Fall Colors

Fall Osprey 2007

This is the willow by the pond

Osprey cottonwoods and crab apples show their color.

Vine Maple and the Larch/Tamarack before the wind removes their needles and leaves.

Plant for Spring

Plant bulbs now for spring. Not all bulbs will reward you year after year. This beautiful yellow tulip refuses to bloom repeatedly or naturalize to return and multiply. It can be done but I have left this challenge to the professionals. Also deer and squirrels eat tulips. This tulip was planted in a protected place hidden under deciduous scrubs and surprised me in early Spring. I like the Narcissus family of bulbs and crocus for naturalizing. In addition the squirrels don't eat daffodils. To have a host of golden daffodils plant them in clumps, three, five , seven bulbs to a clump. I use top add bone meal to the 6-12 inch hole, depth depends on the size of your bulb, but this year some critter dug up two sixty bulbs in order to imbibe on the bone meal. I replanted all but two missing bulbs without the added fertilizer. Now I wait for spring. Also copied this from Ciscoe Morris garden guru in the Pacific Northwest.

By CISCOE MORRIS SPECIAL TO THE P-I
This time of year, it's incredibly easy to root branches cut from twig dogwood, willow, hydrangea, honeysuckle vine, butterfly bush, weigela, forsythia and perhaps others.
Simply cut off a branch and stick it in the ground where the soil is well-drained and the site is shady and protected from cold winds; then leave it alone until you see it begin to grow in spring or early summer.

I strongly recommend that you try this. Use new growth from this year and peal off leaves on lower part of a 8 to 12 inch twig. I probably wrote about this before. I did it too early this year so I think all my twigs died. But this weekend with the fall rains occurring every few days is the perfect time to try again. I also get too excited and anxious and start this process too soon and can't keep the twigs moist for rooting to occur. Especially a great opportunity, if you have a mild late winter like you did last year.
You are probably to busy preparing for baby, but maybe some year this will be helpful.

Renewal

Fall is the time of renewal. The leaves need continuous raking and transporting to the mulch pile. In a pile they turn to mush with the summer grass clippings and kitchen compost. Leaves raked directly on the garden beds protect the sensitive perennials like roses. Living 19 floors above the ground I can only visualize composting, but renewal happens on balconies as well. Pots are freshened with mums and pansies maybe an attractive kale. I potted a one foot evergreen after trimming its roots. A bonsai Christmas tree with outdoor ornaments is a renewable feature. While dirt gardeners are covering their hybrid roses with leaves, my miniature roses filled out with new leaves and new blooms. The coming of cooler, moister fall weather and an additional boost of fertilizer gave them a fresh start.
At Osprey we have a wonderful blackberry bush which grows wild out past the barn. In honor of the fall renewal I plan to choose a long runner or two that touch the ground. I will remove several leaves on the runner, cover the nodes where the leaves were with growth hormone and then place the treated area on a loosened area of ground and cover the section of runner with some composted soil. Hopefully new roots will grow from this rooting and next fall or spring of 2009 I will have started an additional blackberry bush. Fall is not the time to close down, but a time of opportunity and preparation. Make plans now for the future garden.