The Rural Voice, 1995-10, Page 45Gardening
October, cleaning up, planning for next year
BY RHEA HAMILTON-SEEGER
Glorious October is the gardener's
last chance in the year to really muck
around in the garden. The days are
cooler and more comfortable for
working and while you cut and tidy
up around the garden you can see
what did well and what didn't and
make the changes right then and
there.
Too often during the summer
months I will notice an unhappy plant
and make a note of it. To move it
during its blooming period would
make it even more unhappy and this
summer I noticed a lot of unhappy
plants. The garden as I laid it out
four years ago has grown, and with
this comes changes in lighting as
shrubs grow and crowd the perennials
and more vigorous perennials crowd
the slower to establish ones.
You can take moving thicker
clumps of garden growth with gusto
during October and rejuvenate parts
of the garden with additions of
manure, compost and/or blood meal
sprinkled on top. You can trim back
some of the taller plants like
delphiniums, monarda and pink
obedient plant to protect them from
being beaten by winter winds.
Depending upon your area you may
want extra protection so leave about a
foot to a foot and a half of stem to
catch the snow.
I tried a new location for the
dahlias this summer. They enjoyed
the sun and manure so much that they
grew to a stunning five feet and
produced a handful of itty bitty
flowers late, late in the season. Next
year no manure and more water. The
tubers are lifted in mid-October after
a frost blackens the leaves and tells
the tuber to shut down. I store them
in large metal wash tubs lined with
layers of newspaper. Every year I
swear no more bulbs, corms or tubers
that must be lifted and every year I
go through the whole routine of
lifting, storing and later planting
again. I somehow misplaced my
acidanthera corms. A lovely slender -
leafed plant similar to glads, it has
tall stems of white flowers that are
beautifully scented. I will have to get
more next year. I gave up on
gladiolus although I enjoy looking at
someone else's. I left my gladiolus in
the ground last year. The row in the
vegetable garden bloomed but those
planted in the more shady spots in the
flower garden were frozen out. If
you dig yours up be sure to make a
clean cut in the stem close to the
corm and remove the old withered
corms from the base of the young
corms. You don't want to leave any
soil or old roots clumped around the
tubers. It just holds unwanted bugs
and fungus spores close to the corms.
Now is a good time to insert a few
more bulbs. I took photos in the
spring so I know where the bare areas
area. While you are working with the
bulbs fill a couple of pots and set
them in a cold frame or window -well
until closer to Christmas. I have put
them in the back fridge but they take
up room that is better used by excess
fall garden produce and early
Christmas baking. I find that
Christmas is too busy with all the
decorations and that the bulbs are
better appreciated near the end of
January and during February. I bring
the pots into the house mid-
December or a week later for an early
indoor spring.
One last thing to do in October.
Bring in some of the wonderful
papery hydrangea blossoms. They
make a wonderful light wreath.
Sarah made me some grapevine
wreaths last year so we decorated one
with hydrangea. We cut the larger
heads into smaller branchlets and
with a hot glue gun fastened them to
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the wreath and hung it all with a
coloured ribbon. Very simple and
airy looking.
Hydrangea are very easy to grow
and while some people spend time
doctoring the soil to produce either
pink or blue flowers, I leave them
alone and enjoy the large white hcads
of blossoms. If you are planning to
set some out next spring look for
Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora or
in trade terms P.G. or peegee. It is
practically foolproof as it grows in
any soil and never fails to produce
large trusses of flowers. Winterkill
doesn't seem to affect it and it can be
cut back to 18 inches and still
produce flowers.
The hydrangea macrophila, also a
Japanese shrub, is widely forced by
florists for winter bloom and is
perfectly hardy for our outdoors.
This variety is either blue or pink and
will continue to produce coloured
blossoms in your garden. Its
flowers are produced by the
terminal buds on the previous
year's growth so winter kill will
limit the number of blooms.
Now that I have listed a
handful of October
activities for you, I had
better get busy outside
in my garden and
follow my own list.0
Rhea Ilamilton-
Seeger raises
two children,
and is a
skilled
cook and
gardener.
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OCTOBER 1995 41