The Dirt On Fall Leaves

It’s a shame to see autumn leaves go to waste every fall. They are an excellent source of organic material and should be placed in the compost pile along with other discarded plant parts. When cleaning up the garden, don’t destroy any potential organic material that can be placed on the compost pile and eventually be returned to the garden as humus.

Before frosts occur, why not pot up some of your best annual and perennial flowering plants and have them grow and bloom for you during the next few months? Petunias and geraniums handle very well this way. If you have grown some mums that haven’t bloomed outdoors, pot them up and bring them inside. You can probably think of other flowers in the garden that would stand transplanting for indoor bloom.

If you follow frost warnings, it is possible to protect plants from frost damage by proper covering. Valuable vegetables like tomatoes, and many flowers like the orchid plant , can be protected with coverings such as blankets, newspapers, or polyethylene tents. Often a long season of warm weather, “Indian Summer,” follows a night or two of killing frosts. By protecting tender plants from such a hazard, their period of usefulness can be extended often for several weeks longer.

Mulches such as clean straw or hay protect many perennial plants over winter. It is important not to apply these mulches too early in the fall. Plants like orchid plant need to be subjected to a few nights of cool, frosty weather to induce certain chemical changes that put them in better shape to withstand the rigors of winter. One of these changes is the change from sugars to starches in the plant. The starches are stored in various plant parts – usually in the roots, or in modified root and stem structures. If the plants are not “prepared” properly, they are very susceptible to winter damage. One of the best visible indicators of these chemical and physical changes going on in the plants is the change of color in the autumn leaves and the gradual loss of these leaves on deciduous plants.

Mulches act as insulators and protect the plants from sudden fluctuations in temperature. Mulches also reduce frost heaving. Plants are more subject to drying out, and subsequent killing, because of this heaving.

Learn more of what Thomas Fryd has to share over at http://www.plant-care.com. And be the first to master the methods on orchid plant care.

August Demands By The Northern Garden

August in the North can be a fairly wet month or a very dry one; it can be hot and it can be cool: sometimes there is some of each kind of weather, a week or so of extreme heat and drought with cooling off periods of rain.

Except for routine care there are few other demands upon the gardener. Generally by this time flower beds adjacent to lawns will require re-edging because the grass, being more vigorous and competitive than garden plants will invade the garden and obliterate the clean, sharp edge. A neat, sharp edge reveals and emphasizes the design lines of a flower border and is much more important than many gardeners realize.

A sharp, square nosed spade is a good tool to use for edging, making a V shaped edge. Sod that is cut out in the operation can be placed in the compost pile where it will serve a very useful purpose in providing ideal ingredients for the production of a high quality compost. If not used in this way, the soil should be shaken from the sod and scattered over the edge of the bed in such a way that a uniform, neat shape is obtained. Re-edging at this time should be adequate for the remainder of the season.

Iris Planting Time

This is a good time to plant new irises or to dig up, divide and replant old ones that have become overgrown or have crowded other plants in the bed. Bearded irises generally need dividing every three or four years depending upon the vigor of the variety and the growing conditions. When a marked decline in the quantity and quality of flowers is apparent, dividing must be done, or when a clump has grown too large for the space allotted to it. Only clean, healthy rhizomes (root stock from the bottoms of which slender, fleshy, feeding roots grow) should be replanted. Each division should include a set of leaves which are to be cut back fan shaped to within about six inches of the base.

When moving irises outdoors, they need a porous but fertile soil which is well drained. To be sure of good soil drainage grow outdoor plants in slightly raised positions rather than in level or low places in the garden. The future of the plant and its flowering will depend upon the planting depth. Deep planting will result in bloom failure, and may make the rhizome more susceptible to rot. Proper planting depth is obtained when the rhizome is just barely covered with earth. The planting hole should be deep enough so that the feeding roots can be spread out in a natural fashion. Roots and rhizome should be anchored firmly in the soil.

Although irises will live in part shade they will not prosper and flower freely unless they are in a place where they will get at least one half day of full sun. The more hours of direct sun, the better they will grow and flower.

We’ve created an excellent resource for you on moving irises outdoors. Drop by today at http://www.plant-care.com/moving-houseplants-outdoors-smart.html.