September To-do Lists Nudge Gardeners

Winter squash is ready for harvest now.  Photo:  Home & Garden Information Center

I know. I know. You’re tired after a long season of gardening. Especially with all that heat we had. But there are still a few things to tick off your fall to-do list.

Have you planted your garlic yet? Now’s the time. Nestle cloves into the soil through the end of October for harvest next July. Get tips here: Growing Garlic in a Home Garden.

Even if your vegetable garden is looking ragged, keep harvesting. My cucumbers finally gave up the ghost, but I’m still getting enough tomatoes and basil for Caprese salads.

I just harvested butternut squash, too. The rind was finally hard enough not to dent with my fingernail, so they were ready. I’ll cure them for a week in a warmer room, then store them in my cooler basement. Learn more: Growing Winter Squash in a Home Garden.

And yes, I’ve started to remove spent and scruffy vegetable plants, clearing the bed of fallen fruits, leaves, and stems. And no, it’s not just because I’m a neatnik.

Soilborne diseases are the most common cause of vegetable problems. Those plant bits can harbor fungal spores which can reinfect plants year after year. 

So I’m ruthless in removing plant debris. I compost healthy plant parts, but bag and trash anything that has had disease issues.

After cleanup, I add compost. It feeds the soil, adds organic matter, improves drainage, holds nutrients, attracts earthworms, and suppresses disease. What’s not to love?

Buy compost or make your own. Mix leaves, grass clippings, kitchen scraps, and other organic materials into a pile. Stir it now and then, water it when it’s dry, and let it cook down into the best soil food ever. Learn: How to Make Compost at Home.

a gardener working on a compost bin
Master Gardener Gary Stallings turns compost in a teaching garden. Photo:  Shanon Wolf

This year I’ll top off my vegetable beds with an inch or two of compost to improve the soil and act as a winter mulch and weed blocker.  

Yes, weeds grow in winter. Winter annuals such as chickweed, henbit, and speedwell love bare soil, germinating in late summer and fall and returning vigorously in spring.

Don’t let them get a toehold. Cover bare soil with compost, mulch, or a cover crop.

Cover crops are all the rage, a classic farming technique that’s discovered new life in gardening circles. Sown from seed, they block weeds and slow erosion.

Best of all, cover crops feed and improve soil. Their deep roots mine nutrients and their leaves, stems and roots break down to add organic matter when they are turned into the soil in spring.

Many cover crops can be planted in the fall. Which is best for your garden? Find out here: Cover Crops for Gardens.

crimson clover
Crimson clover is an attractive cover crop that improves soil. Photo:  Home & Garden Information Center

After I tend to my vegetable beds, I dig and divide perennials. Most perennials should be divided every 3 years. Just lift a clump, cut it into sections, and transplant and water well.

Resist the urge to cut back your perennials in the fall. They provide crucial overwintering sites for pollinators and food for birds and other wildlife. Only cut back plants that had serious disease or insect issues.

Fall is a time to put a tidy bow on the gardening season, to lay to rest your beds after you squeeze out the last harvests. Feel the change in the air, breathe deeply, and enjoy the delicious ache of a job well done.

By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension.

This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.

  

Goldenrods: The Garden Thyme Podcast

goldenrods episode of The Garden Thyme Podcast

Gold and yellow hues are the undeniable colors of autumn. In this episode of The Garden Thyme Podcast, we discuss one of our favorite yellow-blooming perennial plants – goldenrod. With its pretty yellow flowers, long blooming seasons, and high wildlife value, what is not to love about these fantastic native plants? Mikaela also counts down her top pick of goldenrods for different gardens (~17:10). Her goldenrod bloom chart can be found here.

We also have our: 

  • Native Plant of the Month – Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) (~22:45)
  • Bug of the Month – Goldenrod Bunch Gall Midge  (~33:35)
  • Garden Tips of the Month (~39:15)

If you have any garden-related questions, please email us at UMEGardenPodcast@gmail.com or look us up on Facebook.

For more information about the University of Maryland Extension (UME) and these topics, please check out the UME Home and Garden Information Center.

The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Senior Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture, Rachel Rhodes- Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne’s County), and Emily Zobel-Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County).

Theme Song: By Jason Inc 

Beyond Broccoli Part Two: What’s Up with Brassicas?

Welcome back to Beyond Broccoli! Last month I posted about how the genus Brassica is classified and grouped, and where the plants come from in the world. Now let’s talk about what characteristics the brassicas have in common. Here’s some of what they share as a group:

  • An origin in temperate regions. These species originated in Europe and Asia, and most of them prefer to grow in cooler weather.
  • Thousands of years of cultivation and breeding. They’ve been part of humanity’s diet for a long time, and have great cultural significance in many regions.
  • Some physical similarities. I mentioned the cross-shaped (cruciferous) flower in the last post. Brassica seed leaves (cotyledons) have a characteristic heart shape, and seeds are generally small and round. We’ll explore leaf pigments and other commonalities in later posts.
Seed leaves of mustard
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We are still alive! How to protect pollinators in the slow season

Even when they look dry and “dead,” our green spaces are full of life. When we think about plants, for example, we can see that herbaceous perennials seem dry but they are actually just retreating underground, while annuals continue their life cycle by spending the winter as seeds in the ground. The same is true for other organisms that live in our green spaces: squirrels become less active, snakes retreat to sheltered spaces, and insects may overwinter as adults underground or in crevasses or as juveniles in their nests or chrysalises. Among these insects, there is a particular group that we seem to take a lot of effort to protect in season, but that we may then forget about in the fall and winter: our pollinators. In today’s post, I would like to talk about some specific ways that allow us to take care of our green spaces in the fall, all while continuing to support these organisms we worked so hard to support throughout the growing season.

Where are our pollinators in the winter?

As we mentioned in a previous post, pollinators don’t disappear in the winter. Instead, they either migrate to warmer conditions (like monarchs do; check out this website to know where they are now!) or stick around and overwinter right here in protected spaces such as crevasses, underground nests, and within plant stems. If we have been enjoying supporting them throughout the season, it may be a good idea to continue to do so also throughout the winter. Let’s see some ways to do this.

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Fall Colors: The Garden Thyme Podcast

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Fall is almost here, and we are ready. Nothing signals the start of fall like the changing of the leaves. In this episode, we discuss what causes the leaves to change color. It was also really hard to choose, but we picked our top 5 trees with the best fall color.  We also have some suggestions for shrubs, grasses, and flowers that make great additions to the garden in the fall. 

We also have our: 

  • Native Plant of the Month – New England Aster ( ~37:22 )
  • Bug of the Month – Paper wasps (~41:30)
  • Garden Tips of the Month  (~49:15)

The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Senior Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture, Rachel Rhodes- Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne’s County), and Emily Zobel-Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County).

Theme Song: By Jason Inc

Brighten your garden with fall-blooming perennials

Mum’s the word. Or is it?

Chrysanthemums are ubiquitous, popping up in gardens, on doorsteps, by mailboxes and storefronts, a sure sign of fall.  

I have a soft spot for the tumble of peach-toned blooms that are Sheffield mums. Naughty kids that bumble over other blooms in rowdy heaps, they are gorgeous and reliably hardy, unlike many other mums. But why limit yourself – and your garden – to mums? Many other perennials jazz up the fall garden, adding delicious colors, textures, and scents.

Aptly named by Carl Linnaeus after the Latin word for “star,” asters boast abundant daisy-like flowers in pink, purple, blue, or white. Ranging from one to six feet tall, they fit every garden. Two-foot ‘Purple Dome’ needs no staking, but taller varieties such as the striking native New England aster need support to avoid the dreaded flop. 

I have a thing for anemones. Their delicate flowers dance in the slightest breeze. Single or double blooms in white, pink, or lavender float on tall stems like leggy chorus girls. Also attractive are anemone’s seed heads: fluffy cotton balls sprinkled with seeds. Kids love to play with them. Me, too. 

Goldenrods stretch their arms through gardens in late summer and fall, adding a flash of gold. Tall airy types abound as do compact cultivars such as ‘Golden Fleece.’ Ten native goldenrods thrive here.

Scoliid wasp on chives

The garlic chives in our demonstration garden are going bonkers, their white pom-poms bustling with pollinators. A clump-forming perennial herb, its flowers and leaves are edible.

Garlic chives produce abundant seeds, so be ruthless in cutting off their flower heads before they go to seed. And yes, you can get your jollies by shouting, “Off with their heads!” My apologies to Lewis Carroll. 

Call them commoners, but native black-eyed Susans are tough broads that look good in fall. Their golden blooms surround a dark “eye” that fills with seeds to feed birds and other wildlife. 

Maryland’s state flowers, they are often marked “vigorous” on plant tags, meaning they tend to spread. So place them carefully with other robust plants or let them go unbridled in a wilder area.  

Leave black-eyed Susans’ stems standing to add winter interest. In fact, leave all of your perennials standing except those that had serious disease or insect issues or are spreading beyond reason.  

Why? Beneficial insects overwinter in their stems and under fallen leaves. Their seeds provide food for wildlife and their structure offers cover. So wait to cut perennials back until spring.  

Fall is here. I hope I’ve inspired you to look beyond mums to rev up the color, impact, and wildlife value of your fall garden.    

By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension. This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.

This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media.

Cover crops for climate-resilient soil: Try it, you might like it

Cover crops are so important for improving soil and protecting the environment that it’s public policy in Maryland to use federal funding to subsidize farmers to plant them. Nearly ½ a million acres across the state are enrolled in Maryland’s Cover Crop Program. Cover crops protect Maryland’s farm fields from soil loss over the winter and scavenge the soil for the fertilizer nutrients that weren’t used by corn and soybean crops and might have moved into groundwater and surface water. 

Cover crops are typically planted from late August through October and include grasses like winter rye, winter wheat, barley, and oats and legumes like crimson clover and hairy vetch. Plants in the legume family, together with special soil bacteria, transform nitrogen from air into a plant-available form. Tillage radish (a type of daikon radish) and other plants are also grown as cover crops. 

Cover crops improve soil health and help make soils more resilient to the climate crisis. They

  • increase soil organic matter and carbon sequestration by feeding soil microbes with sugars and other root exudates 
  • improve soil structure and the strength of soil aggregates which lowers erosion risks
  • increase water holding capacity which allows crops to withstand drought better   

Cover crops use the sun’s energy (when food crops aren’t growing) to produce biomass- roots, shoots, and leaves. The cover crops are killed in the spring. Nutrients in the decomposing plants are eventually available for uptake by the roots of the vegetables and flowers we plant. This reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers, whose production requires fossil fuels.

What’s good for ag soils is also good for garden soils! 2022 is the Year of Soil Health for Grow It Eat It, the food gardening program of the UME Master Gardener program. This infographic by Jean Burchfield introduces the idea of planting cover crops, a key practice in building healthy soils: 

Infographic about cover crops

Photo of seed packets
UME Master Gardeners distributed 5,000 crimson clover seed packets for residents to plant in flower and vegetable beds this fall.
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