The Art of Great Gardening

There's still time to plant trees, shrubs and hardy perennials.  Be sure to water them in and continue to water at least once a week in dry spells this fall.  You can lose your new plantings if you're not aware of their water needs.  The morning frosts are not enough to keep your new plantings healthy in time for winter.

If you're planning a wildflower meadow or garden or scattering wildflower seeds in your garden beds, now is the best time to do so.  As I've said before, fall plantings of wildflowers work much better in our area than spring planting.  It's not too late to plant spring-flowering bulbs.  By the way, try to keep your bulb leaves until they are dead before cutting them back.  The leaves feed the bulbs.  I know most people have their garlic planted by now.  I've heard from many people about that.  Don't forget to mulch them heavily so they won't heave out in winter.

All this late planting activity can be fun and is very necessary to overwinter these plants and flower seeds.  They need the cold and the winter moisture to do their best and, of course, your trees, shrubs and hardy perennials can put their energy into their root systems rather than into leaves and flowers.  I received a list of plants that are easy maintenance for us to think about for next year.  The list came from  dean@plant-biology.com, in which he recommends that you think of growing plants that are native to your area and to supply compost mulch around the plants in spring.  I would add, not to apply the mulch till the soil starts to warm up because it could rot the roots of the plants if we mulch here in Pocahontas County when the soil is still cold and wet.  His list of easy to grow plants are:  French Marigold, Shasta Daisy, Hosta, Moss Rose, Pampas grass, Garlic chives, Chrysanthemum, Daffodil, Violet, Purple Coneflower, Creeping Phlox.  Of course, there are many more for our area which we will list come next spring.

We can cut back many of our plants now, except I always leave prolific seed-heads such as Echincea and Black-eyed Susans for the birds over the winter. Don't cut back the Grasses or Russian Sage till the spring when new growth appears.  Your grass clumps can be cut back then and divided.  There are so many grasses to choose from and you might want to go through the catalogs or websites that specialize in grasses to plan for purchasing in the spring.  Their selection of grasses is spectacular.  The grass plant ‘Gracile' is just that - a lovely, slender, graceful grass.  Grasses are beautiful this time of year when they are flowering.  Their plumes are their flowers.  I have grasses whose plumes are in many colors; from a silver to mauve and when the wind blows they are a show in themselves moving in the wind.
Now is the time to mulch and compost the flower beds, trees and shrubs - everything should be composted for the winter.  Compost is not the same as fertilizers; it will not cause blooming in warm spells through the winter.  Remember to fertilize out at the outer tips of your trees.  That is where your young feeder roots are located and they need the feeding, not the larger main trunk.  Just put out a ring of compost where the tips of the tree are located.
Wait till late winter to do most of your pruning.  Pruning is so important.  We have an old Redbud that has put out scraggly little twigs up top with few flowers in the spring.  This tree is located near our magnificent old large Redbud, which is spectacular every year.  We cut the scraggly one back viciously after blooming this year (one of the exceptions about late winter pruning) and over summer it burst into strong, healthy branches, instead of twigs, and put out beautiful leaves.  I am expecting the flowering to be wonderful next spring.  At least my fingers are crossed that it will!  So many times, it's either give up and cut the tree down or go ahead and prune it severely and watch it either die or grow into a healthy, beautiful specimen.  Kind of what life does to us!

By the way, don't you love your hydrangeas?  Mine always surprise me with their beauty when they die back.  They make great looking dried bouquets as they change from white to pink to mauve.  As I write, I keep looking at the PeeGee hydrangea I planted this past spring and its dried flowers are a pale orange.  I've never seen that particular color anywhere else, it's almost indescribable.
I am about to chop down a black and red pussy willow unless someone would like to come by and dig it out.  I saw it at a friend's place in North Carolina and the black and red on a pussy willow was so unusual to me.  I'd never seen one before.  It doesn't do well for me because I think it needs a warmer place - it was growing in Zone 6, but takes our weather fine.   I think if someone would place it in a warmer area than I have available, it could do very well.  It's gorgeous when it shows itself to advantage.

Compost piles that are made now can be protected from winter wet with a very heavy layer of hay over it or a tarp to keep it warm and not soggy.  Just check it through the winter to make sure it hasn't dried out.  Too much dry or wet will prevent your compost from cooking properly.  The first winter here, I thought the hay I'd put on my pile was enough to shed water.  I got a lesson in
West Virginia winters.  In the spring I had a soggy, rotten mess.  I rescued it by adding dry matter, turning it often and it revived into an excellent pile.
We're putting in raised beds in the greenhouse for intensive planting of greens and possibly tomatoes through the winter.  Time for the younger ones here at the farm to do that.  I'm ready for a nice, cozy winter.  Yes, I'm going to learn to knit - maybe it'll keep me busy creating new, beautiful things through the winter when I really miss the flowers.
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for.  In spite of everything, we have our friends, family and gardens.