Timely Tips from Over the Garden Fence

You can catch George Wedel on Over the Garden Fence, 9:05 am Saturdays on AM 590 WKZO. And return here each week at www.wedels.com for the latest in Wedel's timely tips.

TIMELY GARDEN TIPS FROM OVER THE GARDEN FENCE SEPTEMBER 27, 2003 God blessed us with the immeasurable benefit of a soaking rain this week. This rainfall was needed so much and will help our native plants enter the dormant season in better conditions. The needed moisture is also a boon to gardeners, encouraging serious fall planting. Recently unirrigated soils were rock hard and difficult to shovel. Now, we can plant almost anywhere. This week at our nursery farm, Larry Wedel and his crew have been digging some of the best arborvitae, spruce, and pine evergreens I've ever seen. These evergreens, along with many other nursery fresh trees and shrubs, are now displayed at the garden center all ready to move to your home. Digging up and dividing perennial plants, planting trees, evergreens, and shrubs, fertilizing lawns, planting spring flowering bulbs, and sowing grass seed are but a few lawn and garden chores that will result in more success now that the soil is moistened. Another benefit of fall gardening, is that it gives us a "jump on spring". Planting now gives your new plantings time to establish a healthy root system before the rigors of next summer. Which reminds me, this is a great time to set out pansy plants. Annual plants, such as petunias, verbena, and impatiens, are losing their brilliance rapidly now. Why not replace them with pansies? Fall planted pansy plants will bloom immediately and continually through winter and spring. Don't settle for a garden without flowers every month; plant pansies now. For extra fun and color, plant pansies with your favorite tulips. First, work up the soil mixing in some perlite or clay soil conditioner for added drainage. Then plant tulips six inches deep with Bulb Booster fertilizer under each bulb. Next, cover with soil and then plant pansy plants seven inches apart on top of the tulips. Water the new planting and just wait for a most interesting and beautiful flower bed. For a splash of blue or pink in your garden now and for many autumns to come, try some colchicum bulbs. If planted now, meadow saffron, or colchicum, will add an interesting touch of color to the fall garden after the vibrant blooms of summer flowers have faded. These pale pink flowers are quick to bloom, often popping up a few weeks after planting. Colchicum are low-growing and look best planted at the front of a border or in naturalized settings. Colchicums are considered perennials and can be expected to bloom for many years. The most famous of these is crocus Sativus, the saffron crocus. You know the spice that is so expensive that some grocery stores keep it under lock and key? You can grow it in your very own garden; and while you may not get enough saffron to make you rich, you'll have a thread to two - enough for most recipes - and a patch of lovely garden flowers as well. While you're busy beautifying the garden and amazing your neighbors, how about checking out a plant that may amaze you as well, one that is so eager to bloom that if you forget to plant it and let it sit alone and forgotten on the counter, it will flower anyway. Because that's exactly what colchicum "The Giant" does. Colchicums look almost exactly like crocuses, but grow from a different sort of bulb. They send up foliage in spring that dies back almost before you notice it. And then, just when you've forgotten all about it, you'll look down and see a quantity of lilac flowers springing up. There is even a white waterlily colchicum, which looks so much like miniature waterlilies. Plant a bunch by the pond and watch people do double takes all autumn long. And to think that you thought that there were few surprises left in a garden! Try a few colchicums and you'll soon agree that God always seems to have one more trick up His sleeve just to surprise and delight us. It's time to cut back perennial plants that are going dormant. Some tips; leave six inch stalks to catch and hold mulch and snow, mark all plants with aluminum plant stakes, remove poor performers, leave seed stalks of cone flowers and rhudbeckia for the finches to feast on, and fertilize each perennial plant with Plant Tone now for more blooms next year. Now is the time to spread nylon bird repellent netting over landscape and garden features to shorten tree leaf clean up. Spread the nearly invisible netting over ground cover beds, spreading evergreens, garden pools, and low shrubs such as cotoneaster. Once or twice in October, shake off leaves and replace. What a time saver! Gardeners should consider caring for their concrete landscape fountains, benches, pots, birdbaths, and other decorative items soon. Potholes in our northern roadways remind us that extreme and rapid changes in temperature and humidity adversely affect concrete. Concrete expands and contracts with the temperature. Concrete fountains and other garden decorative items are made with weather in mind. The concrete mix contains fibers and other additives along with steel reinforcing. Under normal use, shrinkage cracks may appear on the surface. However, the fountain will not crack through, as long as one important rule is followed: do not allow water to collect and freeze in the bowl or allow the fountain to sit in a pool of ice. Shells and bowls exposed to icing may shale and crack due to the forces exerted by the ice. This is also true for concrete planters, terra cotta planters, and birdbaths. The best solution is to bring the concrete fountain indoors for the winter. If this is not possible, follow these steps to protect it from ice collection. 1.) Remove the statue and pump and store them inside. 2.) Turn the bowl upside down on the pedestal or fill the bowl with an absorbent material like burlap. 3.) Cover the entire fountain with heavy plastic and secure with twine or tape. Your fountain is now ready to withstand a cold Michigan winter. Protecting garden and landscape focal items before winter will extend their usefulness for many years. Most potato plants have died back in our vegetable gardens, which signals that it's time to dig up the harvest. This week's rain will make this job much easier and the tubers will keep better if dug now instead of waiting. After vegetables are harvested, mow down stalks with a rotary mower, rototill, then over seed garden with field rye. The field rye will protect soil over the winter and when plowed under in the spring will build up the organic level in the soil. Some morning soon, we will notice a light frost in our gardens. Just a tad of frost on the lawn is warning enough to dig up all tender bulb plants. Today would be a great day to lift up summer bulbs that will not take the cold weather. One of these nights real soon, we will be getting a killing frost. We should be sure to have our begonias, dahlias, cannas, and other tender bulbs dug before the soil cools down too far and frost injures the bulbs. If these bulbs get too cold, they won't store well over the winter. It is very important to be weather-wise right now. Dry the tubers and roots well and store them in a cool spot over winter. Stop into Wedel's for a complete bulb and tuber storage instruction sheet. There is still plenty of time to fertilize lawns with Scotts Super Winterizer. Don't miss the most important feeding of the year. Your lawn will respond with thicker turf, better color, and fewer weeds. Speaking of weeds, this is a great time to control all perennial and bi-annual broadleaf lawn weeds. Dandelion, buckhorn, chickweed, and fifty other broadleaf pests are best killed now with a spray of Weed-Out Broadleaf Lawn Weed Control. How fortunate we are to live in scenic Michigan, one of the best regions of the world, where brilliant autumn coloration of plant foliage occurs. Here we have the perfect climactic conditions that produce this brilliant phenomenon of nature. I feel the fall colors in our part of Michigan rival blossom time in spring. As the tree colors reach their peak, I hope all of you folks will get a chance to take a walk through the woods, the park, or down a shady lane and enjoy the kaleidoscope of autumn brilliance that God has blessed us with. If you would like to add a splash of this brilliant color to your landscape, now is an ideal time to plant. Some of the more showy trees that area available at Wedel's Nursery for autumn landscape planting are Scarlet Maple, Birch, Serviceberry, Sugar Maple, Sweet Gum, Ornamental Pear, White Ash, Dogwood, Pin Oak, Norway Maple, Gingko, Hawthorn, and Amur Ginnala Maple. Some of the colorful shrubs worth consideration are Euonymus, or burning bush, Viburnum, High Bush Cranberry, many varieties of cotoneaster, orange-berried Pyracantha, Nandina Firepower Bamboo, and Michigan Holly with its bright red fruit. Michigan's fall colors can't be matched. Plant autumn beauty in your landscape now to enjoy its brilliance for many autumns to come. I hope all of you are able to participate this week in the wonderful activity of gardening. You'll be in good company. More folks garden than any other outside leisure time activity. George Wedel

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