Fall Bulbs For Spring Blooms!

There are few things that you can plant in your garden that give as much as spring-blooming bulbs. They truly are the earliest show offs of the year and come in such a wide variety of types and colors, most gardeners can’t resist putting some in. Of course, some of us – who have invited and welcomed in the neighborhood deer – will not have tulips but rather a very nice display of leaves and blossomless stems. “They are bold, those deer!” – says the gardener who recently had a deer ON HER FRONT PORCH, snacking on a Tropicana potted rose. But I digress…this is about bulbs; not deer.

Nurseries and garden centers generally have a good selection of bulbs, but you’ve got to hit the stores at the right time or the supplies will have dwindled rapidly. You’ve got to get there early, well before it’s time to plant. In this case, the early bird gets the fritillaria. Then you’ll have to hold over those bulbs until the right time to plant. They need to be stored in a cool, dry place. If you’re going to have them for a month before planting, the refrigerator would be a good place to ensure that they’ve gotten their “chill on.”

Paul James, of DIY’s Gardening By The Yard, tells us, “I like more choices and I don’t like risking storing the bulbs. I prefer to order mine. There are literally dozens of catalogs and online sources for doing just that. Many offer varieties that you won’t find in stores and they’ll ship the bulbs to you when it’s time to plant them in your area.”

Two online sources I like are www.tulipworld.com and www.bloomingbulbs.com. Each also offers a paper catalog. I love gardening catalogs. Much more than surfing a website.

If you’re doing mail-order, plant your bulbs immediately, if possible. If you can’t plant right away, it’s best to open the boxes and bags and allow air to circulate around the bulbs.

Most bulbs are sun-lovers, although Spanish bluebells prefer the shade. Early bloomers, such as crocus, do best beneath leaf bearing trees since they bloom long before the trees fill in with leaves. Generally, plant your bulb in a location that gets at least six hours of sunlight a day.

Paul James suggests a planting technique using a mattock. Wikipedia tells us that a mattock is a hand tool similar to a pick axe. It is distinguished by the head, which makes it particularly suitable for digging or breaking up moderately hard ground. A mattock has a broad chisel-like blade perpendicular to the handle. This broad-bladed end is effectively an adze that could be used as a hoe as well. The reverse may have a pointed end, in which case the tool is called a pick mattock, or instead have an axe-like splitting end, then it is a cutter mattock. In some regions of the southern USA, the mattock is called a "grub hoe" or "grub axe". Stab the mattock into the ground and pull back the soil to create a hole for the bulb. In the event that your bulbs did not come with planting instructions, the general rule of thumb is to plant the bulb three to four times deep as the bulb is tall.

When you plant your bulbs, plant the taller ones – like gladiolus – in the back and the ones with the smaller, low growing blossoms in the front. If you’re adding bulbs to an already existing bed, plant in groups of threes and fives to produce the appearance of lushness as if those plants have always grown there.
And WHEN really is the question, isn’t it? It’s really better to get your crocus and Madonna lilies in the ground around mid-September along with daffodils and the larger flowering hyacinths. This month is great for crocus, tulips, grape hyacinth, fritillaria, alliums, snowdrops, scillia and squill. Don’t forget that squill has the added benefit of being repellent to burrowing critters. Also, irises should go in the ground now.
If you’re working a whole new bed, spade up the area, work in a 10-10-10 fertilizer and 2 cups of bone meal per 10 square feet to give your bulbs the best possible start. This is especially important if you are planning on keeping the bulbs in situ for more than one year.

After the ground freezes, or after consistent frosts, set in (we’re not living in Vermont, after all!) cover your bulb planted areas with a 3-inch mulch. You might want to rake it back in early April or late March, if the weather is mild, unless the new shoots can penetrate it easily.

When your bulb blooming time has come and gone, we’re often tempted to cut back that yellow, dying and unsightly foliage. Don’t. You can remove the spent blooms, because otherwise the bulb will use up it’s energy in seed production. Leave that foliage. After the blooms, the bulb itself needs that foliage to store up food before it’s next dormancy. The leaves will provide nourishment to sustain the bulb through dormancy and growth of the bulb itself. Camouflage that fading foliage with bright annuals, maybe pansies, zinnia and some spreading sweet allysum.

Favorites in the bulb world are daffodils, voted #1 in Sunset magazines gardening survey year after year, followed by tulips of all kinds. My personal favorite of the tulips are the botanical Parrot tulips. I just love them! It’s tough to beat the hyacinth’s sweet fragrance in the spring. These come in many shades of purple, blue, pink, red and white. They are also easy to force in a dish of gravel, as are narcissus. One of the first flowers to usher in spring is the crocus. Their lovely, cup-shape blooms come in colorful shades of yellow, orange, purple, blue, and white. Their small size makes them easy to tuck pathways, or at the front of the border. The bold lollipop types of allium are what most gardeners are familiar with. The allium family is huge and offers gardeners a great mix of plant sizes, shapes, and colors. They are a deterrent to a number of pests and burrowing critters. I mentioned squill earlier, but it’s worth a second look. It is one of my favorites. Siberian squill features easy-growing ways and incredible blue color. It's spring's finest blue hue -- and an incredibly easy bulb to boot. It grows just about anywhere. Crown Imperial - with a name like this, you know it has to be an eye-catcher! Crown imperials offer a beautiful cluster of downward-facing flowers in warm, Hawaiian shades. They're topped by a tuft of leaves. Though beautiful and dramatic, they're also a bit stinky – helpful in keeping those who would munch on your garden away. Graceful little bulbs, anemones are the very breath of spring, popping up cheerfully from ferny foliage. They bloom in shades of pink, white, and blue -- and work well in virtually every garden. They’re under used and under rated and definitely are worth considering. I really enjoy the fragrance of freesia, but I do find them rather finicky albeit fabulous and worth the effort. They grow well in containers.

Bulbs offer variety, loads of color and ease of growing that are unsurpassed. I just love them!

Say it's not so!

We thought the summer, with it’s sweltering, sometimes blast furnace days (with a nod to those of you who actually LIKE that sort of thing…), would never end. But it’s true…Summer is over. The evenings are growing cooler and the days already seem to be getting shorter. For those of us affected, the Back To School rush is starting to settle into a routine. Time to forget about the garden, right? Niet! Nine! Nope! And definitely negative! If you get things ready for the next season properly, you’ll notice a huge difference come spring.

If you have plans to relocate shrubs or small trees, now is the ideal time to do that. As soon as those leaves start to change color and drop is when you need to dig them up, maintaining as much of the root ball as possible, and move them to a new location. It is also a good idea to protect your young trees with guards of plastic or wire mesh. Place these around the slender trunks of newer trees and shrubs to keep rabbits and other rodents from chewing on them over the winter.

Be sure to continue to water your trees – especially your evergreens – until the ground freezes. Evergreens need a good reserve of moisture heading into the winter months since they don’t lose their leaves as deciduous trees do.


It might be a good idea to rake up the fallen leaves every week instead of leaving the job until all of the leaves have fallen. In the fall, your lawn still needs sunlight as it, too, is preparing for winter and is storing up nutrients to make that first spring push of growth. Leaving the leaves on the lawn will weaken it and could smother it if the leaves get thick enough. If you can, shred the leaves and use them as mulch. If not, you can add them to your compost pile or make a portable leaf composter as we’ve talked about here in the past. You can use a chipper if you have one, or you can just run your lawn mower over the leaves, rake them up and use them that way.

One last application of fertilizer to your lawn in the late fall will increase the chances of your lawn surviving intact over the winter and will encourage a quick greening in the spring. Cut your lawn one last time and, after you’ve finished, why not get your mower serviced and it’s blades sharpened now so it will be ready for spring?

Some gardeners like to leave seed heads and dried foliage on perennials to feed the birds. And some gardeners like to have super neat beds ready for the spring-flowering bulbs that will be coming up in early spring. Remember, what you cut down now won’t need to be cleaned up in the spring. It might be a good idea to remove any leaves and stalks that the first frosts will turn to mush as well as anything that looks diseased. Think about keeping some of the ornamental grasses and other plants that produce seeds that could be used by over wintering birds. Pull out any perennials that are frosted and add those materials to the compost bin. Do a final weeding and edging of your flowerbeds. This is still a great time for planting spring flowering bulbs before the ground freezes.

While some say to cut back your roses for the winter, and cut them back hard. Some gardeners cut back and pile on dirt inside of a Styrofoam rose cone. I say, don’t cut them back now; wait until early spring. Hill up dirt around the base of hybrid tea roses for winter protection. After the leaves have died back, get rid of the remaining leaves and rake the ground clean. Some kinds of spores and other pests can over season in dead leaves and you could easily reduce your pest problems next spring by cleaning up really well this fall.

And now, a word about pool rings…

Sirena Van Schaik gives us this advice for that horrible brown ring in your lawn that you find when you take down that inflatable pool that your kids or grandkids splashed around in all summer.

Find a grass seed that is similar to the grass in your yard. It doesn’t have to be exact; there are many varieties that will blend in.
Prick the soil with a rake or a fork.
As you go, remove any weeds that you find. No need to leave them there to cause problems later.
Using a steel head rake, rake the surface that is bald or brown. The rake will create furrows for your grass seed.
Apply a thin layer of compost – about an inch – if you are not working with a bald area. You can also use a starter soil. Use the rake to create furrows.
Add the grass seed across the space. Make sure it covers well.
Take the rake and lightly draw it across the area in right angles. This will cover the furrows with a thin layer of the soil.
Plant some stakes around the brown area and stretch black cotton thread in between, a few inches from the surface. This will keep the birds from eating all of the seeds.
Water the new lawn spot, and continue to water.

One last point is that this repair should take place in October or early November at the latest. If it is too hot or dry, your grass seeds are not going to have a chance to grow and you will have wasted both the time and money it took to prepare the ground and apply those seeds. In the spring, this formerly brown spot should green up and blend in with the rest of your lawn quite nicely.

Make your own compost bins!

Wooden Pallet Or Other Recycled Wood Or Plastic – For Yard Waste Only!

There are lots of materials you can build this particular type of compost bin out of; old wooden pallets, recycled plastic, old wooden snow fencing or salvaged lumber.

Using Wooden Pallets: Nail or tie together with wire four pallets to make a four sided bin. The finished bin will be about the size of a three foot cube. You could use a fifth pallet as a base to allow for more air circulation and since you’re not going to be using this for kitchen compost materials, there is no danger of vermin getting into it.

Building With Lumber – Salvaged Or Otherwise

You will need 4 four foot lengths of 2x4 for the corner posts. Choose a three foot square site for your bin. Use a sledge hammer to pound the four foot posts into the ground, if your ground is soft enough to do that. In some places in the Rogue Valley, one might need a jack hammer!
Next, find some lumber that’s at least ½ inch thick and 6 inches wide. You will need five three foot lengths per side. Nail these to the posts to make a four sided container. Leave and inch and a half to two inches between each board to allow for air flow.

If you have the room to do so, a second bin could be set up so you’ve got one to fill up while the other one is aging. Also, I might not pound the posts in, but rather construct a box that one could pull over and get the compost out of. Construct your cube and simply set it in place.

You can put your posts in the ground and wrap the outside with wooden snow fencing as well. In fact, you can make a more permanent structure with three separate bins for aging your compost using the wooden snow fencing and you can make a removable front for them so that you can get to the finished compost more easily.

Wire Mesh Compost Bins

This has got the be the easiest and cheapest way to build a compost bin for yard waste there is! A wire mesh bin can be made out of either galvanized chicken wire or hardware cloth. You can use regular chicken wire, but your bin won’t last as long. You can use posts to provide stability, but then your bin is more difficult to move. You could always just sink your posts only a couple of inches into the ground, or put them on the outside of the wire a couple of inches into the ground and tie the wire to the posts. The beauty of the wire is that it’s easy to move and you can get at the compost at the bottom of the bin that’s already done.

So, get yourself a length of chicken wire and fold back about 4 inches on each end so that you have a nice, smooth edge to work with that isn’t going to scratch the daylights out of you when you’re not looking. Stand the wire in a circle and set it in place for the compost pile. Cut some heavy wire (baling wire works well, too, if you’ve got some of that around or even baling twine) into lengths for ties. Secure the ends of the wire together with the ties to form a circle. You can space any kind of post around the circle. I’ve seen it done both ways; inside and outside the wire – it’s up to you. If you want an even more sturdy wire bin, you can use hardware cloth or even orchard fencing. They’re a little harder to cut and handle, but will last longer than chicken wire.

Garbage Bin Composter – This Bin Can Include Kitchen Trimmings

Get yourself a 32 gallon plastic garbage bin; the kind with the locking handles. Also, I think the darker ones are better because they heat up faster when they’re in the sun. It’s really best to get the most sturdy bin you can find.

Next get out your drill. You need to make holes all over your bin, including the lid. Fill it up and lock on the lid.

You can put a variety of materials into your bin. The general consensus is that you should mix your “browns” (dry materials) equally with your “greens” (wet materials). Green materials are rich in nitrogen and include fresh grass clippings, pruned plants (but NOT diseased clippings!), coffee grounds, tea leaves or bags (no staples in those bags!) and fruits, vegetables and their peelings. Your brown materials are carbon-rich and include shredded paper, leaves, straw, sawdust (from untreated wood), wood chips and dried twigs. Manure, which is a green material, is a great addition to your bin and there are lots of places where you could get this locally, usually for the asking. Whatever you do, don’t put in your bin any kind of oil or grease or meat or dairy products. At certain times, your bin will give off a slight odor. It is much less than you would expect even if you’ve added quite a bit of manure. In the event that your bin gets quite smelly, you’ve probably not added enough brown material and you can correct that by adding more and rolling your bin around on it’s side to mix it in a bit.

You’ll have to check your bin from time to time. More frequently in warmer weather, because you will have to add water. You don’t want your bin to dry out because you’ll lose the nutrients in the mixture that you need to feed your soil.

Depending on what you’ve put in your bin and the temperature outside, you should have a fresh batch of compost in 1 to 3 months. Again, you might want to make two so you’ve got one to fill while the other is cooking.

When what’s in your bin is dark blackish-brown and rather resembles what comes out of those spendy bags of organic fertilizer, it’s ready to use!

Cold Frame Gardening

Almost anyone can grow a great garden in the summertime. But what about harvesting crops in the middle of spring, when your neighbors are just beginning to turn over their own ground? Creating an early harvest is what can separate the superior gardener from the run of the mill. Cold frames are great for stretching your garden’s growing season at both ends. In the spring, cold frames proved a sheltered area for seed starting and to harden off transplants that were grown indoors.

During the fall, cold frames enable you to harvest fresh vegetables longer by protecting your plants from frost and cold temperatures.

Building a cold frame can be a simple as attaching a discarded window sash to a box shaped framework of wooden boards or by placing a window sash over a group of straw bales arranged to form a rectangular base. Instead of constructing a homemade cold frame, you can purchase commercial units made out of high tech materials that are designed to retain warmth and transmit sunlight to the plants growing inside.

Inexpensive models are available that are constructed with a plastic or metal tube frame that’s covered by a transparent, woven plastic fabric. This style of cold frame is lightweight, portable and can easily be moved from one section of the garden to another, making them ideal for use in raised beds.

The more expensive types of cold frames use an aluminum framing that’s covered with twin walled polycarbonate panels. These units are sturdier and provide better insulation, but are not as portable and usually remain in a permanent, fixed location outside of the garden.

Yet another type of cold frame is the plastic tunnel cold frame. There are four really great aspects to the plastic tunnel: 1) It is easy to build and is made of standard materials. 2) It is cheap. 3) It is fast to put up and take down. 4) It will keep your plants warm and it will keep them from getting too hot.

For growing fall gardens, plants can be sown directly in the fixed location cold frame during late summer. Winter vegetables that were planted in the garden beds can be covered with one of the portable style cold frames.

When it turns colder still, or in a colder Northern climate, even with the shelter of a cold frame, plant growth will slow or stop as temperatures drop below freezing. But the cold frame will enable you to continue growing and harvesting organic vegetables well beyond your normal growing season.

When spring returns, many of the vegetables that were planted in the cold frames the previous fall will resume growing to offer extra early fresh produce at a time that the garden’s beds are still frozen and inactive.

At the end of winter, the cold frame can be used as a nursery bed for starting seedlings of lettuce, kale, spinach and other leafy greens. Sow the seeds thickly and let them germinate and grow inside the cold frame until spring arrives. When outdoor conditions are suitable the seedlings can be thinned and transplanted from the cold frame into the garden’s raised beds.

Cold frames can also be used in the spring to harden off transplants, which were started indoors and grown under lights. Placing the flats or containers of transplants inside the cold frame will allow them to gradually adjust to the harsher growing conditions encountered outdoors, without the need to bring the plants back inside during the night.

Crops growing inside cold frames can survive with little or no watering or other attention during the winter months. But you will need to keep a close eye on the plants growing in cold frames during the fall, and especially during the spring to ensure that they receive enough moisture and to vent the cold frame to prevent plants from overheating on warm days.

The location of your cold frame is essential to success. On every piece of property, there is usually some far warmer area. This is the one you should seek out for your cold frame. But a good site alone will not allow most plants to survive cold nighttime temperatures. For that you must create this artificial environment that will allow your seeds to germinate and your plants to prosper.

In places as cold as upstate New York, they set up their cold frames as early as the second half of March. Wait for one of those unusually warm days that we sometimes get in this area at the end of the winter when it is a joy to be working outside. With all the materials on hand, and perhaps an extra set of hands attached to a friend, it is not beyond the realm of possibility to construct a plastic tunnel cold frame and plant an entire garden in a long afternoon.

There are two factors that can cause serious damage in the plastic tunnel cold frame garden that require constant vigilance. The first is damage from excessive heat. The tunnel is a marvelous seed germinator, but the heat so wonderful for germination is excessive once the seedlings have emerged. A cloudless day in the 70s can take the temperature inside the tunnel to 150 degrees, and the crops you have nursed through the fierce March weather will wilt, scorch, bake and finally perish in the April sun.

Think ventilation. When in doubt, ventilate. If you run to Medford for the day on any but the coldest days, ventilate. End ventilation is almost always sufficient with the plastic tunnel cold frame. A little cold wind on your plants will do small damage compared to excessive heat!

Now, I know I go on and on about “Feed your soil! Bring on the organic matter!” The second problem can arise from TOO MUCH organic matter in the garden. Many of us take pride in the lovely structure of our soil, but too often our compost is not quire as broken down as it should be. Including this kind of stuff, or worse yet – manure, in a plastic tunnel garden is dooming it to failure! Fungi thrive in this kind of environment. The result will be rampant damping off and other diseases. Keep your plastic tunnels and cold frames a little more spare on organic content than an open-air garden. If there is any sign of weakness in the soil, you can always add a boost with some liquid fertilizer, like fish or seaweed emulsion.

The day you plant your garden in the tunnel, water it heavily and seal it shut. No more watering is required until the seeds have germinated. After that, watering depends on the temperature, how robust your seedlings have become and the amount of ventilation you are using. With no ventilation, your system is a closed one and should require almost no additional irrigation. The moment you ventilate, you will have to water in order to supply the rapidly growing plants with the moisture they need.

“This is all fine and wonderful,” you say, “but what exactly am I supposed to grow in this weird tunnel thing?” Ah. You will select those crops that most appeal to you and that suit the particular conditions found under plastic. You will want to plant very intensively, as in French intensive gardening. This technique measures its success by what percentage of the entire bed is completely covered with foliage at each moment of the season. Call it “The Art of Plentitude.”

Your initial planting should comprise crops that can take some cool weather; mostly various kinds of greens for cooking or eating in salads. The second planting is the seeds of warm-weather crops and next one is seedlings of warm-weather crops. Peas, onions and potatoes are not suitable for the tunnel or frame, but should instead be placed directly in the regular garden.

You will find that your first planting of greens to be a real blessing after a cold winter! Be sure to plant some particularly fast-growing things so you can amaze your friends and family (and even yourself!) with garden food with the snow barely off the ground. Garden cress seems to sprout the minute the seeds hit the ground and is a standard which will prove to be the first and fastest harvest from the cold frame garden – ready to eat in a couple of weeks. Next come radishes, which you can broadcast thickly, thinning some of the greens for immediate consumption. Then your lettuces. Broadcast early in the cold frame with a mixture of early season, mid-season and late season. Thin them severely and leave some head lettuce to carry you through most of the late summer. There is the “mesclun mix”, also known as “yuppie greens” that you can frequently harvest by cutting back with a scissors. And – finally – plant a lot of spinach. It’s insanely good for you on many, many levels and is deliciously succulent when grown under plastic.

When things warm up a bit, start your warm season crops from seed. At one end of your tunnel, start your zucchini, crooknecks or patty pan and on the other, your cucumbers. We’ve come to really like those small, round lemon cucumbers as well as the long, light colored Armenians. As they grow, you pretty much pick and eat all of their competition. When the plastic is removed from the frame, the huge squash plants hang way outside the frames. At the other end, train your cucumbers to a six-foot netted trellis, which uses very little planting space. As the cucumbers grow towards the sky, they give a harvest much more bountiful than when allowed to lie on the ground.

Cold frames come in really handy for tomatoes and peppers. You can actually set out plants here in the Rogue Valley six to eight weeks earlier than you would otherwise! Set out your tomato plants between rows of greens and harvest those greens as they compete with the tomatoes. Support those tomatoes on six-foot high wooden trellises and prune them rather severely! The partial shade made by the trellis is actually appreciated by the lettuces and other greens sharing that space once the sweltering days of July arrive and they are thinking of going to seed, which – in my mind is nothing short of betrayal.

Take your tunnel down around June 1 when all danger of frost is past and the plants want more room anyway. Hose down the plastic, let it air dry and roll it up into a black plastic garbage bag, to be stored for the following year. The frames for the tunnel can be left up indefinitely.

Cold frames have been around for just ages. The ones I have described here are cheap and convenient. Use a cold frame or tunnel for just one year and it is unlikely you will ever want to garden again without it.

If you would like to have some plans for simple cold frames or plastic tunnels, please email thegardengrrl@gmail.com.