Get busy in the fall garden

FEW TIMES of the year are more important in the garden than the fall. This is the time for cleanup, deadheading and pruning, transfer of plants, addition of new plants, and bulbs.

Bulbs, pansies and carnations seem to be available wherever one stops, whether the garden center, the grocery store or the farmers market. Carnations are among the showiest plants for fall, but far too many being marketed have already seen their best days, with most, or almost all, buds already opened.

One wants a plant that is full and well-shaped, and one on which most buds have not yet opened. It is important that enough blossoms show so that you can ensure you are getting the color you want, but long life and beauty are guaranteed only if one buys plants that are not yet exhausted by blooming.

Most carnations can be set into the ground after blooming and will come again next year, for they are basically hardy as can be. Be careful, though, where you place one when you move it from container to garden, for it will spread.

Pansies will produce new blossoms readily, so it is not as crucial to pick plants that do not yet have open flowers. If one is picking for color, the opposite is desirable, for one can never be certain exactly what one is getting unless one buys plants that already are in blossom, or that have buds ready to open.

Pansies seem unfazed by cold weather, though if weather is severe they may rest for a while. Never fear, though. If grown in an area where they get sun, and if they have moisture, they will survive the winter.

If winter is mild, they may give one month of blossom, but one will still get both fall and spring blossoms even if winter interrupts with weather that wilts plants and kills blossoms. I deadhead both pansies and mums, but whether one does or does not is more a matter of choice than of necessity. With either, be careful not to dislodge roots while deadheading.

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I noted in a previous column that straw packed around a tender plant might carry it through the winter. Oak leaves or pine needles would serve equally well, for neither will get soggy, mat and freeze--just what you want to keep from happening around and near the tender plant. Maple leaves are the worst for matting, but they, like other leaves, can be immediately used for mulch if shredded. Packed in black plastic bags, moistened a bit, and placed in a sunny area, any leaves, shredded or not, will have made a good beginning on composting before time to use them next year.

Date published: 11/26/2005

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