Hallowe'en Palaver From the Potager

Oh my goodness, finally, finally, finally had a few days of dry weather so we can mow the lawn and plant the garlic! 

Gotta mow this lawn and clean out these two trial beds so I can plant them up with garlic. 

The garlic is going to be planted in these trial beds with exactly the same varieties in both beds. I am going to see which bed grows the best bulbs, putting my garlic stock on the line for this trial (insert a little Eek! here). 

With the clear skies came hard frosts and very nippy mornings. The Cafe au Lait dahlias are done for, ready to be lifted and stored in the greenhouse. 

We've had a busy few days around here but very little of it has been gardening related. Just finished a bathroom reno, it was a total gut job so took a while to finish and have now moved on to gutting the en-suite. Hubby works out of town half the month, so these big projects take a few rotations to finish up. Going without the other bathroom for 3 months was no problem, the en-suite will be harder to go without.  

We are also in the midst of building a new deck at the back, our firewood deck by the wood stove. I am hoping to get painted before the rains start up again. This was a last minute addition to the honey-do list, was not on our radar till we started loading it with firewood and noticed that the deck boards and stringers were very dangerously rotting through.       

Berkeley puppy turned 4 months old this weekend, is proving to be quite the character. Loves to dig (big) deep holes everywhere, including in my no-dig beds, eats the wagons, steals every toy from Hemingway, and barks at all passers-by. We are working on putting a stop to that, sorry neighbours! 

Berkie got to hang out with our grandson this weekend and is totally enthralled! Unlike us old fogies (hah), Gagie is spry and quick, runs around a lot, pulls wagons and rakes, does all sorts of fun things that fascinate a young puppy. She just sat back and watched in wonder at times. 

Pic from 'grow forage cook ferment'

This is a great time to plant up those perennials, trees, shrubs that you have been holding on to all summer, throughout the drought and numerous heat waves we had here on in the PNW. Plant them up, water them in, walk away. 

Have plants in pots that you did not get planted this year? No time or energy left to deal with them? Semi-tender plants that you want to keep but no greenhouse to put them in? 

Just plant the pots in the ground. Make a hole, sink them so that the lip is level with the ground, then mulch, if you would like. This keeps the soil in the pots from freezing through so that the roots of the plants, or the bulbs, do not freeze and thaw throughout the winter and spring months. They will be safe till you have time to deal with them again in spring. 

Chopped straw protects the dahlias that I was too lazy to dig up last year, mesh on the garden bed keeps the kitty from going into my garlic bed. 

What to use for mulch? Leaves are perfect! If you do not have any deciduous trees in your yard, you can also buy chopped straw that is sold as pet bedding. It has very few weed seeds in it. In the spring, remove it and use it as the 'brown' layers in your compost bin to keep things cooking nicely. 

Multi-grafted Asian Pear tree. I love this tree and it's many fruits! 

If you used leaves, they will start to nicely break down into leaf-mould, leave them in the bed to feed the soil life. Here is more info about saving leaves from gardening guru Monty Don. 

Here is a link with lots of different information on how to store your dahlias over winter, several methods. In case you have not yet dealt with all of yours either ; ) 

This is a great time to prune back your shrub roses to prevent breakage in winter time. Just cut the stems back by about half, do the fine pruning in spring. This time of year, we are just get rid of dead, damaged, diseased, plus taking down the height so they are not beaten down or broken by heavy rains or snow loads. Here is a short video on how to do it.

Have a safe & wonderful Hallowe'en

Tanja