September
17, 2011
The
first of the fall plants and flower bulbs that I ordered from garden
catalogs arrived this week, which makes my Autumn To-Do List more
urgent. Impetuous gardeners love ordering and buying new treasures,
but we also need to do some planning to keep our new plants and bulbs
alive and happy over the winter. It’s not only possible to be both
impetuous and organized – it’s crucial. I learned the value of
the organized half of the equation one freezing January day years
ago, when we lived in the Seattle area. I still remember kneeling on
the frosted dirt in our garden, hand-digging a new tulip bed for the
bulbs that had arrived months earlier. My hands were stiff and
bluish-red; the ground was unyielding, and the bulbs seemed to
multiply with each new hole I managed to hack out. Those frigid hours
were the worst gardening day I have ever had – until I imagined a
sub-zero January afternoon. putting my tulip and daffodil bulbs to
bed here in northern Idaho.
So
now, while the days hover in that perfect harmony between summer and
fall, make time to deal with the garden projects that won’t wait
until Thanksgiving. Take a walk around your yard and garden, carrying
a small notebook, and write down what needs to be done soon. (May the
Garden Goddess walk with you, and may your list be shorter than
mine.) Before I can plant the newly arriving tulip and daffodil
bulbs, I have to dig new garden beds. I will finish that project by
next week. The other must-do on the list is to finish weeding the
final small patch of tall grass and weeds in our side yard. I have
big plans for that yard, but, until it is fully weeded, there will be
no orchard or spring vegetable garden. I’ll get that done this
weekend.
On
days when I don’t have time for a four-hour gardening workout, I’ve
been doing more manageable – and more fun – projects from my
list. Recently I planted pansies and Lenten roses (hellebores) in our
front-porch planter, and more pansies in the patio planters. Looking
outside when the November chill creeps in, and seeing blooming
flowers, will remind me of the continuity of the seasons and the
beauty that’s always in our lives.
Another
small project on my list is harvesting seeds from my bloomed-out
perennials. I have separate envelopes for sweet pea, delphinium,
columbine, and poppy seeds. Our across-the-fence neighbor has
offered hollyhock seeds, which originally scattered onto her side of
another neighbor’s fence. I love the idea of drawing our
neighborhood closer through a pattern of shared flowers. Collecting
seeds from my own flowers and, in turn, offering them to our many
neighbors will be a small way of thanking them for the welcome they
have given Lee and me in our first year in Moscow.
Also
on my list is transplanting the flower starts I have grown from seed
over the summer. Columbine, sweet william, snapdragons and verbascum
(mullein) will have special places in my garden beds. I’m so proud
of all those little guys for actually growing and have even bigger
plans for seed-starting next spring. For impetuous gardeners, a truly
successful to-do list needs the option of delegating certain items,
preferably to someone stronger, taller, more patient, and less afraid
of heights. (Somebody has to get on a ladder to refill the bird
feeders high in our hawthorn tree.) At our house, those requirements
automatically disqualify my three garden staff members. Rags, our
Old English sheepdog, is shorter and less patient than I – Why not
just rip out the rosebushes and eat the petals? Kaylee, our golden
retriever, is less agile from arthritis than I am, stubborn as a
Moscow mule, and even more afraid of heights. And Benjamin
BadKitten, although fierce, powerful, regal, and fearless in his own
mind, has not yet mastered the use of a spade or gardening gloves.
My
husband, however, is stronger, taller, and far more patient than I,
and he is not afraid of heights. (Did I mention that he’s
patient?) So he and I have talked about delegating some of the items
on my list to him: He will rent a big honker of a rototiller to plow
up the newly weeded west garden; he’ll transplant the bigger trees
and shrubs, and he is the official refiller of the bird feeders.
No comments:
Post a Comment