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October
25, 2000
Oh,
Those Autumn Leaves...
Has anyone else been busy raking leaves? Silly
question. In our neck of the woods (Westwood that is) the
trees are very tall and the leaves start falling the first of
October and finally finish the later part of November. It
truly is a never-ending job trying to keep them picked up.
I don't know if any other cities offer this service but Westwood
has curbside leaf pickup. It is great. You pile your
leaves next to the curb and this huge truck with a vacuum
attachment drives by every week or so and sucks them up.
The service runs from the first of November to the beginning of
December so there is plenty of time for those last stubborn
leaves to still be picked up. What a great perk for living
in a smaller community!
The mild October weather has been a pleasant surprise. I
have stayed consistently busy in the garden cleaning up summer's
remains. Don't forget to start thinking about planting
bulbs. Now is the perfect time to get them in the ground.
Happy
Halloween!
~
Shelly
The Many
Hues Of Autumn...
This is such a marvelous time of year. Although many
plants are dead, dying, or going dormant our trees are bursting
forth with a profusion of color as if to give us a final lasting
memory to carry us through the winter. Those of us that
have been luck enough to visit New England in the fall probably
wonder why trees in our region usually do
not color as well. This difference is partly due to the species
of trees prevalent in New England. Certain oaks and maples
naturally produce good color. Coloring is also due in large part
to the weather. Warm, sunny days and cool nights are ideal for
good color. The sunny days encourage photosynthesis and, thus,
sugar accumulation in the leaves. As fall progresses, each leaf
develops an abscission layer at the leaf stem that prevents these sugars from being transported down the
trunk to the roots for storage. This high sugar content in the
leaves produces more intense colors. Cloudy days and warm nights
prevent some of the sugar accumulation in the leaves and results
in less vibrant colors. Weather during other parts of the growing
season can also have an effect. Heavy rains in the early spring
or hot, dry weather during the summer can also have a deleterious
effect on fall color. The length of time a tree maintains fall
color also depends on weather. Reds, yellows and oranges are
short-lived when trees undergo frosts and freezes.
Source
Win
Some, Lose Some, Share Some...
One of the most useful exercises a Savvygardener can do this
time of year is reflect back on the growing season and take stock
of the successes and failures experienced in the garden.
What, no failures? That means you're not trying enough new
things. You might say that "no failures" is a
failure itself.
We can have
some fun with this and learn from each other at the same
time. Share with us your most memorable successes and
failures of the season and we will publish our favorites right
here. Simply follow this link to our End
of Season Gardening Survey.
Keep It
Interesting...
As you clean up the garden and prepare it for bed try to
leave some plants in place to maintain some winter interest.
Ornamental grasses in particular look great in wintertime.
Seedpods on spent flower stems, especially in bunches, give the
wintertime garden a very special dimension also.
Don't
Leave The Leaves...
Those leaves that are falling all over the region are pretty
but leaving them on your lawn can mean trouble. When they
are dry they shade your grass from much needed fall sun.
When wet, like they probably are now, they can smother grass
turning it yellow and possibly killing it. Just keep the
leaves raked up a few times per week and you should be
fine. Better yet, mow and bag them in your lawnmower and
use the shredded leaves in your garden or compost pile.
Cold
Weather Care for Chemicals...
Temperatures have been mild lately but they will be dropping
again before too long. When they do be sure to check for any
lawn and garden chemicals that might freeze in their
containers. Frozen liquids
can break jars and split plastic containers, spreading concentrated chemicals within reach of children or pets.
Move them to a safe storage
place where temperatures will not reach freezing.
What's
Hot On the Hotline...
As the weather turns cooler, the thoughts of many insects
and quite a few rodents as well, turn to warmer quarters in which
to overwinter. Our homes often present irresistible
targets. Meanwhile, squirrels are busy tearing up our
gardens to inter ill-gotten nuts or other forage, so that they
can wreak havoc later among your spring plantings in the quest
for hidden booty. Others gnaw their way into attics.
Boxelder bugs usually lead the parade of insects into your house,
closely followed by ants, spiders and crickets.
Dealing with all these invaders is the subject of this
week's Hotline...
Bulb
Salsa...
Savvygardener Jan M. posted a great tip in SavvyChat
last week. She writes, "This is an old tried and
true method of thwarting those digging squirrels. When
planting the bulbs, dip them into some powdered cayenne pepper
(get one of those large containers from the wholesale club) to
coat them. Plant them and mix some of the pepper into the
soil as you cover them. It burns the varmints paws and if
they do eat the bulb, it gets them like a very hot meal.
I learned this from my grandfather who grew great gardens.
He also used hot sauce mixed with water to mist his tomatoes and
other vegetables to keep the varmints away."
Great tip
Jan! I'll bet some Savvygardeners will be mixing up your
grandfather's "salsa" this fall.
Finally...
"In
the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year,
bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and
toil. And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do
we get such superb colour effects as from August to November." ~
Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden, 1905 |
