SACANDAGA GARDEN
CLUB - by Barbara Henry
Courtesy of the Edinburg
Newsletter
The Garden Club met for its first
meeting of the year for a picnic in the park next to the Bradt
Building. The weather was beautiful
and it was fun to see everyone again and swop gardening and social
news. We distributed the new program for the year and talked about
the events we have planned and activities that we can get involved
with as a garden club. We love to see new faces so if you are interesting
in joining us please drop a line to
Sacandaga Garden Club
PO Box 675
Northville, NY 12134
and
we will get back to you with details of the next meeting
so you can
come and see what we are all about.
Shorter days and cooler weather signal that
winter is not so far away. But if we haven’t had severe
frosts you can still be harvesting lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli,
etc. and the flavor
of many of these veggies is actually enhanced by a frost. Keep
a tarp handy for a sudden drop into the 20s and you can continue
harvesting for several weeks.
Before the cold really sets in, dig up and
split overgrown perennials and you can still buy shrubs and perennials
as long as they get
about six weeks before a really hard freeze. After a hard freeze
it’s a good idea to mulch them, the idea is to keep the ground
cool not warm so they don’t suffer frost heave and damage
their roots. Make sure you water any new plantings well but do
not fertilize until the spring. Other perennials can be cut back
now for the winter but you can also leave some standing for winter
interest. Finches love the seed heads of coneflowers and ground
beetles love to hide in clumps of ornamental grasses. If you are
giving your shrubs a haircut for the winter remember the golden
rule; shrubs that bloom in the spring bloom on old wood so do not
prune them now. Shrubs that bloom after June bloom on new wood
so these are a good choice for a fall pruning.
Pull out any annuals and tidy up the vegetable garden. Put all
frost damaged, but disease free, green debris in your compost pile.
If you have suffered from late blight on your tomatoes or potatoes
this year, do not put them in the compost pile. A two to three
inch covering of leaves over the veggie garden will keep the microbial
and earthworm action going and in the spring you can just pull
back the leaves and plant away.
Mid to late October is a good time to feed the lawn using a high
nitrogen fertilizer (the first number). It is also a good time
to sprinkle a general 5-10-5 fertilizer over all your beds so that
the fertilizer will reach the roots in time for the plants when
they most need it when they wake up in the spring.
Rake fallen leaves from the lawn. Run them over with your mower
and you have beautiful shredded mulch for your garden beds.
Clean and sharpen your garden tools – including
your lawn mower blades
And of course – my favorite – plant
bulbs! The ground will be soft enough for you to plant bulbs
through Thanksgiving.
October is the month when you need to start
the dark treatment if you want to get the red leaves on your
poinsettias. Around October
15, every night put your plant in a totally dark place where it
is about 60-65 degrees F. Every morning, bring it back out and
put it in a sunny window and water normally. This routine goes
on for 40 days. If you miss one night of darkness, then add three
more nights to your schedule. If you let it get one stray light
beam – from a hallway, a night light or an outside light
then add another three nights to your schedule. Workers in some
green houses that produce the beautiful poinsettias are forbidden
to use flashlights in case one gets switched on accidentally. After
the 40 day period, leave the plant out where it gets good light
and the red bracts will develop. The color will develop better
if they get six or more hours of sunlight a day. They might not
be as big and beautiful as when you bought them because we do not
have the high humidity or the bright sunlight in our houses over
winter as the greenhouses down south do.
Christmas cactus will set their buds if the plant is exposed to
temperatures around 50 degrees F. They like it dark at night but
are nowhere near as fussy as poinsettias. A bright east window
is fine for them.
Our next meeting is on Thursday, October 1
when Master Gardener Jay Ephraim will introduce us to the wonderful
world of vermiculture
for home gardeners in a program called ‘I Love Worms’.
