What’s all the heat about?

It’s been a strange year for us here in Colorado.  We’re not used to this 90+ degrees for days in a row.  When it gets 90 by 9:00 am it’s a short work day.  Of course the heat means there are lots of weeds to pull so that has been the main activity this year.  Keeping the garden looking good by managing the weeds and water.

This is what’s around the garden this week:

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The grass along the front walk in front of the extension building has always been a problem.  The snow melt and salt constantly kills the edge of the grass.  To help with that we put in a border of annuals.  If we replace the plants every year we won’t have to worry about them being killed.  Every year we can do something different if we would like to change it up.

Also this year we’ve covered the rest of the front of the building with newspaper and mulch to ready it next year for a new garden.  Last year we did the patch to the left of the arbor and it is now ready for some new plants.

We’re low on plants this year.  We didn’t get any Plant Select this year and we haven’t had many donations.  If any of you are dividing your plants in your gardens this year and would like to donate some plants (we’re in great need of shade perennials), please take them to the extension office and let Amy, our horticulture agent know they are there.  We would appreciate any and all donations this year.  Thanks in advance for sharing.

We spied some pollinators in the garden this week.  The Tree Swallows really use the bird house.  It is the second year for babies.  A hummingbird was spotted and a nice bee.  I didn’t realize it until I looked a the picture that there is a big grasshopper on one of the plants.  He needs to be bird food.  Don’t eat our plants!!  That feather on the bird house is pretty big.  The bird that left it should make a meal of that grasshopper.

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We have the beginning of our path to the compost bins at the bottom of the hill.  We’ve slipped and slided and bumped our way to the compost bin for a few years now.  This will be much safer and nicer.  There are plans to continue the path and integrate it in the garden so there is easy access to it.

We will be in the garden soon.  I’m sure there will be lots of weeds to pull.

Happy Gardening!!

Problem Areas

Do you have a problem area where nothing will grow; or there is a particular problem?  There is an area like that at our demo garden.  In front of the Extension building along the sidewalk the grass has been replaced a couple of times.  In the winter the snow melt and piled up snow kill the grass along the sidewalk.

Our project this workday was to take care of that area.   Thanks to Patrick and Paul from the county who came and stripped out the dead grass. It was a small group of Al, and Sherrie and Gloria who laid down some rock mulch.  The plan is to put annuals in that space since nothing can overwinter there.

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Two years ago there was a real problem area where nothing would grow.  For seven years it was just covered with weed barrier and rock because there was no success putting anything there.  We’ve learned a lot in the last few years about low water plants and trying native plants in those problem areas.  We stripped out the weed barrier and moved all the rock and decided to try the right plants for the right place.  We made a xeric garden out of it and put some low water plants there and we’re excited with the results.  This will be the third year for that area after redoing it and we’re happy to say that plants are growing and doing well there.

second year

Xeric garden – used to be ugly

Xeric garden

So, with a little research and thought to come up with a plan you can turn those pesky areas into something attractive.

Some of the Master Gardeners went on a tour of Pat Hayward’s garden.  Pat was the director of Plant Select and her gardens are wonderful.  All of her plants are extremely low water.  After watering to establish the plants they don’t water them at all.  The native plants are planted with no amendments and they used rock for their mulch.  It was a great day and a real treat to see Pat’s gardens.  Her new book was available to purchase.  It’s  a book about tough native plants for tough places.

Permission from Pat to use photos from the tour in our blog:

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http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/native-herbaceous-perennials-for-colorado-landscapes-7-242/

http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/native-shrubs-for-colorado-landscapes-7-422/

http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/native-trees-for-colorado-landscapes-7-421/

After we left pat’s we went to take a tour of the CSU gardens.  The gardens at CSU are test gardens for new plants or new varieties.  It could take up to three years, with photos taken every week to test the plants and give results to companies asking for their help.  The annuals have been there a long time but the perennials are somewhat new.  They started out with a small perennial garden and now it’s grown substantially.  The plants are all labeled and the gardens are open so you can go up and tour any time you would like.  It as fun to see all the new colors of petunias and calibrachoas before they are for sale.  The gardens at the end of the tour have all been moved.  They were where they built the new football stadium on campus.  A very HUGE job.  The new garden is not quite established yet.  Next year it should look much better after it’s been there a year.

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A New Season Starts

Hurray, it’s gardening time.  The weather is getting warmer but not too hot yet so it’s a nice time to be outside in the garden.  Plants are popping up all over.  The tulips and daffodils and now the iris have come and are almost gone.  The perennials should start to really take off now.

GARLIC

Jill, one of our Master Gardeners is also a garlic enthusiast.  Here are some garlic tips from Jill:

It’s time to fertilize the garlic if you have not already done so.  I like Age Old Kelp personally.  It is a concentrate that I mix with water.   Read the directions before you use it.  Wait until the soil dries out a little and then soak the ground.  It is okay to get it on the leaves.   My garlic made it through the winter pretty well.  The hard neck varieties fared well with a loss of about 2%.  The soft neck varieties did not fare as well, with about a 30% loss.  The spring snow and showers had all the stems bent over, but they have popped back up and are reaching for the sun.

Photo by Jill Ricker

Harvest time will be in June or so.  Here’s a Plant Talk article for more tips:    http://planttalk.colostate.edu/topics/vegetables/1827-harvesting-garlic/

NEW ARBOR

As a refresher on what we did in the garden last year, (see the last blog from last season):

We papered and mulched a large section of grass and put in pavers in front of the building.  This coming Spring we’ll get to  put plants and a nice bench and an arbor under the plum tree.  It will make a nice new entrance to the garden at the north end

Barbi has been busy already.  She donated a lovely arbor for the new north entrance to our garden.  This is placed where we papered and mulched for a new garden area and where we put in new stepping stones.  She brought the arbor and even cemented it in for our strong winds.  What a beautiful addition to our garden.  Our Beverly Sills Iris are framed nicely by the arbor.  We can’t wait to see climbing vines winding their way up the arbor.  Thanks Barbi!!

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NEW ARRIVALS

The Tree Swallows are having babies in the prairie garden birdhouse again.  Hopefully we will be seeing young ones soon.

STAY TUNED

We have lots of plans in the works for this year.  Stay tuned and see what else we can conjur up!  We have a lot of talented Master Gardener volunteers and we’re excited about what is coming.

Happy Gardening!!

 

 

 

 

 

Another season over (we think)

hawthorne berries

We met for our last garden session for this year but the weather has been crazy nice.  It’s still in the 70’s during the days and 40’s at night.  We’ve had a couple of freezes but there are still plants blooming.  Roses and hibiscus are still blooming and of course the weeds haven’t given up yet.

With all this nice weather we may have to sneak down and do some watering.  The ground is so dry and there hasn’t been any moisture to speak of so we’ll have to make sure the gardens and trees get the moisture they need.

We mulched a lot the last few sessions.   We stood back and looked at what we accomplished this year.  We papered and mulched a large section of grass and put in pavers in front of the building.  This coming Spring we’ll get to  put plants and a nice bench and an arbor under the plum tree.  It will make a nice new entrance to the garden at the north end

We trimmed back some perennials but left what we could for the wildlife to use as shelter and food.  We left the rose hips for the birds and grasses and seeds heads for other creatures.    We exchanged one of our bird houses for a different model to attract more bluebirds.  The Tree Swallows used the bird house and had babies in one of our houses but didn’t use the other so by switching it to a different type we’re hoping birds will use both of them.

We’re proud of the Xeric garden.  For years nothing would grow there so last year we dug out some old fabric and worked the soil and planted some low water plants.  It’s very dry and rocky there but we had some plants come back this year and added some more and it’s looking much better than the old rocks with weeds in them.

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So, we’re finished for the season but it’s such nice weather and we haven’t had our first snow so we may stop in and see what’s happening.

See you next Spring!!

What’s happening in your garden?

 

We hate hail

Arrrggggg!!  Dang that hail.  Our garden was hit with hail and it’s taken about three weeks to start coming out of it.  This was a big hail storm, huge balls of hail, bigger than golf balls, and really shredded and beat up most of the plants.  It was a sad sight.  This is what it looks like a week after the big hail.  There should be a lot more beautiful blooms than are here.  The herb garden fared well.  It is closer to the building so maybe that saved it a little.

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Elsa, one of our volunteers, had her family visiting and her Mom, Susan Andersen, came with her to the garden.  She did a lovely painting of our beautiful Beverly Sills iris.  A garden is a great place to do plein air painting or sketching, illustrations or photographs.  The garden is open for artists or artist groups to come at any time and is very inspiring.  Most of our plants are identified by their common and scientific name if you need to identify plants with that information.  There are many nice little vignettes tucked around in the garden.  If you’re not an artist it’s still a great place to come and just sit and enjoy the beautiful blooms.

We are excited that the birds are using the nesting boxes we put in last year.  Tree Swallows have been using the boxes and it appears they are going to have little ones soon.  Elsa has volunteered to be our bird monitor.  She will be doing this in conjunction with the Castle Rock Bluebird Society (Rocky Mountain Bluebird Society).  She will be checking our nesting boxes every couple of weeks to monitor who is using the boxes and if they are nesting and how many babies are hatched.

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We are going to take some of the grass in front of the building to expand the garden.  The grass has a hard time growing there and it would be more beneficial and water saving to have more garden there.  We dug a trench to mark the border and laid newspaper and covered with a couple of inches of mulch.  It looks better already.  We have a path from the shade garden down to the rock garden and we will extend that path to the front sidewalk.  We plan to put a bench under the tree so people and volunteers can sit and enjoy the garden in the shade on hot summer days.  Volunteers tend to sit and congregate there to get out of the sun and take a break so it will be a nice addition for relief from the heat and it will look better than the grass that takes a beating there.  Ooops, There is not a picture of the finished area.  Next blog will show a picture of what we’re doing there.

We are monitoring the water situation. Some parts of the garden were very dry even though they are irrigated and some parts of the garden aren’t in the irrigation path.  It has been so hot we needed to do some supplemental watering.  Gloria and Elsa stuck it out after others volunteers were finished to hand water some of the garden that is suffering from the heat.  It’s been hotter than usual this year with stretches of 90’s and even some 100’s (unusual for us here in Colorado).  Even if you have irrigation, check your areas and make sure during these hot spells they have enough water.  Remember that too much water is just as bad as too little so do the finger test and get down around the roots to see if it’s dry or damp.  Moisture meters are also available at your local garden center and are a great tool to test under the soil to see if it’s damp.  If plants look like it’s shriveling and the soil is rock hard that’s a good indication too 🙂  New plants, even if they are XXX Xeriscape still need at least two weeks of regular watering so they can establish their roots.  Just because they say they need little water they need that time to grow and stretch out their roots so they can survive.  Plants need air and water just like humans so make sure they are well established before reducing their water.

Every week we continue to add a few plants and do maintenance (there is always a weed to pull and hail damage cleanup).  The roses just had their dose of fertilizer and we pruned the Linden tree (no it’s not time to prune all trees and bushes so check before pruning to make sure you’re not cutting off next years blooms).  Here’s to hoping that our next work day the garden will have recuperated from the hail and storm and harsh temperatures.

What’s happening in your garden?

 

 

 

RIGHT PLANT, RIGHT PLACE

pollinators at work

Our main activity our last work day was to plant up some Plant Selects.  Gloria and Sherrie, our co-leaders, went to the Denver Botanical Gardens for the Plant Smarter seminar.  Plant Selects are new plants that are selected and distributed  for research to see how well they grow and environments where they grow best.  Many of the plants Gloria and Sherrie picked up are new plants for 2017.  We also got some plants from other years and we will try them in different areas to see if they do better or worse than where we have some of them now.  The plants will be watched and Gloria and Sherrie will do a report with the results of the environment and how well they grew.

It was a warm day and got warmer as it progressed.  Luckily the water has been turned on because we’re getting up into the 90’s all of a sudden.

REMEMBER, RIGHT PLANT, RIGHT PLACE

We sorted them between the shade garden, rock garden (less water), main garden (more water), and the Xeric garden (much less water).  We had to read quickly about the plant and determine:  Full sun or shade, part sun/part shade; what type of soil do they like (do they need to drain or will they grown up through rocks); how big will they get; then decided how much water they need to place them in the right place.  It’s important not to put a shade plant where it’s going to be in 90 degree full sun.  It won’t last long.  Same for a full sun plant.  If it’s in the shade it won’t get the light and heat it needs to produce blooms.  If a plant needs light watering then it probably won’t grow as well where the water runs off.  Same for a plant that needs more water.  It will do better where there is irrigation rather than in the rock or xeric garden.  Here in Colorado we have to take into consideration we are a mile or more closer to the sun so many plants that take full sun in other places may need partial shade here.  We also determine how well the plant does in our Plant Zone.  In Denver it is a Zone 5.  Some of our surrounding areas, like Douglas County, have some Zone 4 areas.  Zones determine how much heat and cold plants can tolerate and how well they do in different climates.  This is what the research is all about.  All of this research helps to label the plants so they can be successfully planted when they go on the market.

We had 69 plants to read about and figure out which garden or spot to plant them.  At the same time we made sure we noted on our list where each of the 69 plants went and placed the little plastic tag next to them so labels can be made and placed in the garden without searching everywhere for new plants.  We don’t want Nancy going crazy looking for 69 new plants, some of which are in the rock garden and may be two inches tall and two inches wide.  Thanks to whoever made the list so we didn’t have to hand-write all the information.  Common name, scientific name, and we want to make sure they say TRIAL so Gloria and Sherrie can easily identify them later for their research report.

If you would like to read some in-depth information on how and where to plant, and how to figure out the right plant for the right place, please check out this link:  http://www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/Gardennotes/512.html

With the heat and rain there are always weeds to be pulled and it was also time to deadhead the tulips, daffodils and some of the iris.  The iris are in bloom now and beautiful.  Hopefully our next work day the peony will be in bloom.

This is what was blooming in the garden:

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If you take a stroll through our garden, look for the labels that say TRIAL and you will know that is a plant in the research stages.

After we finished our work day we all went for a lovely lunch in Castle Rock.  We got to sit near the garden so it was perfect.

 

Who says gardening isn’t good exercise?

We often talk about the benefits of gardening.  Exercise is one of them.  There was a lot of bending and stooping and pulling and digging going on this work week.  We continued clean up, moved some bushes, dug up some grass, and planted some roses.  We’re glad we can still keep moving.  If you can’t do all the standing there are some nice garden seats available.  Sue, one of our ladies has a nice seat that has storage for her tools and has wheels, which allows her to still be able to get out and enjoy the benefits of gardening.

We were excited to see some birds using our bird house we added to make our garden a wildlife habitat.  If we identified correctly these are Tree Swallows.  Last work day we found a nest in the Hawthorne bush.  This week we found another nest in the Spirea bush.

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The tulips were out in full force this week as well as some other bushes and trees are starting to get their buds.  Next work day we expect the iris to be blooming.

 

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Barbi dug up some grasses and a Cotoneaster that are by the path and will get too big to be there.  They will eventually block the path so might as well take care of them when they are not too big to move easily.  Go Barbi!!  She is our digger or at least was today.  Elsa and Barbi then planted 6 donated roses, and Sheila pruned the Nine Barks which is an annual endeavor.  Elsa was able to use some of the compost from our compost pile we started last year.  It was really nice and dark compost.  Everyone else was busy pulling weeds and weeds and more weeds.  It was time to deadhead the daffodils as well.  When deadheading daffodils and tulips and other Spring bulbs just cut the flower stem down a couple of inches and leave the leaves.  The leaves will help give nutrients to the bulbs for next year.  They also give some green foliage interest to the garden.  Once the leaves turn yellow and dry up they may be removed and should pull off easily.  Good stuff for the compost pile.

http://www.colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4DMG/Flowers/Bulbs/carefor.htm

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We had a nice morning and the weather wasn’t too bad.  A little windy at times kept us cool, but yikes, there’s a big cloud coming with some lightning so time to pack up and go to lunch and do some more garden planning.

Get out and move in your garden!!

 

 

 

Plants are popping up all over

It was our second work week in the demo garden.  When we first arrived it appeared that it was still mostly daffodils and some tulips that had opened.  Boy, were we mistaken.  There is a lot that is starting to pop up all over the garden.  We continued our garden clean-up.  There was a lot we had not finished and some we left as cover in case it snowed again which was a good thing since it snowed two more feet.  We were anxious to see if there was any damage to the garden but everything seemed to come through just fine.  We had such nice weather before but today was very windy and we were bundled up more than last our last work day.  Here’s hoping that was our last snow.  It could still freeze until mid-May or so, but we’re hoping that the nice weather will be here to stay.

Here is what we found popping up all over:

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A bird used the Hawthorne bush for nesting:

Xeriscape Garden

The Xeriscape garden is coming along nicely.  It doesn’t look like much yet but for years nothing would grow there.  It’s right next to the street and parking lot and gets a lot of abuse when it snows and is surrounded by asphalt.  We pulled up all the old fabric and gravel that was there and we redid it and made it into a Xeriscape garden.  It only gets water from rain and the drip system so we only put plants that are drought resistant and have low watering needs.    We’re excited that these plants are coming back and are surviving.  We will continue to add to the garden but this is a great start and we’re excited that we’ve finally worked it and found some plants that will survive there.  This is what is popping up already in this garden.

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Herb Garden

There wasn’t much action in the herb garden today.  A lot was done the last work day and some of our herb plants were used at The Urban Homestead CMG Herb Booth at the Urban Homestead event.  Barbi, one of our demo garden volunteers helped with the booth which had 600+ people stop by to talk about herbs.

We continued our clean-up and of course there are always new weeds that need to be pulled.

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We were very satisfied after this work day.  The garden is cleaned-up and we’re ready to watch things grow.  We will continue to add plants and do regular maintenance (there is always a weed to be pulled) and always something to clean up.  We’ll start deadheading soon and it’s almost time to prune the roses.

Roses

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Gloria reported the garden was used for a rose pruning class by the Denver Rose Society.  Eight of our demo garden volunteers attended the demonstration.  The roses in our garden were used for the demonstration (minimal roses were used since it’s still a bit too early in the Douglas County area to prune roses due to the later freeze dates at this elevation).  We got kudos from the society and they were very impressed that ALL of our roses were correctly planted, we’ve never had any sucker shoots and we’ve done a great job of growing “rescue roses” (most of our roses are not new, they are roses that are on their last leg or can’t be sold and are donated to us).  In Colorado to protect the roses from the harsh winter cold the graft (bud union) of the rose is planted one to three inches under the top of the soil.  This also helps prevent sucker shoots from growing from under the graft or union bud.  For more information on selecting and planting roses in Colorado visit:  http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/selecting-and-planting-roses-7-404/

What’s popping up in your garden?

Admiring our work and it’s time to get busy

The volunteers gathered in the garden for the first time this Spring.  The first thing we did was admire all the Daffodil and Tete-A-Tete bulbs we planted in the Fall.  We said we couldn’t wait until Spring and it’s here now!  We’re all ready to get in the garden, get our hands dirty, and rejuvenate our souls.

Planting Spring bulbs was the last thing we did before we ended our season last Fall.  They are popping up all over.  Other than a few green leaves popping out on some of the trees and bushes this was the only thing blooming right now.   Next work day we’re hoping to see all the tulips we planted.

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There were just a couple other of early bloomers.

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Our Japanese Lilac, we’re excited to say, is doing wonderfully.

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It’s that time of Spring to start cleaning up the garden.  We had a beautiful day.  It was warm and sunny.  Sometimes this time of year we’re bundled up in the cold so we were all excited to see the nice warm day.

Al and Barbi attended the herb garden.  It’s time to cut old stalks back and clean out leaves and other things that have blown in over the winter.  Al will assess what plants need to be replaced and make a list so they can be purchased and planted soon.

Everyone else started doing clean up in the other gardens.  It’s time to cut back old perennial stalks, clean up piles of leaves, start pulling those pesky weeds, clip off dead and broken branches, and cut back grasses.  It’s exciting to see the green starting to sprout from the base of our perennials.  We filled the dumpster full of weeds and trash, put some of the organic matter into our compost pile, and smoothed and rearranged some of the mulch.  Where there were tender shoots coming up, like our Peonies, we left some mulch over the top to protect them in case of more bad weather.  You just never know about the Springs in Colorado.  It could still freeze until May 20th where our garden is located so we keep that in mind.  We don’t prune our roses until May.  It could be more damaging to our roses if we prune them and get another freeze.  The garden is just now starting to wake up.

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We did maintenance in the Xeric garden.  Some of the rocks surrounding the Xeriscape garden got pushed around during snow storms over the winter.  We gathered the rocks from the garden and rearranged them and rescued some of the plants that had been relocated.  This coming Fall we will get some flags to mark the border of the garden since it’s directly against the parking lot.

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We gathered together after working to have a meeting where we threw around some ideas for what we would like to do in the garden this year.  A plan will need to be decided upon and written up so it can be presented for approval and funds.  Gloria and Sherrie, our wonderful leaders, will do that and as we go along throughout the season you’ll see what we’re doing next to improve or expand the garden!!

Our next work day we hope to see more Spring bulbs blooming.   A few days after our work day the weather unloaded about two feet of snow on the garden.  We’re hoping the other bulbs made it through the snow and we will still get some blooms.  It was a limb breaker so I hope our Lilac tree came through unharmed.   We will assess damage the next time we gather in the garden.  If you have perennials that are hardened off you can start to plant those any time.  Since we just had two feet of snow that sounds crazy but it’s time if the weather permits.

Happy Gardening in Colorado!!

Bulb planting, putting the beds to bed, and waiting for Spring

It was a fine but sad day to end the season.  Warm and just right to plant our bulbs; scatter some seed, cut our herbs and make sure we’ve got mulch where we want it for the coming winter and say goodbye to our beautiful perennials and garden until Spring.

There’s not much left in bloom.  This is what the garden looks like this week.  There will still be a few things for our animal friends and plants that will give some interest in the winter:

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The weather has finally taken a small turn and it’s getting cooler.  It’s the perfect time to plant bulbs before the first snow arrives, which should be soon.

The volunteers gathered today and planted 400 bulbs  Tete-a-tete Daffodils, just right for the front of borders (a small variety); tulips, and larger daffodils.

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We planted some Tete-A-Tetes around the edge of the memorial garden and along some of the walks.  Since they are shorter they will be more visible along the pathways.  We planted some tulips of lighter shades to complement the rose garden along with some daffodils; and planted other tulips and daffodils everywhere.  We had one area where we cut back the Buffalo Berry that left a big open space so we have plenty of iris, tulips and daffodils in that area.  We planted bulbs in the lower garden and the upper garden.  We had 400 bulbs so we put them everywhere!!  We did not put any in the Xeriscape area as we didn’t think the bulbs went with the other plants and plans we have for that area.

PLANTING BULBS

Usually we plant Spring bulbs earlier but it has been so warm this year that we kept waiting.  It was still in the 80’s some days as late as two weeks ago so we waited until it was cooler.

We planted our bulbs according to the what the packaging told us.  When in doubt, read the package.  This works well for seeds and bulbs.  Colorado can be a little tricky for planting other things but seeds and bulbs can be planted according to the package,  The tulips and daffodils were planted 6 inches deep.  We all had our handy bulb planting tools but the best one was Al with an auger attachment for his drill.  Al was in demand all over the garden to dig the holes for our bulbs.  It takes less than a second to drill a nice hole for our bulbs and with 400 to plant it really speeded up our process.

A drill with an auger really speeds up the process

Remember to plant your bulbs tip up!

You can plant bulbs one hole at a time.  You can plant them in a row,  You can dig a big circle or trench and randomly put them in.  We planted most of ours in threes so we will have little patches of threes everywhere.  We had some paths where we planted them in a row up both sides of the path.  It just depends on what style you like and what you want it to look like.

Soil may need to be prepared for bulb planting.  Our garden beds have been worked enough that we were able to just drill a hole and plant.

Oh yeah, if you like garlic it’s time to plant now for a summer harvest.

For information on planting Spring blooming bulbs check here:     http://www.ext.colostate.edu/ptlk/1012.html

SCATTERING SEED 

We also had some snapdragons that have gone to seed and stuck those in so they can drop and scatter their seed.  It’s a perfect time to gather your favorite perennial seeds and scatter them in areas where you would like to see them.  If it’s a new area turn the soil a bit and scatter the seed and dress the area with some organic compost.  Or just scatter them around in your garden and let nature take its course.

PRESERVING HERBS

The herb garden still looks good with many plants still usable.  Unfortunately  we had our first hard frost and the basil froze but lots of other herbs still look excellent  It’s time to cut and dry them if you would like to save them.  Cut off the herbs and tie them in a bundle and hang them upside down to dry in a cool dry place like a basement or root cellar.  When they are dry you can crush them and put them in bottles or bag them for winter use.  A wooden drying rack works well to hang the bundles on so there is good air flow around them.

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MULCHING

Last blog we talked about doing the last weeding (is it every done?) for the season and spread wood mulch over parts of the garden where it had deteriorated.  It had been a couple of years since the garden was mulched.  Hopefully this load of mulch will last as long.  This will help to retain moisture, prevent erosion and keep some of the weeds down.

In preparing the garden for winter we thought about our animal friends.  We have lots of nice grass and thicket, bushes and trees and bird houses for our friends.  We left the rose hips and some of the seed heads for food and we have lots of rocks and some dishes out to provide water from rain or snow melt.  We also have someone who can watch and provide water when needed.

Well, we weeded, planted bulbs, planted some new plants and scattered some seed.  We cut back the plants we wanted to; left some with rose hips and seed heads for the animals and birds; we mulched and unhooked the hoses.  I think we’re ready for winter.

If you read back over the blogs you can see how much we accomplished this year!  One of the exciting things is the area where we started the Xeriscape garden.  Nothing has grown there before and we think we are successful in making that area look much better.  It took a lot of work pulling up the old fabric barrier, bringing in the pea gravel and rocks, and finding the right plants that we think will finally grow there.  It’s a great start and we can’t wait to add more next year.

We added more new plants than we can recall, pulled more weeds than we will remember, used our new compost pile for the first time, put in some new stepping stones, added the bird houses, whacked back some overgrown bushes, pulled out some volunteer bushes, and applied for several habitat certifications.  We had a blog that documents what is in bloom and when, and every work day in the garden with what we did in the garden, when we did it and how to do it.  Here’s a recap of some of the things we accomplished.

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Thanks to Gloria Macy and Sherrie Mitchell, our wonderful leaders, and the too many to mention great volunteers who make this project work.  We hope our garden is an inspiration and educational and helps you figure out what grows well here, how it grows and how to plant and take care of it.

What will we cook up for next year?  ooooo, maybe a new garden!

We just can’t wait until Spring!!