The year is winding down: November weather and frosts, time change, elections, the holidays — this year it almost seems like impossible overload.
Buy trees and shrubs
Fall sales are a chance to buy perennials, shrubs, and trees at alluring prices, as nurseries and garden centers reduce inventory for winter.
Sometimes this is the chance to acquire a plant that has been long desired as a garden addition. Although a sale tree or shrub may have struggled, having been left behind through the season (sad little “Charlie Brown tree”), it can rebound and become an asset when well chosen and sited, and planted and cared for.
“Plant it high; it won’t die. Plant it low; it won’t grow” is one of those gardening adages that contain much truth, despite its unexpected conclusion. The surprise is assuming that “planting low” is preferable, when in fact it is not.
Planting guidelines correctly also ask for a wide hole, as opposed to a deep one. Being able to spread roots widely is preferable for the tree or shrub: that is, not having them bunched up straight down in a deep planting hole. A squarish planting hole, with corners, is often suggested as a way to discourage circling roots, which tend to strangle or girdle the tree over time.
Products containing mycorrhizae, such as Bio-tone, sprinkled in the planting hole may help with establishment; do not add fertilizer. Backfill and puddle in to eliminate air pockets; a dam around the planting hole to prevent water running off is helpful. Evergreens may be sprayed with antidesiccant.
Mulching around a newly installed plant is usually good. However, leave a gap of at least three inches between mulch and trunks; smothering mulch around them may invite gnawing by rodents or bark disease. Mulching insulates soil so root growth takes place. Water daily for the first week; weekly for the first month, and thereafter when convenient.
Planning a live Christmas tree? Choose and excavate the planting site now. When the tree needs to be removed from the heated house as soon as possible after the holidays, you will feel like a genius having the hole already prepared.
Siting trees
Although these are educated guesses, climate instability means more heat and variable rainfall, and likelihood of strengthened storms. However, educated tree choice and siting decisions are also helpfully at our disposal.
For a tree’s future growth, in addition to the mentioned “high/low” planting adage, another tree planting meme is visualizing it as a wine glass sitting on a tray. The wineglass is the mature tree; the tray is the area of future tree root-run.
There are good reasons to learn about your purchase’s growth habit. Is it a shallow-rooting species? Does it root deeply, widely, or form a taproot? Where are septic fields, electrical and water lines located? Is the tree known for roots that hump up sidewalks and driveways? Will the tree eventually shade the wrong part of the garden or house, or fill gutters with debris?
Much as I deplore the Island’s galloping suburbanization with larger houses on smaller lots, these are reasons that smaller trees are more frequently needed and chosen. Find a tree that works for you and enhances your garden, and if possible, plant a noble one.
Woodlands create rainfall; trees’ roots enhance its infiltration to the water table. We need all the trees we can plant.
Berried ornamentals, and seedy natives
And right on cue, as summer came to a close, nandina, hollies, magnolia pods, and skimmia fruits began to color up. They look Christmassy already, and bring decorative value to winter gardens. Fruits contribute to wildlife support.
Not that gardeners wish to cultivate them, but the value of the local greenbrier species Smilax glauca (sawbrier) and S. rotundifolia (catbrier, greenbrier) to bird life can be measured by the numbers of seedlings raising their heads above the soil line, along with seedlings of non-native oriental bittersweet, English ivy, and privet.
In the garden
The last roses of the season are still blooming.
I shall be sad to lose garden-fresh tomatoes. While I was initially unimpressed by ‘Mountain Magic,’ a largish cocktail tomato, I have now become its fan. The indeterminate plants are healthy, despite receiving lower-than-ideal levels of light. They bore early, and are still bearing. The skins are tough, which means less splitting, although fruits are sweet.
The ‘Vit’ mache that was allowed to bolt in spring is now a carpet of excellent salad makings (individual plants are small). Not only do humans love it, but the recently hatched baby goslings I ordered by mail love it too.
With leaf fall, the almost defunct nests of various paper and hunting wasps begin to be revealed. Some nests are impressively large. Learn to see these animals as garden allies before reaching for the “kills bugs” spray can. They are predators of insect life considered to be problematic in gardens.
Pensive moments and antidotes
This year, as with past ones, community members who have crossed the bar leave holes in the fabric of Island life. I think of Gus Ben David and his words, “There is one universal religion — it’s called kindness.” And Geoff Currier, who was copied on many Garden Notes columns I submitted to this paper over the years; I wished I could emulate the lightness of his writing voice and style.
In the aftermath of two young Islanders’ unthinkable deaths a year ago, I read a piece published originally in the New Yorker, about a mother’s coming to terms with her son’s death. She planted tulips, and so did I. It seemed the only antidote to the irreversible loss that had occurred.
Get your spring bulbs into the ground. They bring incomparable solace and anticipation to all lives. Maybe plant a few extras this year.
