DUSTIN’ THE GARDEN
Sawdust, Great Stuff
Some years one of my last gardening activities for the season is ‘dusting. ‘Dusting can always wait till spring, but then the weather rushes me along with so many other activities. Now I’m not talking about ‘dusting in the usual sense, which is getting rid of it. The kind of ‘dusting I’m talking about is adding dust — as sawdust.
Sawdust is a terrific material for enriching the soil with humus, which sawdust eventually becomes. Leaves, straw, hay, and other once-living things can also do this and do it well, but sawdust has the advantage that it is weed-free and the small particles mix intimately with the soil. Another advantage of sawdust is that its beneficial effects in the ground last a relatively long time.
Sawdust mulched blueberries
Sawdust is also cheap, often free for the hauling, from sawmills, lumberyards, or from your or a friend’s workshop. Read more
CROCUS THAT ISN’T
Startling Beauty
Autumn’s crocus is worth planting if for nothing more than to startle your neighbors. When they ask how come your crocuses are blooming this time of year, just smile and say it’s an early spring.
A bed of autumn crocus does more than just startle, of course; it also paints the fall landscape in soft, bold swatches of lavender, pink, or white blossoms. And, if you so desired, that paint job, depending on species planted, could have begun as far back as August. Not such a bad idea at that, because many flower gardens temporarily sulk in August, waiting to revive in the moist coolness of autumn.
My late summer crocus blooms come from a bulb called colchicum, which is not really a crocus species at all. The plant is called autumn crocus because its blossoms do look like those of crocuses, crocuses on steroids. Read more
PLANT A TREE, NOW?
The ending of Joyce Kilmer’s ode to trees, “only God can make a tree,” may be true enough (as was Woody Allen’s addendum “probably because it’s so hard to figure out how to get the bark on”). But for good growth once a tree is made, it is for us mortals to step in and plant correctly.
Fall is usually the best time of year to plant most trees. The ground is soft and moist — perfect for digging. Nurseries have fresh trees. And roots have time to establish themselves before stems begin growing next spring.
Kinds of Nursery Trees
Nurseries offer trees three ways. “Bare root” trees are dug from fields as soon as their leaves drop, then the roots are packed in wet sawdust or other moist material. Transplant shock is minimized if the tree isn’t too big (I consider four or five feet tall to be ideal), spends minimum time out of the ground, and — of course — is planted correctly. Bare root trees are the least expensive kinds of nursery trees, and, because they are easily shipped, are available in greatest variety. Read more
