Storm time

I've been reminded again today, as Sandy approaches the northeastern U.S., of the power of storms.

We've had nothing but some strong winds and a bit of rain today, mainly from a Gulf-based system, not Sandy.  But leaves blew off, raining down on the lawn and mulched beds. I wish we'd got some more rain, as it's been dry for weeks.

But, it's been a glorious fall so far, and the reds have deepened on the dogwood leaves, the sassafras and persimmon leaves are striking, and the hickories and oaks are holding forth, too.

No yellows in our ginkgos yet -- they're late.  I just searched ginkgo in previous posts and these came up, all mentioning the clear yellows in November!

This image was from Nov. 20, 2010.

Ginkgo biloba, SCBG

It's one of a pair of ginkgos near the nature center at the South Carolina Botanical Garden planted at the same time (one is a lot larger than the other).

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Evening porch view

A wonderful September day (in late October) found the porch a perfect spot for dinner.  It's still normally nice at lunch, but at dinnertime -- how pleasant (although a bit unnerving, too).

evening

The reds and purples have been deepening noticeably over the last few days, along with the yellows and oranges becoming more evident.

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Fall color

 A beautiful fall day had me admiring the purples in the dogwoods and the exuberance of the (non-cut-back swamp sunflower) in the border that we see from the porch.

from the porch

Normally, I would have reduced the stem height in June, but didn't this year.  The tall stems are now flopping dramatically, but are really quite pleasing.  And the buddleia to the right continues to host an abundance of butterflies, including the last push of monarchs, as they're moving south.

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Fall saffron crocuses

It's been busy, trying to keep Woody calm (ha!) and tidying and planting as I can.

But I was glad to see the first saffron crocus in flower.  I'd noticed their foliage a couple of days ago, and made a mental note to watch.  The fun of having a blog is I can search and realize that I posted in previous years, too, about them.

I snagged the stigmas (the 'saffron') of this flower to dry.  There will be more to come.  These are plants were established quite a few years ago.

Here's a photo from 2008, from a post on Oct. 26 of that year.

Saffron crocus (2008)

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A tidier garden

Happily, even with a recovering Golden in tow, I've managed to clean up quite a few more of the seedling/sapling volunteers (think redbud, magnolia, sassafras, Althea, lacebark elm, American holly, Chinese privet, nandina, English ivy, etc.)  Not to mention the runners - Bermuda grass, vinca (major and minor), air potato vine, and morning glory.

And the entrance to the front door actually looks like a flagstone path again, and not the entrance to a mysterious house in the woods.  Woo-hoo!

Hmm, there's still LOTS to be done, but I'm feeling better about it.  Geez, nothing like talking about and showing images of your garden in better times to help kick-start things.  And a dear friend's suggestion that we visit together while we garden was encouragement, too.  She's the original energizer bunny of mulching and weeding, so her suggestion helped me out of my gardening funk!  Major garden cleanup involving pruners and heavy cutting is NOT on my list of favorite gardening activities.

I'm hoping to get out and get my garlic in the ground in the next couple of days. It's the perfect time, and my beds are ready.

The satellite vegetable garden is being nibbled on by some sort of herbivore (deer? rabbit?) I managed to harvest the turnips ahead of it, but didn't get a chance to check on the arugula today.  I don't think it's a woodchuck, because, next to my potting bench, all the Tuscan kale in a tall ceramic container was eaten, right next to a container of cilantro, which has been a favorite of woodchucks in the past.

Thankfully, none of the normal nibblers care for garlic!

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Fall weather and planting garlic in wide rows



A green spider with an ominous red spot in a dew-covered web

There has been a turn in the weather over the past three days with temperatures in the 60s and humidity near 100% each morning. These conditions cause dew to collect on spider webs and this makes them really stand out.

I am particularly fond of this tiny green spider with a wicked red spot on her abdomen. Her beautifully symmetrical web is strung between the tallest rosemary spikes by the back door.

Here are a few more...

This web, suspended in a sweetgum tree, was huge--more than five feet across.

A web under a neighbor's mailbox.

Trench composting between the wide rows.

 Red torch garlic
 from Burpee

I ordered it months ago, but Burpee did not ship garlic until Oct. 1 for my planting zone 9 location. This is a soft-necked garlic, which is the only type recommended for southern gardeners.

I prepared about a 4'x5' bed (where the okra was planted) with a good amount of extra compost and arranged three wide rows.

My plan for further enrichment of the area is adding a bucketful of kitchen scraps in the trenches between the rows. This is my method for trench composting: dig the trench an extra six inches deeper, lay in the kitchen scraps, cover with two inches of soil, and then mulch with pine needles up to the level of the planting surface. This adds various micronutrients including calcium from the eggshells.


Contents of one bag.

I bought two bags of garlic, which doesn't look like much until you break it into all its separate cloves, then there are about twenty in each bag.




After separating all the cloves from one bag...



I use my built-in measuring device--the spread between my thumb and finger is 7.5 inches.

The photo above shows the middle row, which is wide enough for three rows of garlic, while the photo below shows the right-hand row. In the photo below you can also see that I used the papery skins as part of the mulch.

After all the garlic bulbs were patted in, I added a fine layer of soil and on top of that a layer of  dried grass clippings to sweeten the soil.



The second trench is not yet mulched because I'll bury my next batch of kitchen scraps here. Then I'll mulch.

In wide-row planting I use enough pine needles in the trenches between the rows so that it is level with the planting surface. In this case I also added an inch-thick layer of pine needles on top of the grass clippings. A good amount of mulch is important for growing garlic in Florida because our winter weather is not continuously cold. We have 10 or 15 hard frosts, but in between the chilly weather it could be in the 70s.

I'll keep you informed on the garlic and my other winter vegetables as the season progresses.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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Mid-October gardening thoughts

My garden(s) at home need some attention.  We've had delicious Hakurei turnips the last few evenings, with plenty of arugula and cilantro, too, along with bright red pizza peppers, too.

But helping Woody (our sweet rescue Golden) recover post-knee surgery is a primary focus currently, returning from traveling, while Tim is finishing up fall field work for his second book.

Woody needs to be quiet as he heals (uh, that means that one of us needs to be with him, as he's so averse to being alone!)

Happily, he rested comfortably as I weeded the main vegetable garden here in the Piedmont this afternoon, and attended to the woodland wildflower patch in front of the house.

I had sowed all sorts of greens in our mountain beds, thinking we'd be up there more this fall, but will need to depend on my gardening companion's harvesting, as Woody isn't supposed to do any stairs for at least 6 more weeks.  (We have three levels in our small mountain house).

Tim will be looping through at our mountain house on a long field work trip, so hopefully, he'll be  bringing back more peppers and greens....

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