Fall – an unsung second spring?

Today the sky is leaden gray and sodden.  My general inclination is to crawl onto the couch with a good book and while away the hours in front of a fire; perhaps nap.  My idea of productive on a day like this involves baking or turning apples from my tree into some tasty apple butter…or pie.

The idea that I would motivate myself to go outdoors and garden is just crazy talk!  Yet that is exactly what I wrote in my latest article that appears in the NW edition of Angie’s List Magazine.

Fall in the Pacific Northwest is prime gardening season, sort of an unsung second spring. Returning rains quench the dry garden and finally relieve us after this exceptionally hot and dry summer. Plants and the soil respond with fresh vigor. That makes NOW the perfect time to spruce up the landscape and get a jump on next season.

“Quenching rain” and “responding vigor” aside, it’s hard to make myself go out there.  Soggy wet gloves and muddy clothes that chill to the bone are not my idea of a productive day in the garden.  The warm golden days of the near past are still too fresh in my mind.  Give me a few months of this dreary weather and I’ll be so housebound and cooped up that even a foray out into inclement weather will be preferable to yet another overheated, dusty day at my keyboard.

My article (oh so smugly) continues:

• Take a look around your garden — while this growing season is still fresh in your mind — and assess what worked. If anything was disappointing, rip it out. 

(fortunately I can comfortably view both the front garden as well as the back from key windows indoors where my trusty pen and paper – and me – remain dry)

• I can never have enough spring blooming bulbs. Shop local nurseries now for the best selection of tulip, daffodil, crocus and other so-called minor bulbs, and your garden dollars will go much further than purchasing already potted bulbs in tempting full bloom next spring.

(alas, my many bags of choice, plump bulbs haunt my conscious just beyond my desk; the clock is ticking and the sooner I get them in the ground the sooner they’ll begin to root out and grow)

But my primary garden task this fall is to dig and divide my mature clumps of Hosta.  These sturdy perennials can remain in the border for years without much attention, but in my experience, no other plant responds so quickly to division and multiplying.  It’s nothing shy of magical garden math.

Using a garden fork or spade, simply dig mature perennials from the garden and place on a tarp so you can see your work. Using a sharp spade, split the plant into several smaller sections. Discard the less-productive, sometimes woody, center of the clump and retain the new growth around the edges. Replant the divisions in well-amended garden soil. Water them well and prepare to be astounded at how quickly the little plants swell to the size of their parent plant. Trade extras with friends and neighbors in an informal plant swap, which is like turning tired plants into garden gold.

The truly motivated gardeners among us can go here to read my entire article for other satisfying and profoundly simple tasks that benefit the fall garden.  Me?  At least for today, I think I’ll stick with pie.

Tagged as: angie's list, autumn, hosta