C-c-c-cold Weather

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Snow on the Ground and Frozen
Water in the Bird Bath on this
First Truly Chilly Day of Autumn

Just as weather reports had been predicting; high winds, cold temperatures and snow descended upon us overnight.

Luckily, I'd been spending a couple of hours each day over the last week-and-a-half finishing up work in my garden - putting everything to bed, so to speak.

To that end:

• I've moved and replanted perennials that weren't already in perfect locations
• Scattered seeds from existing Coneflower, Black-Eyed Susan, and Wild Columbine plants
• Found planting locations for large yellow Crocus bulbs and Pink Sunrise Muscari bulbs
• Stored organic garden soil from above ground pots, and
• Packed away garden whimsy, planting baskets, plastic cloches, a bee and butterfly watering station, and deep watering spikes and pop bottle reservoirs.

I've also:

• Organized my garden tools and shed
• Labelled new and relocated plants until I can plot them on my computerized chart
• Harvested last minute crops, and
• Protected my plants with mulched leaves.

I still intend to do some detailed measuring of the front and side plots in order to update my computer program, but that can be completed during the colder weather if I'm well bundled up; and, we still have to figure out where to store my mom's front porch three-seat covered swing.

So, with all of my major fall tidy-up projects completed, I wasn't too upset to see the snow on the ground and frozen water in the bird bath, this morning; and, though I've never been a fan of c-c-c-cold weather, at least I believe my garden is mostly prepared to face the winter soon to come.

Our Pepper Project

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Home-Grown Orange, Yellow and Red
Peppers on a Plate

This summer we planted three varieties of sweet bell pepper seeds. Only one pepper - an orange one - grew to normal size. The others ripened and delightfully changed colour, but remained appetizer sized.

When frost threatened, I brought the pepper plants indoors to complete their ripening but they didn't respond well to the climate change. So, we tried eating them.

Oh, my goodness!

The small red peppers were not sweet as we'd thought: They were in fact, hot - incredibly spicy hot peppers - grown from seeds that were obviously mislabeled. As I write this, my mouth and the eye I mistakenly rubbed are still reacting, and not in a good way.

Next, we tried the small yellow peppers, and found the under-developed fruit unpleasantly bland - neither sweet nor hot - so, we discarded them.

The fully formed orange bell pepper - our only one, unfortunately - proved quite sweet and tasty. It's really too bad that only one of them developed.

All in all, the colourful plants sure prettied up our garden; and, though our pepper project might appear to have been somewhat unfruitful, we did manage to grow some spicy-hot red peppers that will be threaded and hung to dry for flavouring of foods later on.

I will, however, have to wear gloves to process the peppers any further: I can still feel the burn every time I touch my fingers to my lips, even after washing my hands several times.

Rain Collection Garden

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Seed Box and Wild Blue Iris
Getting Established in Our
New Rain Water Collection Garden

Since the city mandated the disconnection of urban downspouts from the combined sewer system in our neighbourhood, we've been challenged with the dilemma of how to diffuse and use the rainwater that pours down from the ample roof of our house.

This fall, I'd also been wondering where I should winter over my moisture-loving plants: A couple of newly acquired Seed Box and a Wild Blue Iris that had summered in my bird bath.

So, this week, armed with left-over river-rock and broken flagstones, I set about to construct a downspout water collection garden.

It's just a beginning but a pretty nice beginning, none-the-less. This new rain collection garden will likely be enlarged in the coming spring and summer, providing habitat for other plants requiring a more a moister and another water source for pollinating insects. 

If the next growing season is as rain-laden as this past year has been, my new rain water collection garden will have been well worth the effort.

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Wild Blue Iris, Summering
in our Bird Bath

Planting Garlic

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Garlic Purchased This Summer

This summer, husband Doug and I visited several gardens on the Hamilton Spectator Open Garden Week tours. One of them was an extensive multifunctional garden in rural Canfield, where we discovered the friendly homeowners also grew and sold garlic.

While there, we purchased a large bunch of garlic for a pretty reasonable price and brought it home for use in our cooking. The garlic has turned out to be as delicious as we were told it would be, and is quite decorative on one of my greenhouse window shelves in the kitchen.

This fall, I researched the trick to growing healthy garlic: Plant good quality garlic cloves, root side down, 2" apart, in rich well-drained soil, just 2" under the surface; then mulch. 

That one can begin the process of growing garlic, so late in the year, is quite exciting: Specifically, fall planting of garlic allows for maturation and harvest as early as mid-July.

Whoo, hoo!

The process seemed straight-forward enough; and, as I was in possession of excellent root stock, I decided to give growing my own garlic a try.

I decided to spread out my garlic plants amongst my perennials in the sunny part of my front garden - Seven cloves (just one head - it's an experiment, after all) in seven separate 10" diameter by 12" deep holes, filled with well-drained soil recycled from my beet and broccoli plants earlier in the year.

My present concern - that squirrels might dig up the cloves when I'm not looking - will hopefully be averted by reemployment of plastic Dollar Store cloches and mulch, the latter of which should also protect the bulbs from freezing temperatures over the winter.

I'll have to be careful to apply high-nitrogen fertilizer in the spring, add mulch to replace decomposed moisture protection, cut off early flower stalks (if present) that compete for nourishment, and remove all mulch in June when the plants begin to form their bulbs.

With luck and careful attention, though, I hope my garlic experiment will be a happy success!