As it is Fall, this first blog entry is about putting the garden to bed. I spent this past weekend getting some things cleaned up in the yard preparing for Winter. This summer I lined my driveway with 8 white 26” Crescent Garden Dot planters. I planted with coleus in the center, surrounded by white geraniums, dusty miller and red petunias.
Most of the plants did okay. The petunias struggled a bit and didn’t grow as much as they should have. They were planted in the middle of June and I think since they were small pony packs, they needed more direct watering then I gave them during the hot summer. These are self-watering planters with a reservoir for the plants to send their roots down and drink what they need. However, if the plants are small (such as those from pony packs), their roots aren’t quite long enough yet to reach the water. Supplemental watering is a must. I thought I gave them enough but maybe not. Next year I’ll try again. Since Winter is almost upon us the planters needed to be brought inside for the season. I hauled them up to the greenhouse and pulled out the coleus, dusty miller and white geraniums. I planted those up in separate pots to winter over in the greenhouse. If they make it, great – a bit less I’ll have to get next spring. If not, that’s okay. They served their purpose this year.
The dirt went into the compost pile and the pots cleaned out and stored in the garden shed.
Although I almost hate to have winter come and the gardening season close, it is a welcome reprieve from the daily gardening chores plus it allows time to replan for next year or try my luck at winter gardening in the greenhouse.
I brought down and cleaned out all the hanging baskets around my porch. The contents of which landed in the compost pile.
All of the geraniums scattered around the yard in pots were brought into the greenhouse. They will soon get a nice little hair cut and will winter up nicely in there. It’s amazing how lush they will be in the spring again.
I put a shade cloth over the top of the greenhouse this summer to keep some of the hot sun off of it. Since I now want as much sun and warmth as possible to enter the greenhouse during the winter months, I have removed the cloth and stored it away. It is an easy removal and will go back up quite easily again next summer. Here is a before and after picture.
I have a couple of self-sown blackberry bushes which have produced quite a bit of berries this year. However, they have grown a bit wild over the past couple of years. So they received a major pruning. I cut them all the way down to the ground. I pulled out a few new rooted in plants – trying to keep some order to the wild plants. I planted those rooted plants in pots and put them in the greenhouse. I ended up with 10 new potted plants. They should root up well over winter and I can leave them in pots or plant them out in the yard in the Spring.
