November Gardening Tips

Dry leaves are a gardener’s best friend, excellent for composting and harboring good insects. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

November Gardening Tips

We’re welcoming November this year with a couple of weeks of warm weather as opposed to the nippy cold rainy days we’ve had for the past two weeks. The raw weather brought us almost 3 inches of welcome rain but I still have some plants to get in the ground in USDA Hardiness 5.

i did get all of my plants inside to winter over. Now that they are all settled inside, I am still moving potted plants around to give them optimum light conditions. My heat is on so leaves are dropping, especially the ferns.

Tree leaves have also been making their way onto flower beds for mulch and a layer that hopefully decomposes into soil over the next few years. I will be adding wood chips from our local recycling center after the first hard frost.

If you want to plant shrubs and move trees, this is a good time. I prefer planting into final spots in spring so my seedlings are now in pots and heeled into the nursery garden bed. That will give me all winter to decide on their final destination.

Love my honey-colored hardy mums currently in bloom. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

It’s been very dry so remember to water. An inch a week is a good measure, especially for woody plants, such as azaleas and evergreens. When watering, check for damaged branches and remove. Once winter ice moves in, the ice will cause more damage than necessary on those weak and damaged limbs. I take pruners with me so I can also trim out suckers and branches that are too long, especially along where I regularly walk. No point in putting that off until later when the ground is covered in ice and snow.

If you haven’t done so already, this is a good time to empty most of your composters. Most likely candidates to get the new rich soil amendment include asparagus and strawberry beds.  I also added compost to my deck pots to get them ready for my next crops. I still have red onions growing so I may scatter some lettuce and spinach seeds.

Still need to mound my rose crowns with 6 inches of soil or so before the first frost. I have mounds of mulch already piled nearby to scatter on the plants after I add a layer of leaf mulch for extra insulation.

Have grass to mow? You should be on the downside of the mowing season. Make the last cut when you see grass has stopped growing. Let clippings lie where they’ve been cut to restore Nitrogen to the soil. Have fun mowing over the leaves to shred and move them to flower beds.

Love the red leaf color native dogwoods add to my hillside. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Don’t forget to stop and enjoy the fall colors. Trees, shrubs and some perennials take on a different color in fall, changing gardens into new, sometimes surprising color palettes. Take note of something you like and plant more next year.

Charlotte

Versatile Leaf Bags

Fall leaf bags are excellent for storing dug up plants. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins(

Versatile Leaf Bags

There’s an excellent garden tool usually available in the fall but it’s not for gathering leaves.

Those large tall brown leaf bags make excellent temporary plant storage when you dig up plants. Fall is an excellent time to move peonies and daylilies as long as they have about a month to settle in their roots before a hard frost. Well even if there is a hard frost, they need warm soil for their roots and that can stay warm until January.

Back to the brown bags.

Brown bags can be used to collect compost additions from the garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

These brown paper bags are sold for leaf collection and are often used to haul leaf and grass clippings to our local recycling center.

The brown bags not only are double and triple thick but they can also be used to kill off hard to reach grassy areas where cardboard is hard to use. Once down, cover with wood chips to hold them in place.

Brown bags can also store plant trimmings for easy moving to compost piles.

If you are putting something with weight on it, add a piece of cardboard at the bottom to minimize the bags ripping from the weight.

If you happen to use these for leaves, dump the leaves and bring them back home. You can keep using them for many garden uses.

Now I haven’t decided when to introduce one of these to my cats as a cat toy. They love the smaller brown paper bags that hold groceries. What do you think are these too big?

Charlotte

Gardening Shoes

My favorite gardening shoes from Sloggers, comfortable and cute to boot. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Gardening Shoes

If you have large feet like I do with broken little toes, the idea of a pair of cute, fun shoes is just plain out of the question. I feel lucky to find shoes with rounded tips and a width to accommodate my little crooked pinkies without falling off my ankle and often take what I can find regardless of color.

So it was with great delight that I found these gardening shoes from Sloggers. They were surprisingly heavy to the hand but the design and waterproof quality sold me on trying them. They retailed for $29. where I purchased them at a local home and garden center.

Once out in the garden, they are surprisingly comfortable and frankly lightweight. I usually change shoes when going from the garden to a retailer but I often forget I even have these on.

A friend who used to run a garden center said she had one in every color. They are practical for all sorts of soil conditions and garden seasons.

If you are looking for a gift for a gardener, these would be an excellent choice. I bought mine one size larger than the size I wear. If that’s an issue, keep your receipt so the gift recipient can trade them for a better size.

You should be able to find these online from a variety of retailers as well.

Charlotte

Mushroom Compost

Mushroom compost is an easy and inexpensive way to refresh soil. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Mushroom Compost

If there is one product to stockpile over winter it is mushroom compost. Mushroom compost is the easiest way to refresh potted soil and give your indoor plants a mid-winter pick me up without having to repot the plants.

A number of studies are confirming that mycelium, or the underground fungus network that lives in soil, is critical to the health of soil residents including plants.

To keep soil alive and healthy, gardeners feed the soil residents with compost, recycling kitchen scraps back into soil. As I like to say, we are all connected.

Enter mushroom compost, a product I discovered this year with the help of a local garden center. Although I still produce my own compost, I discovered mushroom compost is also handy to easily refresh potted soil.

This geranium has lived in my office for a good 8 years, getting new soil every spring. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

This lovely geranium was an end of the season purchase a good 7 years or more ago. I moved it to my office so that I could keep it watered over winter and it has never left. I know when the soil needs help when the leaves start to dry up and the plant no longer flowers.

I remove the top 3-4 inches of potted plant soil and replace it with a mix of half new potting soil and 1/4 to half mushroom compost.

I have also just mixed the mushroom compost into the top two inches of existing potted soil and use mushroom compost when I plant shrubs and trees. I want to give those roots a good start.

The started using mushroom compost this summer on my deck plants. The new infusion of fresh soil and fungi compost has given my potted plants a wonderful new lease on life. I am stockpiling a supply for use mid winter. I will also be using mushroom compost in spring when I plant vegetables in pots.

There are a number of granulated products on the market that will do the same thing. These bags, at less than $4 a bag, are not only a good value but easy to store for later use.

Charlotte

October Gardening Tips

Time to enjoy a few more bouquets of cut garden flowers. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

October Gardening Tips

Don’t know what to think yet but I had better get a start getting plants inside. Out of the four seasons in my garden, this is the most challenging. I have to decide which plants come inside to winter over and which ones I have to leave. And I don’t like to leave any of them!

Our weather forecast for USDA zone 5 is calling for an early first frost around October 21 instead of Halloween. The extended winter forecast is for a colder season with little precipitation so mulching will be important after the first frost.

Some of the other good fall gardening tips this time of year include:

1. Pick herbs before they have flowered to capture the full flavor. Wait until after they have flowered and cut the new herb sprouts to dry for later use. Except for basil.

2. Besides harvesting, this is the time to freeze extras for later use.

3. Start pruning and checking for any hitchhikers on plants that are coming inside for winter. To cut down on leaf drop, bring plants in a month before turning on the heat, which is usually early October.

4. For single plants in separate pots, consider combining them, watering well and then bringing them inside. Even if they only last for a couple of months, they will help to extend the growing season.

5. Water. Perennials, established trees, evergreens and azaleas need one inch of water a week. Water into the ground so the water hydrates plant roots. Keep watering until our first hard frost. For our part of the country, that usually around Halloween.

Hardy mums, right, start to bloom and add a dash of fall color. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

6. Stop fertilizing and pruning. Wait until January-February after the plants are dormant and you can better see their form.

7. If you have trees with fungus or other issues, collect those leaves and burn or bury into the ground. I leave most of my leaves on flower beds except for diseased ones, don’t want to spread that fungus. Those I bury in the ground.

8.If you haven’t cleaned up flower beds of spent plants, here’s your last chance to gather seeds. Leave some for the birds, they will eat them over winter. Leave the rest to clean up in spring. By then, most of the greenery will have broken down and become part of the garden mulch.

9. Plant spring bulbs. Add a little bone meal at the bottom of the hole to slowly feed the bulbs. Plant bulbs close together if you don’t mind digging them up in a couple of years to separate. If you would rather not, give them more space in between. Mark where you planted them so you don’t dig them up next year when planting something else.

10. Leave the falling leaves where they are. If you are worried about your grass, run the mower over them. Leaves return Nitrogen to the soil and make a wonderful amendment to flower beds and help retain moisture.

11. Plant trees and bushes; make sure to water daily until frost.

12. Stop long enough to enjoy the beauty of fall as leaves turn, native plants bloom and temperatures turn crisp and cool. A hot cup of tea with fresh honey sounds good about now!

Charlotte

Falling for Begonias

Rescued wax begonias keeping my retaining wall pretty. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Falling for Begonias

I have to admit, I haven’t been terribly fond of begonias. Nothing personal. I have lived with an Angel Begonia in my living room for many years, the serrated leaves making way for lovely clusters of pink flowers midwinter.

It’s those little containers of wax begonias late spring at garden centers that I bypassed. They didn’t look very interesting and, as an annual that doesn’t winter over outside, I have to admit I didn’t even look at them.

Then two years ago, I rescued a pot of begonias late fall. I kept them inside over winter in a sunny window and they bloomed a lovely red. And kept blooming with very little care.

Love the color of these red wax begonias, so pretty close up. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once the danger of frost was over, I moved them outside, pinching a few branches off to add a splash of color to my deck and front porch.

I also started a couple of pots to keep one of my garden benches in shade company.

More wax begonias easily rooted in these pots by my garden bench. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

They have me hooked; I now can’t imagine my little garden without them. They are easy to root, bloom continuously and add an elegant dash of red.

According to Garden Design, begonias were first discovered in Brazil. Even more interesting, the flowers are high in Vitamin C and edible. The leaves are also used in several traditional Chinese dishes, which suggests they have travelled the world.

Growing Wax Begonias

Wax begonias are extremely easy to grow. The only challenge is that their fleshy stems can easily be broken off so be careful when moving them and brushing against them.

Can you tell that the wax begonias on left get more sun than the ones on right? (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Mine grow well in dappled sunshine and shade in pots with potting soil and compost.

The ones in pots on my front porch, facing east, have different colored leaves depending on the amount of sunshine they received. The pot on the left gets more morning sun. The pot on the right doesn’t get any direct sun.

I am switching the two pots to equalize the amount of sun they have been getting.

If left in full sun all day, the leaves will be burnt. The traditional wax begonias do best in shade. There are some new varieties that tolerate sun.

I water every other day depending on the temperature. These red ones have bloomed continuously since May.

And yes, I will bringing these inside not only to overwinter but to cheer me up during our cold Missouri winter months.

Charlotte

Tree Spikes

A weed remover makes adding fertilizer spikes easy after a good fall rain. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Tree Spikes

No, I’m not talking about anything metal. These tree spikes are time released fruit tree fertilizer shaped into a spike. They come with a small plastic top one is supposed to place on the blunt side of the spike, then it is pushed into the ground by pounding the plastic.

Tree spikes are a bit controversial. Because they are concentrated in one spot once placed in the ground, tree roots may not have access to the fertilizer nourishment evenly. A granular fertilizer will provide more even fertilizer along the tree drip line, more evenly encouraging root growth.

However.

I garden on a Missouri limestone hillside. The chances that my granular fertilizer will stay in place long enough to integrate with the soil in spring during heavy spring rains is pretty low to poor. Even so, I will spend a good day in spring making small trenches around the dwarf fruit trees and giving them a good supply of compost to feed them through the upcoming growing season.

In fall, I hedge my bets by placing fruit tree spikes around my fruit trees. With the ebb and flow of fall temperatures and rain, the fruit spikes will decompose and integrate themselves into the soil. The trees are dormant but these should provide my fruit trees with a good start next spring.

Push the tree spike in next to the weeder, then push into the ground. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

In other words, the tree spikes won’t be carried down the hill in the next fall rain.

I use these mostly for my young dwarf fruit trees. They need all of the help they can get in my garden to get strong roots established so they can grow next spring.

Charlotte

December Gardening Chores

Time to get my last spring bulbs in the ground with a sprinkle of bone meal. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

December Gardening Chores

The ground where I live in USDA Hardiness zone 5b is still workable early December so I am hoping the moisture will replenish depleted water tables and still let me do a little last-minute garden work. We had record cold temperatures last month for a couple of days and, by the third day, I was bundled up and trying to get some garden work done. If this winter is as bad as forecast, it’s going to be a very long cold few months for me, love being in my garden; garden dreaming about it when I can’t.

I still have some spring garden bulbs to get in the ground. Sprinkled with bone meal in the hole before placing the bulb, these new garden additions will be fun to see in bloom in only a few months.

Get broken branches and limbs trimmed before ice hits, or before someone runs into them visiting for the holidays. You know where they are but people new to your property are bound to run into them.

 As soon as a hard frost hits, it will be time to mulch. Mulching maintains the soil at an even temperature. During winter, the point of mulching is to keep plants in hibernation. If you still have leaf piles, move those into flower beds, those will also make good mulch.

 To mulch trees, make a well around the tree trunk and leave an area the width of a tire between the tree trunk and the mulch. When mulching, don’t pile mulch up to the trunk or you will create an area for diseases. Leaving a little moat around the tree also reduces girdling.

 Have empty pots, garden carts, rakes leaning against the side of the house? It’s time to clean them off and store them for the season. The rakes, in particular, you don’t want to step on the tines and hit yourself on the side of the head.

Getting fruit tree spikes in the ground up the hill from the trees. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

A warm fall day after a rain is a good day to feed fruit trees with tree spikes. Since I live on a hill, applying fertilizer means I am feeding plants at the bottom of the hill. With tree spikes, I can insert them in the ground p hill, allowing the fertilizer to leach through soil down hill.

Leave the dry flowers for now. Birds will eat the seeds and the dry greenery will provide protection for the young shoots growing at the base of the plant.

 Did you plant mums this fall? Remember to water them every couple of weeks this first year. Once they make it through their first winter, mum roots will become established and won’t require regular watering through winter.

 If you saved seeds, this is the time to make sure they are marked and stored in a dry, cool place. Some people store them in a refrigerator. I use an old ice cooler in my garage to keep mice from snacking on the bags through winter.

 Still have trees you haven’t planted? There’s still time so get them in the ground and water well.  If you are getting a live Christmas tree, dig the hole now so you can pop it in the ground right after Christmas.

 Let tap water settle overnight before using on house plants. Tap water can be too cold and may have additives that need to evaporate before being exposed to indoor plants. I fill my recycled milk jugs and let them stand overnight before pouring on inside plants.

 Have bulbs ready to bloom through winter? Paper white narcissus, hyacinths and Amaryllis  are all good choices to bloom when it’s cold outside. The first two can also be permanently planted outside and Amaryllis are repeat bloomers.

 Make sure to make notes in your garden diary for next year projects, I seem to remember them this time of year as I am putting things away.

 Charlotte

November Gardening Chores

Fall is all about extra garden color, like this lovely plum accent from a pink dogwood. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

November Gardening Chores

Snow was back in the forecast for Halloween this year but we are still waiting for a white dusting in mid-Missouri USDA Hardiness zone 5b/6a. I survived moving all of my potted plants inside but just barely, had to escort the usual hijackers back outside – praying mantis, lizards, several garden spiders.

Now that we are all settled inside, I am still moving potted plants around to give them optimum light conditions. My heat is on so leaves are dropping early, especially the ferns. It’s going to be a long winter.

Tree leaves have also been making their way onto flower beds for mulch and a layer that hopefully decomposes into soil over the next few years. I will be adding wood chips from our local recycling center after the first hard frost.

If you want to plant, or move trees, this is a good time. I prefer planting into final spots in spring so my seedlings are now in pots and heeled into the nursery garden bed. That will give me all winter to decide on their final destination.

Fall is the time to save seeds for next year. Here I am collecting garlic chive seeds. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

It’s been very dry so remember to water. An inch a week is a good measure, especially for woody plants, such as azaleas and evergreens. When watering, check for damaged branches and remove. Once winter ice moves in, the ice will cause more damage than necessary on those weak and damaged limbs. I take pruners with me so I can also trim out suckers and branches that are too long, especially along where I regularly walk. No point in putting that off until later when the ground is covered in ice and snow.

If you haven’t done so already, this is a good time to empty most of your composters. Most likely candidates to get the new rich soil amendment include asparagus and strawberry beds.  I also added compost to my deck pots to get them ready for my next crops. I still have red onions growing so I may scatter some lettuce and spinach seeds.

Still need to mound my rose crowns with 6 inches of soil or so before the first frost. I have mounds of mulch already piled nearby to scatter on the plants after I add a layer of leaf mulch for extra insulation.

My purple coneflowers bloomed well this year so I have trimmed a few seed heads to plant in my nursery bed next year. The rest I leave for winter bird food.

Have grass to mow? You should be on the downside of the mowing season. Make the last cut when you see grass has stopped growing. Let clippings lie where they’ve been cut to restore Nitrogen to the soil. Have fun mowing over the leaves to shred and move them to flower beds.

Don’t forget to stop and enjoy the fall colors. Trees, shrubs and some perennials take on a different color in fall, changing gardens into new, sometimes surprising color palettes. Take note of something you like and plant more next year.

Ok, it can snow now.

Charlotte

Ladybugs Winter Shelter

This is a homemade ladybug house my brother sent me one year for Christmas.

Ladybugs Winter Shelter

My one-acre limestone hillside garden has been chemical-free for decades so I have a pretty busy garden ecosystem that includes native ladybugs. One Christmas my brother sent me a couple of ladybug houses to encourage more ladybugs.

Excited to have the new housing, I did some research to find out how best to set them up. Besides placing them low to the ground, I found out I needed to fill them with leaves, which is where ladybugs like to winter over.

Ladybugs winter over in leaf litter so ladybug houses need leaves inside to encourage tenants.

Now my ladybug house is ready to welcome native ladybugs looking for housing.

One of my neighbors has a house full of ladybugs but it turns out they are not the welcomed kind. She has the Asian ladybugs, a cousin of the native ladybugs. Can you tell the difference?

Native ladybug or Asian ladybug? See the M on the head? This is an Asian lady beetle.

There are more than 400 native ladybugs in North America but they are harder to find as invasive species like Asian ladybugs move in, according to the Xerxes Society.

Charlotte

Hummingbird Moth

This lovely hummingbird moth is the end result of the much maligned tobacco hornworm. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Hummingbird Moth

Have you seen these lovely little moths in your garden, they look like baby hummingbirds?

They are actually the end result of a much-maligned caterpillar, the tobacco hornworm. I usually have several on my tomato plants but I’m guessing they are succumbing to the impact of neighborhood pesticides as are other pollinators. North American bird populations are down 30% since 1970. Birds depend on insects for their food.

Although I haven’t use pesticides in my Missouri hillside garden for decades, as a master gardener I know many of us overuse these products; don’t read the label and end up killing off other things besides what they originally wanted to eradicate.

It makes me sad.

For many years, I would have a good dozen to two dozen tomato and tobacco hornworms living on a couple of dedicated tomato plants. I would pick them off the tomato plants and give them a couple of set aside tomato plants all to themselves so they would have food as they grow.

Tomato hornworms turn into another pollinator, the lovely large Sphinx moth. Tobacco hornworms, a close cousin, turn into lovely hummingbird moths on my native phlox in the top photo.

What’s the difference?

The tobacco hornworms have 7 stripes down their sides and a curved horn.

Tomato hornworms have 8 stripes and a red horn on their back side.

Lovely tobacco hornworms turn into these beautiful hummingbird moths. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

In the past I have had dozens of hummingbird moths mid summer flitting through my native pink phlox. This year, however, I only spotted a few late spring.

I usually see evidence of their presence first as frass on the ground around the tomato plant.

Frass from a tobacco hornworm consuming tomato plant leaves. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Sometimes its hard to spot the green caterpillars among green stems so I then look for nibbling signs on green tomatoes.

Hornworms feed on green tomatoes as they grow. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

By following the nibbled tomato fruit, I can usually find the hornworms close by.

My one tobacco hornworm this year, hopefully eating hearty. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The hornworms eat for about three weeks, then disappear as they pupate and eclose into lovely moths.

To keep myself in tomatoes, I move the chewed on plants back into the fold. When it is time to move plants inside for winter, I bring those tomato plants inside. By then the leaves have grown back and they are ready to fruit.

We don’t have to declare war on hornworms, we can coexist. They are just as valuable to our pollinator cadre of butterflies as Monarchs.

Stop using pesticides and insecticides. Stop maligning tomato and tobacco hornworms, it’s easy to help them and still have tomatoes.

I have been doing it for years.

Charlotte

Fiddle De Dee Fig

This fiddle leaf fig has spent the last year or so in my basement. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Fiddle Dee Dee Fig Philodendron

I had mixed feelings seeing this old friend leave. It was one of a couple of plants our local recreation center re-homed a year ago when they used the community lounge room for extra stationary bicycles.

These plants had been living on the south side of the room with a huge glass wall giving them sun exposure all year around. When the lounge was converted to exercise bicycles, the plants were in the way and needed to be moved.

The original offer was that these plants were being given away. I love having plants in my home, especially during winter when it’s cold outside and I am still surrounded by plants. I at least can pretend it’s not that cold.

However as my handyman and I picked the large tropical plants up, the recreation center employee who cares for the plants asked if she could get two of them back later and I agreed. She wanted: a sago palm, which I don’t mind returning because the leaves are prickly and need undisturbed space, and the fiddle fig philodendron (in photo).

Both plants spent a cozy winter inside my house. The tropical sego palm had a spot in my den where it could visit with a couple of tropical grapefruit trees. If you have read “The Hidden Lives of Trees” you may have second thoughts about our relationship with trees. I suspect they had some interesting - exchanges - when I wasn’t around.

The fiddle fig spent winter in my torn up basement, the huge draping leaves giving my cats a fun place to hide when playing. I also enjoyed having the large spot of green in the middle of the stark, empty space, it warmed up the rooms while I waited for the work to begin. I like spending winter there, I have my books handy and a nice stash of lap quilts to keep warm.

Once the basement was finished, though, it was time for the fiddle fig to find other accommodations. Luckily about the same time our recreation center moved the exercise equipment out and returned the fireplace lounge back to community use. When I heard from the Mayor that he wanted to encourage people to use the space, I reminded the recreation center staff that I still had the two plants. They will definitely help warm up the space.

Two recreation center employees came by September 19, 2019 to pick up the plants and return them to their spot in the lounge.

The sago palm was easy; it took some muscle to get the fiddle fig back up my limestone hill.

Fiddle headed back up the stairs to return to our local recreation center. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once lifted up the 12 steps - yes, we all counted - the fiddle fig was in the back of the pick up truck.

I enjoyed having this interesting philodendron around. The leaves are huge and I could always count on a few hiding a cat or two waiting to play hide and seek. The leaves are long and it has roots that sometime seek light by springing out from the center.

But now that the basement is finished, there isn’t room for this sprawling, growing plant so time to go home. k I was promised visitation rights.

Here is it, slowly on its way back to its original home. I was assured they would not be driving fast and tearing up the leaves in the process.

And off it goes, back to the community lounge where it originally lived. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I think we are moving them back at just the right time. Temperatures should start to cool off as we leave summer behind, and hopefully the punishing weather as well.

I will stop in next week to see that they are nicely settled in.

In the meantime, happy fall.

Charlotte

December Gardening Chores

Find a place to store garden tools where you can easily find them. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

December Gardening Chores

We have had record snow storms and low temperatures already and December is just showing up to the party. The ground where I live in USDA Hardiness zone 5b is still workable so I am hoping the moisture will replenish depleted water tables and still let me do a little last-minute garden work.

 Any broken branches and limbs? Get those trimmed before ice hits, or before someone runs into them visiting for the holidays. You know where they are but people knew to your property are bound to run into them.

 As soon as a hard frost hits, it will be time to mulch. Mulching maintains the soil at an even temperature. During winter, the point of mulching is to keep plants in hibernation. If you still have leaf piles, move those into flower beds, those will also make good mulch.

 To mulch trees, make a well around the tree trunk and leave an area the width of a tire between the tree trunk and the mulch. When mulching, don’t pile mulch up to the trunk or you will create an area for diseases. Leaving a little moat around the tree also reduces girdling.

 Have empty pots, garden carts, rakes leaning against the side of the house? It’s time to clean them off and store them for the season. The rakes, in particular, you don’t want to step on the tines and hit yourself on the side of the head. I have my shovels now hanging from where I usually end up leaving them at the end of a hard day of gardening, easier to find later.

 Leave the dry flowers for now. Birds will eat the seeds and the dry greenery will provide protection for the young shoots growing at the base of the plant.

 Did you plant mums this fall? Remember to water them every couple of weeks this first year. Once they make it through their first winter, mum roots will become established and won’t require regular watering through winter.

 If you saved seeds, this is the time to make sure they are marked and stored in a dry, cool place. Some people store them in a refrigerator. I use an old ice cooler in my garage to keep mice from snacking on the bags through winter.

Still have plants to get in the ground? Bury them in pots then moved to their final place next year. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Still have trees you haven’t planted? There’s still time so get them in the ground and water well.  If you are getting a live Christmas tree, dig the hole now so you can pop it in the ground right after Christmas.

 Let tap water settle overnight before using on house plants. Tap water can be too cold and may have additives that need to evaporate before being exposed to indoor plants. I fill my recycled milk jugs and let them stand overnight before pouring on inside plants.

 Have bulbs ready to bloom through winter? Paper white narcissus, hyacinths and Amaryllis  are all good choices to bloom when it’s cold outside. The first two can also be permanently planted outside and Amaryllis are repeat bloomers.

Make sure to make notes in your garden diary for next year projects, I seem to remember them this time of year as I am putting things away.

Give your gardening friends a gardening-related gift. It almost be winter but gardeners are planners and are already thinking about spring!

Charlotte

They're In My Garden Now: Emerald Ash Borers

Emerald ash borer larvae in ash tree in my garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

They’re In My Garden Now: Emerald Ash Borers

They are now in my garden taking out my ash trees - emerald ash borers. Emerald ash borers Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire are an exotic beetle from Asia that was discovered in North America near Detroit, Michigan in the summer of 2002. The adults look like grasshoppers from the Emerald City in Oz, iridescent green with large black eyes. The adult beetles nibble on ash foliage, causing little damage.

The larvae, however, is another story. The immature emerald ash borers feed on the inner bark of ash trees, disrupting the tree's ability to transport water and nutrients, eventually killing the tree.

No one knows for sure but the emerald ash borers probably arrived in the United States on solid wood packing material transported from Asia. It’s suspected they spread by hitchhiking on firewood transported among homes and recreation areas in at least 34 states.

I was working for US Forest Service when it was discovered in southeast Missouri in July 2008 in Wayne County. In September 2013, Missouri’s quarantine expanded to include all 114 counties and the City of St. Louis. The quarantine included not allowing firewood to be brought into Missouri for fear of hitchhiking bugs. It was interesting talking to incoming campers who didn’t understand why they couldn’t bring in their own firewood.

Woodpeckers remove slivers of ash tree bark as they eat larvae. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I didn’t know I had damage to my limestone hillside ash trees until I was walking through my garden checking on what wildflowers were still blooming. As I rounded one of my paths, I saw flecking. Flecking is caused by woodpeckers as they feed on emerald ash borer larvae living under the bark. Feeding starts at the top of the ash trees, where emerald ash borers prefer to settle in first. Woodpeckers will strip the bark to feed on the larvae.

With bees in my garden, insecticides is not an option so my only realistic choice is to cut down the ash trees, which I will be having done shortly.

University of Missouri Extension notes emerald ash borers are similar to Dutch elm disease that killed native American elm trees. This invasive bug is capable of eliminating all ash trees from our forests and cities. This makes it one of the most serious environmental threats now facing North American forests.

Confirmed emerald ash borers since July 24, 2018.

It is expected emerald ash borers will diminish ash trees in Missouri's forests to a very low level. Although ash trees account for just three percent of Missouri’s native forest, the fast-growing shade tree is popular for landscaping. On average, about 14 percent of trees lining streets in urban settings are ash. In some neighborhoods and parks, the figure reaches as high as 30 or 40 percent.

I’m told St. James, Mo. is loosing many of its old ash trees to emerald ash borers. Since its discovery, emerald ash borers have killed trees, created regulatory headaches and cost millions in control measures. It has killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in at least 34 states, caused regulatory agencies to enforce quarantines and fines and cost municipalities, property owners, nursery operators and forest products industries millions of dollars.

Well, at least we tried to keep them out.

Charlotte

A Touch of Winter

Welcome to snow-covered Bluebird Gardens. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

A Touch of Winter

Winter snuck into mid-Missouri earlier than usual fall 2018. Two snow storms, the second dropping 3-4 inches of snow, covered my garden in a lovely fluffy white blanket.

These snow storms inspire some of the quilts I carry including snow in the garden.

Enjoy this peek at my garden covered in snow, no need to bundle up.

Blue bench suggests the color underneath snow. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins.)

A compact dwarf plum tree holds onto its green color. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins.)

Pond water doesn’t freeze after the first snow. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Cedar trees with a blanket of snow. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

My honeybees have been tucked in for winter. They cluster during cold weather, eating honey for food and coming out to fly when temperatures are over 45F.

The southern apiary is tucked in for winter. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

A birdhouse gets exposed after leaves have fallen. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The view off the west side of my house. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Stay warm, winter isn’t officially here yet!

Charlotte

Missing Gardening Pick Ax

Do you see it hiding in the leaves and vinca? (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Missing Gardening Pick Ax

I garden on a Missouri limestone hill which means my main gardening tool is a pick ax. And a good set of sturdy boots.

When my last pick ax literally fell apart, I bought a new, improved one with a plastic handle and a weight I could better manage. The only problem was the handle was green, which meant as soon as I set it aside in the garden I couldn’t find it.

Enter my handyman who said he could fix that and sprayed the plastic handle a bright red. Now you should be able to find it wherever you leave it in the garden.

The next day as I was cleaning up, no pick ax ANYwhere!

Back track your steps and see if you can find it where you were working earlier, my handyman suggested. I did. Several times. Nothing.

Then earlier today, I saw it. Actually I saw the bottom of the pick ax sticking out next to a tree where I must have left it. And was it the red that caught my eye?

No, it was the original green still visible on the pick ax bottom.

The bottom of the pick ax stood out among the greenery. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Reminds me of my missing green claw glove that’s still somewhere in the garden. The claw gloves are also mainly green with black tips but now I’m wondering if painting them will make any difference in terms of finding them.

This pick ax was painted red all over!

My newly-painted gardening pick ax for easy spotting. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Well, it’s back and now with hard frosts killing off most of the greenery, I should be able to more easily spot it - at least until next spring.

Charlotte

Shredded Leaf Mulch

Shredded Leaf Mulch

If you have a riding lawn mower you can have wonderful shredded leaf mulch. Shredded fall leaves, combined with grass clippings, will make rich soil conditioner that will retain water and return nitrogen into the soil that you can’t buy at any garden center.

This time of year, people are raking fall leaves and bagging shredded ones, then dumping them at our local composting station so let’s look at some options.

A standard pile of drying leaves that haven’t been shredded. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Dried leaves can be good garden mulch provided the leaves are fully dry and not still green, or yellow. The leaves that aren’t dry yet need to be dry before applying to a bed but both can be used if this pile is first run over by a riding lawn mower.

Bunched leaves holding moisture that haven’t bee shredded. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Here is another leaf pile, this from the inside of one of those paper bags. See the black spots on the leaves? I would be tempted to skip this leaf pile, those black spots are an indication of some kind of spores on the leaves I would rather not spread to my garden.

Shredded and unshredded leaves are a good combination. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Now we are getting somewhere, this is a leaf pile with both shredded and regular dry leaves. This combination provides good immediate garden cover with the shredded leaves and will continue to work as the new leaves decompose.

Dry shredded and unshredded leaves combined with grass clippings. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

A combination of dried leaves with grass clippings will also work as long as there are more dry leaves than clippings. Grass clippings will quickly remove nitrogen from the soil and generate heat so try to keep the mix at least even.

My favorite pile, shredded leaves and clippings. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

This pile would also make an excellent composter addition, a mixture of both “brown” and “green.”This is the shredded leaf pile I have been bagging and hauling home to add to new garden beds. A combination of shredded dried leaves with maybe a quarter grass clippings. I wear gloves as I pack the bags in case the mulch included poison ivy spores. Even so I still managed to get a long scratch on my right index finger.

I have also been raking my dried leaves in my garden and moving them to cover garden beds but this shredded mix is a real treat for my flowers and one that will keep on giving next year.

Charlotte

This Rose Truly Offers Double Delight

Double Delight hybrid tea rose has a lovely spicy scent. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

This Rose Truly Offers Double Delight

I am so enjoying this last rose bud from my garden. This hybrid rose was introduced to the Rose Hall of Fame in the mid-80s and won the All-American Rose award in 1977.

That’s a long time ago and something I missed when buying this rose. I picked it up on sale without knowing what kind of rose it was, not a problem for me because I love surprises.

One of the better growing conditions for roses is sunny days and cool evenings, which we have been having. I didn’t expect to see any roses blooming until I passed this rose bush and saw this bud falling over. The sides had a splash of pink while the bud looked yellow, similar to the colors in this vintage roses twin quilt.

Once in a vase, I had to check for a scent. Wish you could smell this rose, it’s fruity and delicious, just the way one would want a rose scent to be!

Double Delight hybrid tea rosebud a day after I picked it. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Don’t know how much red color the rose bud will have at this stage but I don’t care, my nose will happily spend the rest of the season enjoying this wonderful scent!

The Double Delight hybrid tea rose finally fully open! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once open, the Double Delight hybrid tea rose looks like a creamy white rose and lasts about a week as a cut rose.

Charlotte

How to Get Poinsettias Red Again

Poinsettia color comes from leaves changing by light deprivation. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

How to Get Poinsettias Red Again

Poinsettias are starting to pop up where I live, a sure sign of the holidays and as traditional to have around as Santa Claus. The poinsettia colors are from their leaves changing from green to red, for example, after the plant was deprived of light.

The poinsettia flowers are actually the tiny yellow pollen-covered centers.

Poinsettia flowers are the tiny centers where pollen can be found. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

There are a number of guides on how to get a poinsettia to turn colors again and I can attest that it is very simple.

This is a gift poinsettia from last year. It spent summer outside in a shady corner of my garden, then came in around September.

A one-year poinsettia after spending summer outside. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I have to confess, I wondered how much this plant would grow outside this summer. When I lived in Mexico City in the 1950s, I remember poinsettias the size of trees in our backyard. I half-mused what I would do if this gift poinsettia had a growth spurt.

The plant was placed in a window in room that doesn’t get evening light. I tried to remember to regularly water it but I missed it a few times because it’s not a room I have been in much recently. The neglect didn’t seem to hurt the plant.

See now what I see?

The leaves are starting to show signs of turning red, a sure sign that it has been deprived of light for the requisite 6-8 weeks that triggers the leaves to turn red.

I’m now hooked and regularly visit the plant during daylight to watch the transformation.

Interesting to watch the leaves turning color. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Looking forward to adding this plant to my holiday decorations, so glad it will be around a second year!

Charlotte

Lily Pad 2.0

Norman the frog hanging on to the side of the blue escape shelf now in one of my ponds. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Lily Pad 2.0

One of my favorite sounds to hear in my garden is that of frogs. I love the deep resounding notes of the bullfrogs and the melodious drawn out chirping of spring peepers before they jump back into the water or hide under water lilies as I walk by.

As I was going to a yard sale last year, I spotted something I thought my frogs might use, a blue escape shelf normally placed in swimming pools. If a wild animal falls into a pool there is no way for it to swim out safely so these escape shelves are designed to attach to a pool corner for a safe exit.

I don’t have a pool but I do have a small pond so I installed the shelf earlier this spring thinking it might come in handy if a turtle or rabbit fell in.

I now have two “frogs” in my little pond, one on each side of the tiny watering hole. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

For the past 3 months, the escape shelf has been occupied by a young bull frog. All day, actually, from when I go out in the morning to feed the goldfish to before sunset when I wrap up garden work.

I walk by him a good few dozen times, dragging all manner of items - shovels, pick axes, boxes of plants, water in buckets, swinging the garden instruments over the pond to clear the small walking path. The frog - I have named him Norman - sits on his new blue lily pad, unflinching.

A few times he may reverse direction, or scoot up closer to the edge of the escape shelf but rarely does he jump into the pond.

This is typically how Norman spends his days in my pond, sitting on the blue escape. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I stopped the other day to say good morning as I was feeding the fish. No response. No movement, his little green back still turned towards me as he sat.

One of my cats prefers to watch a mouse game on my cell phone and birds singing on my laptop. I suppose it only makes sense that now a frog would prefer an escape shelf to the traditional lily pad.

Charlotte