Fall Garden Prep

What are you doing now?

Today I cut the lawn with the catcher bag--it really was just chopping up fallen leaves and I'll keep doing that every five days or so until the middle of December when they're all gone if there is no snow covering the ground.

I'm also cutting back any deciduous shrub that will bend it's pokey branches downward under weight of snow and stab my leg as I walk by them.

I'm clearing the bed edges along the walkways as best I can so that if we need to use the snow-blower it's not going to snag on a plant--sometime the snow settles in such a manner that you can't tell where the beds begin--so, for safety's sake, I'm leaving bare ground for the first foot or so into the bed.

I mowed down the hosta beds, I've cut back the bigger branches on the B'Fly Bushes, and I've got to cut back some of the roses too. I'm exhausted just looking at the marigolds that are LOADED with seedpods, the hibiscus and Japanese Iris need seeds gathered too.

And there's five bags of bulbs and nine pots of grass to plant too. Sigh.

Today was leaves for me, too, as well as continuing to dig out/sift/amend the front foundation beds.

Tomorrow will be more leaves and some mowing. If the day is long enough, I'll also cut down and pull out all the Toms except 'Large Red Cherry.' Those suckers are still producing delicious ripe fruit!

The Persicaria polymorpha, Hosta, Liatris, Rosa rugosa, and a variety of other things need to be cut down.

I'm finally under 100 plants, mostly grasses and ferns, to get into the ground or get their pots banked into some beds for the winter.

I'm not even halfway done restoring the woodchip paths, which involves sifting out the compost and replacing it with fresh chips. I have harvested at least 5 yards of compost so far, and at least that much more to get. This stuff is delightfully rich, and is working out wonderfully in new bed prep as well as old bed restoration.

This year, for the first time, I'm going to deadhead several of my grasses. I'm getting tired of pulling out volunteers all over the garden. I'll feed the birds all winter, so they don't suffer from loss of the seed.

I'm going to shovel prune dozens of plants I'm tired of, and amend their locations in prep for new plants next spring.

I'd like to have time to empty the finished side of my compost bin, and turn the unfinished side into it. I have a little over a yard of finished left, and the unfinished side is nearly full. These bins have compost made exclusively of grass cuttings, sawdust and shavings from a woodshop, Eel Grass and fall leaves. Great stuff!

That's just off the top of my head. There's probably a lot more I can't think of when I'm not out there. I sure hope the weather holds out.

I look forward to Winter, during a rainy day I go to the Jones Beach and harvest seaweed with only seagulls to gawk at me ;-) The great emptiness of the shoreline is simply breathtaking, and after the core I hike my shivering butt to the field-house for a cup of instant heartburn inducing chowder. Love it!

I've been mulching up my leaves for weeks now. I pile them up in an empty spot in the veggie garden. I mulch them into real tiny bits. Lots of nice piles. I hope the nieghbors don't think I'm nuts seeing me riding around in circles over the leaves several times. My family already said I'm nuts. In the spring I'll use them for mulch in the flower beds.

Cleaned up the veggie garden this past weekend and pulled up the annuals. The alyssum were still blooming, I left a few.

Have all my pots and planters emptied and ready to be washed and stored. Getting kind of cold out to be playing with water though.

This week I want to make a few more beds for spring planting. Doesn't look to hopeful though.

Still alot to do.

My son asked me about my " carbon footprint" with all the riding I do on the lawnmower and mulching. I told him it seemed a trade off because I don't send them to a landfill and I don't have to buy and use woodchip mulch and that saves some trees. You think?

Donna Mae

Like all on here, it's that overwhelming task of removing a thick blanket of huge oak leaves and relocating them down to the back boundary where they'll join the previous 5 years' worth. Come Spring I'll scoop out what's under there and use it when planting new additions to the beds. It's great stuff.
Pulling the last few weeds out of the beds now the hosta is no longer concealing them from sight. Tucking the straw mulch closer around new daylilies to protect them from the frosts.
Since Sunday was mild enough, I hauled pots over to the faucet and gave all a good scrubbing with a bleach cleanser and rinsed them with the hose. Once they were dry I stacked them one inside the other and pushed them into the back corner of the garage so the truck will fit inside once the snow begins to fall.
I leave the grasses, astilbe, liatris and Echinacea seed heads for the birds and critters and wait 'til Spring to cut down last year's growth.
I walk around the beds and mull over ideas for changes I'd like to make next season. This will be my first attempt at winter sowing so everyone please cross your fingers I have lots of new perennials to plant next year. I harvested LOTS of seeds but only have 12 half-gallon milk jugs prepped. I have seeds to share if anyone is looking for some.
Whacked down the weeds and invasives in the huge ornamental flowerbed my brother planted here 20+ years ago that I couldn't tend to this summer between all the rain and working some really long hours.
Dragged out the weedeater one last time so the beds look tidy going in to the frigid season. This time of year I'll do just about anything to stay outside in the fresh air while there's daylight.
Eileen in CT

I've been mulching leaves for the beds for a while now. I have a bed that I want to redo completely since I took out a 15' tall tree this past weekend. It gets more sun and would be nice if only I knew what to plant. I'm going to have to organize my own seeds one day this week. I've got to stop procrastinating, tomorrow.

With the nor-easter that consumed most of last week, I'm seriously behind. We had very high tides and strong winds for days, 2 feet of water around the house, salt water inundated the fall-winter veggie garden. Tons of pine needles need to be put raked up and put somewhere. I haven't sent seeds for Token's exchange. That's the bad news.

The good news is that most plants - including tender lettuce - seem to be in fairly good shape. Today, I harvested oriental greens - mizuna, tatsoi, kale - to make a warm salad tonight.

I'm behind (as usual) but things could be so much worse.

I did the last pass of the mower on the weekend, mulching whatever leaves the Atlantic wind had not blown into the forest. There is so little left after that wind that I must resort to picking up those lovely shredded leaves the city folks put to the curb, so the Yaris is quite full coming home these days.

I discovered a beautiful pile of leaf mold on Sunday and started using it to mulch some of this year's new plantings. It is so wonderful, dark, and rich.

All plantings have been done, now the winter marking begins by placing old twigs and small branches next to plants which might get stepped on when the snow is deep if not marked properly.

I still have to cut back some perennials to lessen the work in the spring. Two large garden beds will also get a mulching of compost since I need to empty all the bins to start composting this winter. I skipped making compost all last winter and missed having a reason to go out on a day when it seemed insane to do so...

Things could be much worse Pam, not everyone fairs so well in a flood, I am glad you're okay. Floods are just awful things--what a mess they make! (been there, done that--ugh!) Be well, keep the peroxide and bandaid box by the door, and treat yourself to something wonderful once the worst is behind you.

Trudi:

You are right about storms and floods - they make an awful mess. After Hurricane Isabel, we spent 3 years with chainsaws, fires, and loggers. I'm reforesting 5 1/2 acres, so much to do. The peroxide and bandaid box is a great idea. I'm scratched, bruised, and sore. I'll add ibuprofen to the box!

This time, we were lucky - wind changed direction, damage was less than predicted. It's so hard to be away from home when these things happen, even though we cannot change the outcome.

Pam

We have been lucky to have had about two weeks of beautiful fall weather, after our first snowfall. And it's the first fall in years our maple has lost its leaves before the first heavy snowfall, so I have been shredding the piles of leaves and using them to amend the soil in my veggie gardens. I am also in the process of removing all the soil from the front bed which has been taken over by the wild cats in the neighbourhood. Shovelling all the smelly soil into the garden cart, then re-filling with shredded leaves topped with composted manure and whatever I can find to keep the cats out - newspaper, plant trays, chicken wire. I am keeping the soil in large leaf bags next to my composter to keep the cats away from it. It is a big job and I'm about halfway done. I was glad to be able to plant out all the seedlings in my containers, cut back all my perennials, and uproot all my annuals, so I'll have much less to do in Spring. I still have two peonies to plant in a friend's garden - must do it tomorrow. Gardener's work is never done...

I know many of you are coming in from your gardens with aches and pains after lots of heavy prep work - enough raking would do it for me. Believe it or not, I am envious, and living vicariously through your posts! :)

My fall gardening this year consists of watching about 20 potted plants on the apartment patio & making sure I don't leave them out on a frosty night (no frost here yet in northern AL, but nighttime temps are getting close).

Raking, mulching, composting - I'm looking forward to all of it next year! I'll still be envious of those of you - Trudi & Tiffy - who live close enough to the beach to collect seaweed for mulch, though.

"I'll still be envious of those of you - Trudi & Tiffy - who live close enough to the beach to collect seaweed for mulch, though."

I don't have to go to the beach to get it. The prevailing winds here bring it right to my back yard.

It's pure Eel Grass. I just scoop it out and spread it on the boardwalk. I give the birds a day or two to pick off the little sea life, then give it a rinse with fresh water. Then it goes to a variety of uses.

In its whole state, it is phenomenally long-lasting mulch. It's even fairly attractive.

Some of it gets chopped up and goes into the compost bin.

Some gets sun-dried and run through the shredder, which yields an almost powdery consistency. This is used, alone and with compost, to make agricultural tea.

Donn, I'm coming to live with you. :D

Oh, so nice to have your own dockside property.

"...I've got to stop procrastinating, tomorrow..."

LOL! I'm with you on that, Token!

I've been a bit overwhelmed with all the fallen leaves. With all the rain and wind they have come down much earlier than usual - which in a way is a good thing, but I can't get anything done because everything is covered in 8 inches of leaves.

My DH went and hired someone to do leaf clean-up, which I'm not overly thrilled about. Way too much $$$$, I'm worried about my beds (had to switch with a co-worker to get the day off so I could be home, just in case...), and this guy doesn't shred, despite me insisting to DH that he find someone who shreds. DH said - and I quote - "I promise, promise, PROMISE I will help you shred after he blows them into the woods" but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Well, the good thing is the yard will be cleaned up and I can focus on putting things away, getting my cold frames up and running, shredding the leaves (and not raking them!) and getting mulch down. If the weather holds out, I might actually get every single bed mulched this year!

Got a pile of wood chips to finish spreading, and wouldn't mind having some extra shredded leaves for the compost pile, but that would be gravy.

My main chore at the moment is trying to find my garlic. I got it in the mail about a month ago, too early to plant, and for the life of me I don't know what I did with it! If I had just left it on the dining room table like everything else I would have known exactly where it was. But no, I had to put it away for safekeeping....

Eileen, where in CT are you?

:)
Dee

Hi, Dee! North central-Somers. And you? Had the same deep, wet leaves as you until the team showed up Sunday with two huge leaf blowers plus one backpack style. The six of us went to work and a little over two hours later I saw my lawn again. There are five huge oaks across the front of my property along the road. Shredding the leaves is not an option; they're way too deep/thick on the grass. Now when I get home from work if there's still enough light to see I walk around the beds and pick up any strays that blew in during the day. This afternoon I grabbed the hedge trimmers and whacked away at any stray blades of grass that were growing close to the edges of the beds. If it's neat going in to the winter, it'll be less work come Spring. A neighbor hired someone to do the leaves in her garden and the price was a lot more than I'd be happy spending.
Hope you find your garlic!
Eileen

Oh, you are way north of me Eileen! (Well, as "way" as you can be in a small state like CT, lol.) I'm down in Shelton. I had to google to find out where Somers is, lol - I'm terrible at geography. If it's not in Fairfield County, or maybe lower New Haven County, I just figure everything is "near Hartford" lol!

I have about 40 oak trees on a little less than an acre, with a few small maples and some other assorted weed trees mixed in. I used to have more but we've cut down about 4 or 5 since we've moved in, and my neighbor has cut a few down also. I've got some kind of tree on the boundary line that drops large nut-type things too. Don't know what it is - I'm about as good at IDing plants as I am at geopgraphy, lol! I'm also in the direction that the wind seems to blow all the time, so all my neighbors across the street get their yards cleaned up as the leaves blow into mine!

I shred my leaves by raking them up and putting through a shredder, not by mowing while on the ground - that would be impossible!

:)
Dee

Much to my dismay, our head office decided to forego the landscaping contracts for this past year and so we had to do our own mowing and such. Since I love to garden but mostly at home as a stress reliever, I got the employees to do it all summer long, which, I might add, they actually enjoyed. It gave them a break from their inside work. :O)

Here's the other side of the coin. The leaves fell and I was just staring at them for the past two weeks. Yesterday I shredded 5 huge bags of leaves of oak and maple, and today I took a break and shredded another 6 HUGE bags of leaves, threw them in my Yaris and took them home!! Oh joy! Oh bliss!! Life is good!

...and there's more where that came from. :O)

I'm so tired of leaves. But I can't give up. I'm really busy right now trying to keep the house up with my husband home on oxygen recovering from pneumonia and respiratory failure, a two year old and my poor three legged dog recovering from her surgery. Then there's the holidays and worrying about hospital bills. I have shredded lots of leaves in the back and covered most of the beds with it as mulch but there are still many oak leaves and maple yet to fall. I need to shred the front again and finish cleaning up my perennials and raking out the leaves in the new beds so I can mow the leaves and mulch more than the annual beds. The weather hasn't been cooperating lately. Although today was nice and my husband managed a car ride with me to pick up my stepkids. He is just getting back some of his strength and can only walk so far. I need to manage some pine needles to add to my leaves I think and seaweed or leafmold isn't an option yet. :)

Goodness, floodthelast, you have your hands full! Obviously you have priorities, and the leaves and clean-up can wait. Better yet, are the stepkids old enough to help out? If so, put 'em to work!

Take care of yourself, and don't worry about the leaves - they'll still be there when you have time (I don't know if that just made you feel worse or better, lol!)

:)
Dee

We've been done now for a few weeks, I emptied one of the compost bins, tossed that all over the beds, flower and veggie beds, then put the shredded leaves on top of that. I am just praying we don't have a spring like this past season, too much rain, too cool temps.

Alberta

I got a free load of wood chips delivered yesterday and spent the day spreading those and prepping new beds for all my upcoming WS plants. I am hoping to fill them up. A very hopefull newbie talking lol.

It's so gorgeous out there today I hate being inside and keep trying to find more outside chores to do. I'm digging out an old garbage bin set in the ground behind the garage. It felt good sitting in the sun just digging the dirt around it so my son can pull it out eventually. I checked the beds one more time and gathered up any stray leaves that were blown into them by the breeze. Stuck some variegated vinca vine in a small clay pot shaped like a dove and hung it on a bamboo tripod I built earlier this season. Like I said--anything to stay outside in the mild sunshine!
I hope Spring is a little less soggy in 2010 but as long as it gets here quick, I probably won't much care what it's like! I planted SO many new perennials this year & I'm quite anxious to see them bloom--among others, H. 'New Falling Stars' in memory of my mom and H. 'King George' for my dad. I think they'd approve of what I've done with the garden.

After my pity party message I did get to work. I managed to mow more leaves out front, clean up most of the daylilies and put some shredded leaf down on those beds. I even had extra leaves and put them in a black plastic bag with some water, then poked holes in the bag to promote leaf mold for next year. I will most likely be doing more bags like that. It's another beautiful day and I went out back and raked up more leaves. I'll mow them when I get the chance and hopefully bag those up too.
My real hope is that my husband can come sit outside for a bit today. He is so tired of our couch and my little boy is loving running around the yard.
The step kids are doing fine but went back to their mom's today so no extra help there. We did have a great time making bakable clay gingerbread man ornaments for Christmas this weekend though.

:...We've been done now for a few weeks..."

Okay, enough with the bragging, Alberta! :)

A gorgeous day here, too! Like gardenweed, I did not want to come inside! Even cleaning out the garage was semi-enjoyable just because I was outside.

I have to admit, after having a crew here yesterday to do leaf clean-up, I'm a bit lost. I'm not sure what to do with myself, lol. No leaves to rake! I'm so used to raking leaves until January that it feels funny not to have any! Well, I guess when I get my leaf vacuum/shredder back from the shop next week I will have plenty of shredding to do.

I walked around the yard several times, admiring how clean it looked, lol, but then by the same token, got a bit perturbed when I noticed the mulch blown out of a bed here and there, or worse, IMO, some big ol' footprints in the beds. I'm pretty anal about not stepping on the soil in my beds. Oh well, the guys didn't do as good a job (with the beds) as I had hoped, but didn't do as much damage as I had expected, so all around, it was a good thing. And now I don't feel so overwhelmed and can get stuff done.

After cleaning the garage a bit I set up my cold frames, and dug up my dahlias. Also potted up some tulip bulbs. I hope this weather sticks around a bit longer!

Floodthelast, I'm glad to see you are a bit more upbeat and feeling better about things!

:)
Dee

It gets dark by 5PM now, sigh. Not enough hours in the day.

It gets dark by 5PM now, sigh. Not enough hours in the day.

^This.

I am a night owl (who sometimes works 12a-8a shifts), so the loss of daylight always dings my best-laid plans at this time of year, LOL!

Anyway...I've mowed and bagged all the leaves, and am in the process of weeding the spring bulb/walkway beds (note to self: NEVER let weeds get comfy in the summertime, arrrgh!) I was so focused on my WS "to do" list that I neglected other areas around the yard *sigh* This year will be different, I swear! *ignores hysterical laughter from other WS fanatics*

Still to do: wash out hundreds (if not thousands) of plastic/clay pots to tuck them away for the winter...cut back perennials...strip althea bush of seeds...clear off morning glory trellises...put lawn ornaments in garage...haul brush to tree dump...organize seeds into categories (so I'm not in a panic come solstice, spending more time "looking" than "planting")...move mountain of potting mix bags indoors...

Oy, what am I doing online??? LOL!

Susan in Kansas

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