrees or decreased in advance of planting them but be guaranteed to get them in ahead of the floor freezes good.
Publish notes in your backyard journal about how this season went, new versions that you want to expand upcoming yr as well as tried-and-accurate crops that unquestionably require to go into the 2023 yard. If you had insect problems, observe what you did about them, how properly it worked and what you would do otherwise if you come across them once more. All of this data is genuinely practical.
Susan Mulvihill is author of “The Vegetable Yard Challenge Solver Handbook” and “The Vegetable Backyard garden Pest Handbook.” She can be reached at [email protected]. Watch this week’s movie at youtube.com/susansinthegarden.
