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6 more things to do in your garden during October

October Garden by Ravenelle

In the last post, TheGardenLady gave a list of 9 things you should do in your garden before the frost of Fall arrives.  Here are 6 more suggestions:

1.  Pull up diseased plants especially tomatoes, squash and potato plants. Do NOT compost these diseased plants. Bag them and toss them out.

2.  Cut back dead perennials where slugs, snails and other pests might hide. But remember to leave some plants for birds and butterflies.

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9 Things You Can Do in Your Garden before a Frost

Garden set up for fall frosts by Carolannie–temporaril…

Fall is a busy time of year for gardeners.  Here are 9 of the many things you can do before a frost:

1. Start planting bulbs. This is the time to plant those bulbs you want to bloom next spring- like daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, crocuses, etc. You can plant bulbs until there is a hard frost. You can order them from catalogs. TheGardenLady has a number of favorite bulb catalogs.  The nice thing about catalogs is that they send you the bulbs when it is the best time to plant them in your area. But, of course, you can buy bulbs in your local stores if you prefer.

2. Build yourself or buy a compost bin if you don’t already have one.  Sometimes it is best to have at least two compost bins.  There are many instructions for building them online.

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Michael Dirr to be Keynote Speaker at Master Gardeners of Mercer County’s 2013 Horticultural Symposium

Michael Dirr

If you live in NJ or plan on being in the Princeton, NJ area on March 16th, 2013 or if you enjoy traveling to symposiums, you might consider signing up for the Master Gardeners of Mercer County’s outstanding annual horticultural symposium. For the last few years, The Master Gardeners of Mercer County, NJ have held excellent gardening symposiums that are extremely popular and well appreciated by those who attend. Every year these symposiums have been sell-outs. This year they seem to have put together what promises to be their best symposium ever. So even before information about the symposium went public, over HALF the seats have been sold already.

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Websites for solving your horticultural problems

Master Gardeners by Carol VanHook

Do you have problems with your plants? Who doesn’t? Do you often wonder where to go to answer your problems, besides writing to TheGardenLady?

Well, you can always call in with your question or take a sample of your problem to your local Master Gardener office. Every state and almost every county in every state in the US has a Master Gardener office. Master Gardeners are in Canada and also in England and New Zealand.  South Korea is considering starting a Master Gardening program. Good luck to South Korea.

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Prunus Mume aka Japanese Apricot

Winter in the Atlanta Botanical Garden – Prunus mume “Peggy Clarke” by UGArdener

An Asian friend told me about a tree that ThisGardenLady had never heard about in the US. And not only had I not heard of this tree in the US, but this friend told me that the tree blooms in the WINTER in my Hardiness Temperature area which is zone 6B. The tree is Prunus mume or the Japanese Apricot. I know that many of the trees with prunus in their names will grow in my temp. zone because prunus is a genus that includes plums, peaches and apricots, etc. and there are many prunus trees growing here. But the prunus trees and shrubs that I know bloom in the spring not the winter. Certainly, I thought, my friend must be mistaken about Prunus mume’s bloom time. (see here)

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Invasive Lillies

2007.09.02 金針花 / 赤科山 / Day Lily by MaxChu

TheGardenLady received this question from Nikki.

I have seen orange sillies resembling tiger lilies growing wild. I think they might be day lilies. I am wondering if it is possible for day lilies to spread from from your garden and become wild lilies. Do you think it is possible for a garden variety plant to become wild?

Day lilies/Hemerocallis fulva, with the common names of common orange day lily, tiger lily, roadside ditch lily plus a few other common names, have become invasive in a number of states. (see here and here and for a map of where this lily grows, check out this site)

There are beautiful native lilies that you could grow that will not become invasive.

But if you are interested in growing day lilies, not all varieties are invasive according to the American Hemerocallis Society ‘s Information Release site about invasives. They say that, “Any of the thousands of commercially available hybrid day lily cultivars which are clump forming are said to not be invasive.”

 

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Modern Funky Balcony Planter

TheGardenLady is always scanning the Internet or nurseries for unusual or new gardening items. I just saw a funky new design of pots that cleverly hang on railings. The company that makes these pots is called Greenbo. Check out the website of this company.  These pots would be great for those gardeners who live in an apartment where the only place to garden is a small balcony with railings that are not too thick- not more than 4 inches wide-that you don’t want to or can’t hammer nails in to hold window boxes.  And the design of these pots the advertisement claims is such that they won’t fall off the railings. They better not if they are used on balconies in a high rise apartment. That’s the only thing about the design that makes me a bit nervous. I wish they had a secondary security system. But look at the design to see if they will work for you.

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Pruning and Limbing Up Crape Myrle

Lagerstroemia indica by jacilluch

Bernadette asked TheGardenLady when would be the best time to prune her crape myrtle/Lagerstroemia tree.

You can always prune off dead or broken branches at any time of the year on your crape myrtle or any shrub or tree. You can also cut off the dead blossoms after flowering if you don’t like the looks of them- the ones you can reach, that is.( sometimes this will force the crape myrtle to send out more flowers) If you don’t mind leaving the blossom ends, you don’t have to even cut those lower blossom ends. Some people think they have winter interest and birds like  to eat the seeds in the winter. Of course, you don’t have to bother with the blossom ends you cannot reach at the top of the plant because nature will dispose of them.

The crape myrtle does not need much pruning if you like the shape it is in. It is the kind of shrub I like, the lazy man’s shrub.

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Flowers of Kauai

A reader of  TheGardenLady blog recently visited Kauai and sent in photos of some of the plants growing on the island.  A highlight was visiting Kauai’s Limahuli Garden and Preserve which grows native plants of the island and teaches about  Hawaiian history in relation to the native plants. As you walk through this beautiful botanical garden you have gorgeous tropical scenery.  This was the location that served as the Bali Hai backdrop in the movie “South Pacific.”  Limahuli covers almost 1000 acres. Though much of it is restricted for research and preservation, one can walk a 3/4 mile long trail through the demonstration garden. Read more about this garden here or check out this page for flowers in Hawaii.

 

 

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Landscaping your gardens – front, back, side, and roof – with vegetables

 

I guess, because ThisGardenLady was born and raised on a farm, to me there is nothing more beautiful than seeing farms, gardens or orchards.  And I guess, because I was a poor child, I like to see value in what I raise. Don’t misunderstand, I think that a lawn is pretty and a peaceful sight. But I like to see added “bang for my buck.”  And what can be better than seeing plants grow and then getting food from them?

I know that there are towns or housing developments where you have to have a front yard that looks like every body else’s front yard. That is the law in some places. I know that neighbors have to be kept happy.  There are some neighbors who want to see a similar front yard as theirs and are intolerant especially when someone landscapes a little bit differently. Some of these people call the police or take people to court for these differences.  I believe in peaceful coexistence and would never encourage any fights, even over front yards or gardens.

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