Re: [gardeners] Fall overveiw

George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 29 Sep 2001 07:40:51 -0500 

Yeah, it's pretty cold here too, maybe 52F this morning. I'm wearing my overalls and a long-sleeved
tee shirt. <VBG>

We ripped out the sprangly old zinnias out of the front flower bed yesterday and will get the ones
in the side bed today. The blasted things reseed and keep getting uglier and uglier but DW loves
them so. Gotta take out some other plants in that side garden too. We've been calling them "Red"
ginger as the lady who gave them to us called them that. They're more like a very small flowered
canna lily, no rhizomes, just roots. Got too many of them so they go in the trash and I'll move the
last of my true gingers into that bed. I now have a large supply of ginger root for cooking.

The veggie garden is going to lie fallow this fall/winter. We grew so much food and preserved so
much of it that we thought we would not plant this fall. Seeded it with winter rye a couple of weeks
ago and when the rye hits about 6 inches tall will cover it with compost and ground up leaves to
compost it in place. The fig tree will get a 6 inch deep layer of compost out to the drip line at
the same time. I don't mulch the other fruit trees as it gives a place for disease and mice to hide.

I could never live where you do Penny. Cold weather aggravates my angina to the point I just want to
sit in front of a fire and rock. Look out for Jimmy, he decides to run around naked right now he
might catch a cold. B-)

George

penny x stamm wrote:
> 
> George,  we tend to think of everyone's weather in terms of our
> own, more or less. I don't feel as if we ever had a spring, and
> we certainly did not have an ordinary summer. Yes, I think one week
> of hot and terribly humid, but in general, nada ...
> 
> Right now it is freezing -- our metabolisms must have aged radically
> because it has not been so hot that our blood thinned, and
> therefore we never should require the heat on in the house, the way
> we have it!
> 
> The mandevilla and lablab are still beautiful, even with the 45* nights,
> as I mentioned awhile back. And the big flower bed looks rather
> chaotic since the plants grew into each other, natural style, but it does
> give the yard color, and that's welcome.  The rhodies we moved a few
> weeks ago look wonderful!  And down on the end there's an overflow
> bed where we put all my extra seedlings, and all those rooted coleus
> cuttings which were so late getting into the ground that they had lost
> all their lower leaves and looked ratty.  Today they are a lush jungle
> of color, ALL filled in (they grew fresh lower leaves!) and it looks
> wonderful! The bed is fronted by my hundreds of self-seeded volunteer
> blue ageratum from last year's big flower bed, some no larger than a
> quarter when I carefully scooped them up.. There's yet another bed
> back there with more of those volunteer itsy-bitsies which now are
> full grown. Somehow it is more fun to see and smile at the flowers
> which one has cultivated herself...
> 
> But in all it must have generally been cool. The raspberries have
> stood still for weeks -- the berries are fully developed, but not
> ripening, and this is VERY late for the crop. The other bed of New
> Guinea hybrid impatiens stopped growing at half their usual size.
> My 2 foo dogs are placed there at the entrance, and normally the
> New Guineas grow so tall that I have to add bricks underneath
> the foo dogs to elevate them enough to be seen!
> 
> I have to be careful what we prune this weekend. The 4 ilex
> hedges, yes -- they grow so thick and fast that they torment me!
> But wherever I find an azalea which should be removed, I am
> waiting until spring. I want the sickly plant to help support its
> healthy neighbors from the weight of the winter snow.
> 
> Still so much to do -- guess I'd better get out my winter
> underwear..
> 
> Penny, NY   zone 6
> 
> .
> 
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