Mornings with dewy grass. Raspberries and peppers heavily laden with fruit. A squirrel scampering across the road with a pignut. Beetlebung in ruddy groups against still-green oak and sassafras. The autumnal equinox ushers fall’s shorter days and longer nights.
Drought continues. The recent rain was meager: spotty and uneven across the Island, the merest 0.25 of an inch in our West Tisbury rain gauge.
Developments of regional impact equaling 500 new bedrooms on a finite Island are under consideration. Water quantity and quality needs to be weighed closely by down-Island water departments; recharge and usage are unbalanced.
Caterpillar season
This colorful beauty (pictured) was seen feeding for a number of days on a ‘Monte Cassino’ garden aster. I snapped its picture, and to ID it took the easy route: asking Matt Pelikan of “Wild Side” and BiodiversityWorks if he knew it, which he did. I also equally could have asked Suzan Bellincampi of the Gazette’s “All Outdoors.” Both of these local experts are generous in sharing their knowledge.
Interesting is that the caterpillar is far more colorful and eye-catching than the adult it becomes: the brown-hooded owlet moth, Cucullia convexipennis, a creature possibly beneath notice around the porch light. The caterpillars feed on goldenrods and asters, as this one was doing.
Moths and butterflies are doing their best to reproduce for the next generation. If you enjoy their presence in your gardens, please think twice and decline the all-property spraying being advertised for tick and mosquito prevention. Ecosystems and all categories of insects are harmed by indiscriminate approaches.
It may seem tiresome, but it needs repeating: Indiscriminate spraying harms all insects, and possibly ourselves. Butterflies and moths were once caterpillars. If you love them, learn to tolerate caterpillars! If you fear ticks, take measures to protect your own person: Tick check daily.
Cedar and apple rust
Lawn specimen suddenly leafless and sick-looking? Alternate cycles of the cedar and apple rust organism are becoming apparent. Apples, hawthorns, and crabapples are afflicted. Read more about this fungal connection at bit.ly/PSU_RustsOnOrnamentals.
Closely related members of the Gymnosporangium fungal family cause diseases, cedar/quince, cedar/hawthorn, and Japanese apple rusts, which in one phase afflicts members of the very extensive Roseacae. The alternate hosts are junipers. These cases are becoming noticeable now, likely exacerbated by drought. Resistant varieties have been bred; check for resistance when choosing plants.
Fall planting
Speaking of choosing plants, fall is a great season for Island planting. Garden centers conduct sales, and planting conditions are optimal. Temperature ranges remain steady during the long Island autumn. Warm soil and cooler days let roots grow while reducing plant stress. Increased rainfall — we hope — can be expected, simplifying aftercare.
Tisbury School playground
Check out some interesting plantings at the playground of the renovated Tisbury School. It is especially nice to see the Oxydendrum arboreum and sumacs.
Oxydendrum are well adapted to Vineyard conditions, preferring acidic soils. Although not historically native here, oxydendrum are native North American trees, and are assets to their locations. They have strong fall color to welcome students back to school, and strong root systems, once established, to make them drought-resistant.
In addition to the oxydendrum and sumac are plantings of inkberry, bayberry, and switchgrass. The river birches and other trees are also nicely chosen.
Dahlia flower harvesting
To get the most flowers from dahlia plants, cut flowers down two nodes from the blossom, thus sacrificing the two side-shoot buds. Cutting correctly leads to stockier plants with more flowers. Not doing this, to seemingly spare the two side buds, leads to lopsided, elongated growth with fewer, not more, blooms, and short-stemmed bouquets.
Lazy gardening?
Readers of “Garden Notes” know there is a way of gardening that is easy on gardeners who work, or are away from their gardens more than they would wish. This way includes observation: what stage and where the garden is, seasonally, and how those stages can be used to advantage. It includes the stages of reproduction through seeding.
So in spring, when showy biennials and short-lived perennials are flowering, aware (and lazy) gardeners allow maturing of some of their seedheads, to ensure next year’s junior plants.
Likewise in vegetable gardens: let lettuce, chicories, cilantro, and dill go to seed. You will see their offspring germinating as soon as weather conditions turn cooler.
Do like the French, whose filet/haricots verts in potagers sound so much more gourmet than “string beans,” and for whom leeks are culinary mainstays. Leeks are well-adapted to Island conditions, and supply an important component to winter soups and other dishes. Every year, I let some leeks flower.
Not only are leeks pollinator magnets, but also the heavy flowerheads bend down and sprout hairy green heads for next year’s leeks, effortlessly. This is how a heritage leek, ‘Bleu de Solaise,’ which has the deep blue-violet leaves that signify cold-hardiness, has perpetuated itself in my garden.
Not only cold-hardy but beautiful as well, seedlings of ‘Bleu de Solaise,’ when planted with their chevrons in alignment, make a decorative statement in beds. There is no reason why vegetable gardens cannot be as beautiful and aesthetically pleasing as flower gardens.
Two books the library can procure for you, if you are interested, are Joy Larkcom’s “The Salad Garden” and Louisa Jones’ “The Art of French Vegetable Gardening,” two books devoted to decorative vegetable gardens. Read an interview with Joy Larkcom at bit.ly/TEG_LarkcomInterview.
In the garden
Dig, move, or give away plants that have shown themselves to be in need of division, awkward where grown, or generally annoying. Sharpen up bed edges.
Clip evergreen hedges while mild fall conditions help plants recover. Clip iris foliage. Cover crop where possible, or cover with mulch. Compost everything that once was alive: life into death into life. Prep garlic beds. Order spring bulbs.
