Time to Put Your Garden to Bed for the Winter

"Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle ... a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl.  And the anticipation nurtures our dream."  -  Barbara Winkler

Some of you, at the end of the gardening season, are so ready to be done and put your tools away.  However, placing your garden to rest for the winter is planting the best seed for success in the next year.  Help your garden thrive, not just survive, with these few tips to get ready for next spring...  

Clean Up – Continually clean up the debris as it dies. Old vines and stems provide places for insects and diseases to hide.  Throw away plants that are suspect for bugs and disease to avoid passing them on to the next season.  Designate an area for a compost pile if you don’t already have one.  Add what you can to the compost pile or till back into the soil.  

Soil Testing – This is a great time to get your soil analyzed because if you find out now that your soil needs amended, you can apply it in the fall so that it has all winter to work its way into the soil.  

Cultivation – Cultivating the soil disturbs the life cycles of overwintering insect pests by exposing them to sun, birds, and freezing temperatures.  Fall tilling helps keep soil loose and will make it easier to work in the spring.  Leave the soil rough so it takes the full brunt of winter freezing, thawing, wetting, and drying.  Winter’s freezes and thaws will assist in breaking up large clods. This weathering process will also allow the organic amendments to keep the soil open for winter moisture to percolate down more deeply.  

Crimson Clover Cover Crop

Cover Crop – In some areas of your garden you might consider planting a cover crop.  They improve soil fertility, structure, water retention, and suppress annual winter weeds.  

Leaves – Rake fallen leaves into areas of the garden that do not have a cover crop.  Leaves can be used as a mulch in vegetable gardens, flower beds, and around shrubs and trees.  Leaves rot very quickly and you will be surprised how many you can work into your soil.  Leaf mulch encourages beneficial earthworms, soil microbes, and overwintering bumblebees..  They are also a great compost addition. 
Tools – Clean up your tools before storing them.  A wire brush can help get the dirt off and oil can maintain the metal parts to keep from rusting.  

Garden Journaling – Keep adding notes to your journal so you can keep track of your successes or what you could have done better, what you might want to try again or simply remove from the list. 

Tend your crops in your coldframes - carrots, lettuce, spinach, etc. Easy Peasy! 

Now relax, close your eyes, dream about spring, and await those seed and gardening catalogs! 

Is this true...Chrysanthemums don't help Pollinators?

I read this on the internet and wondered "Is this True?"  I do love the Autumn Asters in my yard and the constant buzzing of pollinators around them - I, also, have several chrysanthemums planted that come back every year and when area nurseries bring out new colors, I'm so temped. So let's talk...

Some main points:

• Pollination is the process that takes place when pollen is moved between flowers for successful seed and food production and ensures that a plant or tree will produce mature fruit and a viable set of seeds that are capable of germination. What do birds and bees have to do with this? Birds, domestic honeybees, butterflies, and other insects and animals are responsible for the moving of the pollen among the flowers. Without the pollinators, there is no plant growth.

• Pollinators prefer some flowers over others, a concept known as Pollinator Syndromes. For example, because a butterfly has a long, slender mouth part (proboscis), they prefer flowers that are long and tube-like, also think hummingbirds. Some flies, on the other hand, have short, round mouth parts much like a sponge. For these pollinators and most bees, a wide-open flower is preferred. Or, for other pollinators, like moths, a flower that is open at night is preferred because that is when moths are active.

• 
  My primary goal is to create a backyard ecology that promotes all pollinators - bees, birds, mammals, reptiles, insects - with plants that sustain them - whether native or non-native throughout the flowering seasons. 

One of my go-to resources is Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy. He believes that "every homeowner can turn their yards into conservation corridors" that promote diversity with native plants as well as other cultivars that contribute to the food web. 

Some cultivars have been removed from evolutionary history with insects; humans have bred cultivars in labs and greenhouses to meet our aesthetic preferences. And sometimes, by selecting for traits that we deem impressive, like double or triple petals, we inadvertently produce plants that broadcast false advertising and eliminate access. Recent work has demonstrated how cultivars—even ones that look quite visually similar—can vary dramatically in the abundance and diversity of insects that they are able to support, so it’s important to choose carefully. References from Tufts Pollinator Initiative article are in the link below.

Echinacea choices - Tufts Pollinator Iniative

While cultivars are great for people, they are not always great for pollinators. According to Tufts Pollinator Initiative, native plants and their pollinators share a long evolutionary history, and many flowers have evolved particular traits that signal honest advertisements of a high quality food resources. For instance, the smell and color of wild geranium tell a bee that nectar and pollen awaits and the dark lines on the petals help them to quickly locate their meal. 

However, some pollinators are "generalists" that will feed on a variety of nectars and pollens.That explains why you'll see bees, butterflies and other insects flying around such non-natives as butterfly bush, catmint, lavender, sedum, salvia, Russian sage, mints, lantana, pentas, daisies, alyssum and zinnias. See Cornell Cooperative Extension list for more.

Although pollinators prefer natives, says Tallamy, "If their mouthparts work, they don't care if it's native or non-native."

My new favorite bush 
Caryopteris 'Blue Mist'

Potted greenhouse mums that we see everywhere this time of year are not bred for their pollen, nectar, or accessibility to pollinators. Most are bred to have multiple petals which reduce accessibility to pollinators. Some good features about these mums is that they are bushy and provide cover for a variety of  predators and parasites that naturally keep plant pests under control. Try an old fashioned Mum instead...or Autumn Asters...or Autumn Sedum!

Seed Saving 101: Saving seeds for yourself and others

Have you wanted to start saving seeds from your favorite plants? Seed saving is easier than you think. All it takes is a little time to gather and then the space to process and store the seeds. Follow the links throughout the the text to learn more as we progress through this short introductory article.

For starters we are going to use the ever tasteful and all time favorite, tomato, as our introductory example.

Items you will need, a pint jar with its ring and a piece of paper towel large enough to cover the top, sharp knife, spoon, fork and cutting board. Later items needed, paper towel for drying, labeling paper and an envelope to store your dry seeds.

First you will need to decide which tomato on the vine you want to save seeds from. Make sure everyone at home knows which ones they are. Let it continue to grow till it is just past ripe before you cut it off of the vine. Put it on the cutting board and cut it in half, scooping out the insides where the seed are. You can eat the rest, just sans seeds.

Put these seeds in the pint jar and fill it with water till it is half to two thirds full. Using the fork, mash/puree the seed mixture in the jar till it is all separated. Swirl the jar to see if all of the mix is even. Put the paper towel over the top and fasten in place with the ring. Let the jar sit on your kitchen counter where you can watch it and swirl it at least once a day for the first two to three days. Let it sit then till it develops a fuzzy moldy looking top. Now comes the fun part. Add a little more water and swirl, then let sit for a minute or so, so the heavy viable seeds settle to the bottom. You can use the fork to lift out and dispose of the slime off of the top. Add water again and swirl and let sit, then pour off the top mixture leaving the seeds on the bottom. You may have to do this several times till all you have left is clear water and seeds on the bottom. Pour off the water and dump the seeds on your drying towel.

Remember to label and date these right from the start, especially if you have more than one batch going at the same time.

Now, let's take a quick look at how to save seeds from a few types of peppers. Bell , Jalapeno, Poblano and Anaheim Peppers will be featured as the example. Here again, you want to pick the pepper that you like and want to grow again next year. Cut the pepper open so you can remove the seeds. Put the seeds on a paper towel to dry. Make sure you label your seeds. When they are dry, usually in a couple weeks, soak them in water for a day or so. The seeds that sink to the bottom are your most viable seeds, these are the ones you want to save.

You can save seeds from all of your favorite plants, with a little extra research and reading.

There you go, you are saving seeds from your garden that are suited to the micro-climate of your garden. When you do this again next year with your favorite plants and on and on, this is called Landrace seed saving and planting. If you have extra seeds, share with your friends or join a local Seed Bank.

This book is a good resource material book on how to save seeds and plant them.

Other resources are your local U of I county Extension office, the local library, your favorite bookstore and your favorite online shop.

Happy Seed Saving and Gardening.