Managing Fall Leaves
Now that we’ve had our first good freeze of the season, we know the leaves on our trees will soon begin to fall, if they haven’t already. Last weekend, my wife and I took a drive down to Talimena State Part in search of fall foliage. We couldn’t decide if we were too early or too late since a lot of the leaves were brown. Either way, we had a great time taking in part of the countryside that non-Oklahomans likely would never imagine exists in Oklahoma. I mean, let’s face it. We have a desert in...
Fireplace Ashes
It’s finally cooling down and for a lot of us, this marks the beginning of one of our favorite seasons - fireplace season. Yes, there’s not much better than a warm fire on a cool night. This is also the time of year we see some terrible advice floating around social media suggesting that gardeners should place fireplace ashes in their garden because those ashes contain potassium. As with most garden myths, there’s a sliver of truth in there, but let’s talk about this seasonal garden myth.
Potassium...
Overwintering Plants
Well, are the cooler temperatures here to stay? Seems like it. I guess we’ll find out. But one thing we know for sure is that the cooler temperatures are going to affect our plants. Some of our plants will just go dormant for the winter but for others, the colder temperatures will signal us that they are approaching the end of their lifespan. So, we have some decisions to make.
The decisions we have to make at least partially revolve around the preferred growing zone for those plants. For some...
Planting Bulbs
We’ve been talking about fall garden activities recently. Some of those activities involve growing garlic, planting trees and shrubs, and getting our pansies and mums. But there’s another fall activity that will pay off with beautiful flowers in the spring and that is planting bulbs.
Planting and growing bulbs is one of the easiest things gardeners can do. All you need are some bulbs and a trowel. They make bulb planting tools which work great but are not required.
Planting time for bulbs...
Fall Soil Sample
We know that the warm weather garden season is going to come to a close at some point. The question is just a matter of when. Three years ago, we had our first freeze on October 18th. If we were to repeat that year, the summer growing season would have been over yesterday. Last year, our first freeze date was November 22nd. So, the timing varies, but we know it’s coming. We also know it’s coming if we look around our gardens. Our annuals look tired, kind of like we feel. At this point we are just...
Mums
Last week we talked about one of our favorite fall flowers - pansies. Today let’s talk about another one - mums.
Mum is a shortened version of their original name - chrysanthemum. Let’s just call them mums. Mums are technically perennial plants in Zones 5-9, we’re in Zone 7b. However, most of the mums we purchase in the fall, are grown to have a beautiful burst of flowers right about now. In contrast to a lot of perennials, they have been grown for this beautiful show of flowers rather than...
Pansies
According to the calendar, it’s now fall. But it sure doesn’t feel like fall yet, does it? Fall can mean a lot of different things to gardeners. It can mean that your gardening season is about to come to a close. Others might say, what do you mean “the end of the season” since they are likely gardeners for whom the season never ends, they just change it up a little. So, if you are a “change it up a little” gardener, it’s about time to start clearing out some of those annuals and replacing them...
Cold Frames
We know, it’s going to cool down eventually, right? We might even have a winter at some point. For vegetable gardeners, winter is either a time to rest, a time to plan for next year, or a time to lament that we aren’t outside growing stuff anymore. Honestly, for me, winter is a bit of all three of those things. Yes, I miss growing and harvesting vegetables, but I also appreciate a little break. And in those times when I am missing growing vegetables, I tend to make plans for the next growing season....
Planting Trees and Shrubs
While the summer growing season is winding down, planting season for trees and shrubs is ramping up. While this may seem a bit counter-intuitive, here’s why fall is the best time to plant a tree or shrub.
When we plant trees and shrubs in the fall, they have all fall, winter, and spring to establish a good root system that will better prepare them for the summer heat. So, let’s talk about the best practices on how to plant some trees or shrubs in our landscapes.
If you are thinking of adding...
Growing Garlic
Since we’ve been talking about getting our fall garden crops in the ground, there’s one crop we can plant now that will overwinter in the soil to give us a harvest next year, and it’s easy to grow. I’m talking about garlic.
Most of us have some form of garlic in our panty or refrigerator. If you don’t have actual garlic in the fridge, you likely have either garlic paste or garlic powder. But wouldn’t you rather have some fresh, homegrown garlic instead?
The good news is there’s not many crops...