A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Gardener's Chat Getting ready for Fall...

...anybody already start thinking of their garden list for fall? The To-do lists seems to get larger with the passing of each season.

My list isn't so bad this year. The strawberry beds needs a complete overhaul, going to add a few more feet to the veggie garden plot(sod chucking), a few shrubs need to be hauled out, some top soil needs to be spread, a flower bed needs to be 'de-Goutweeded' and another taken apart and turned back to lawn(to hard to mow around).

Come to think about it, the front foundation bed needs a few things moved around as well. Maybe my list is longet than I thought and you just know daffodils need to be bought and planted.

I'm going to dig up more lawn to extend my garden...boy it's tough work! lol i'll be buying more tulips for cutting next year. I'm going to mark out area for direct seeding for sprouts next year. and of course collect leaves to make leaf mould!

Sounds great Kenny, I don't have much luck with tulips here...moles. It seems they never touch the daffodil bulbs though.

Are you going to extend your garden by much?

I've been tidying up for fall too. getting limbs picked up and beds weeded. be that much less I'll have to do in the spring and planting some stuff now to come up in spring.

I'm so excited. I'll be edging the sidewalk bed then digging out some of the encroaching crabgrass. Then I'll be planting all my bulbs in there. It's going to be so great. Crocuses closest to the edge then hycinthia, then daffodils and tulips. Woohoo.

Then I'm going to put all three clumps of the ditch lilies in the ditch infront of the house. I don't have enough for the entire street side by any stretch of the imagination.

Then will be the last of the lawn cutting.

The leave raking so all of them are in the flower/tree beds rather than on the lawn.

I to should be digging out the "sod" in my future veggie bed. I'm not sure I can pull it off though. It's clay underneath the weeds and it is rock solid.

I'm so excited.

I have tons of leaves, but have never made leaf mould. Could you tell me how, I am really new at gardening, but am learning something new everyday...and loving it!

you guys are WAY ahead of of me. We just now got some rain so my summer stuff is flowering.

Sheri, here all the annuals have already died back. Fall is around the corner. Mind you because I cut everything back really hard, things are reblooming. Everyone stops to stare at my lawn... they probably think I have plastic flowers even the rose bushes have re-bloomed.

Yesterday I tore apart a flower bed to find that my tulips have tons of babies on them(probably why they weren't blooming this year). So I dug them all out and will replant in another area. I must have 50 bulblets now.

Still no daffodils in the stores...very strange.

lucky you with the tulips. Glad there was a reason they didn't bloom.

I'm not sure about leaf mould either. I'm waiting for more information too. I also have many many leaves.

And now the baby acorns are on the ground because of the drought followed by that big rain storm.

And the zinnias are looking so good. I wish the new computer were working I'd take a picture of them. They are really looking nice.

The weeds are out there having a field day. But I can't get out there yet. My tonsils are the size of baseballs.

We talked with a friend last night who had been to Maine last week and said it was 40 degrees. I can't imagine.

I do have some purple hyacinth bulbs that are sprouting for some reason. They bloomed this year but after rain they're starting again.

TK, when did you put out the zinnia seeds?

I had one zinna come up this year...

I've dug a 5' by 5' area, and wan tto do more. but the only direct i can dig in is right into the creping charlie...which I *hope* won't get into the bed if I line the bed with a liner before i put the soil back in.

Leaf mould is basically composted leaves. They say one mature tree will drop enough leaves to give you $50 worth of fertilizer/compost. THe basic idea is to leat the leaves decompose and you'll get rich humus later. This is what I do:
1. collect leaves. i might be asking the neighbours if I can take the leaves that they bag up and throw on the curb.
2. lay the leaves out on the lawn (a driveway would probably be better, but my parent's don't approve) and run the lawn mower over the leaves to make small bits. This is optional, but smaller piece will decompose faster.
3. Put the leaves in a wire fence enclosre, or put a thick layer on top of a freshly dug bed.
4. Keep the leaves moist, by watering and turning the leaves (like you would with compost) and wait until spring.

What i did last year, was just pile the leaves along the fence in the fall on top of the lawn, and this year, I just planted directly in the leaves. You will notice that the ovlume of the leaves will shrink. I also ran out of space and forgot to plant some iris in pots, so i buried the pots with the iris (bad choice...never mulch iris) in the leaf pile, and when I went out to inspect winter damage in March, the top inch or so of the leaves were frozen but the core was still soft (or maybe it thawed quicker). the iris came out fine, but were pale, and i htink they were kept too moist (died after a week outside the leaves).

I think I started them in pots in late July and then transplanted them in Early Auguest.

Thank you Kennyso. I've got mostly leaves this year so I'm glad to hear that they will compost without the grass even though it may be a slower process.

hey suzydaze I have plenty of zinnia seeds if you want some. And they are still viable so just let me know. I'm especially proud of the two tall red zinnia. I hope I get more red zinnia for next year. I'll cross my fingers. I'm thinking about putting a bag over one of the blooms and hand polinating.