Jocelyne Sewell
A Gardener鈥檚 Diary
Another month is almost gone.
Lots of things to do in the garden and my most pressing one now is to plant my garlic.
A couple weeks ago, I worked some beds, harvested the rest of the vegetables, removed some weeds, added some compost and now the rain has made the soil ready.
I don鈥檛 have to use the pick to break the ground anymore.
Time to plant your garlic if you have not done so.
I put bone meal in the hole and bury the cloves so that the top of them is about two inches (five centimetres) in the soil. I plant them at a distance of five to six inches apart (12 to 15 cm) and cover the bed with compost or mulch.
Plant the biggest of the cloves and use the small ones for cooking. I plant some of my smaller ones on the bank with the other plants.
Somehow the deer left most of the tulips alone where I had garlic planted.
They don鈥檛 like peonies or irises and never touch them.
The Russian sage is food for the bees later in the season when most of the other flowers have faded and another one the deer don鈥檛 like.
I put my geraniums in the greenhouse as the nights were getting cooler. They are in full bloom but they will have to get inside as the temperature will drop a bit this week.
I plan to bring the potted fig trees into the house but for now they are in the greenhouse until I can make room for them inside.
My brugmansia (angel trumpet) still has 12 opened flowers and a few more buds ready to open if the weather permits.
This is a tropical plant and it is still outside but protected on the deck. Some of the leaves are getting yellow but I will remove them all when I bring them inside. They are very prone to white flies and this way I don鈥檛 have to fight it all winter. It will rest until April when I can bring it out again.
Before I bring the houseplants in, they all get treated with insecticidal soap just to make sure that I don鈥檛 bring in unwanted pests. Nothing like the heat in the house to wake them up.
I let some of the dill reseed itself in the beds and I just harvested some very healthy plants which I will dry.
The snapdragons of all shades are loving this cool weather and the sweet alyssums are just like a carpet on the ground.
Deer don鈥檛 like snapdragons so next year I will have more of them in the front yard.
This year, the deer have pruned the lilac bushes, sunflowers, the sand cherry and even my succulents that they had left alone until the middle of September.
I saved bags of dried grass clippings and will mulch most of the bed with them mixed with shredded leaves.
My round composters are protecting my fig trees in the garden. I place them over the plants and fill them up with leaves. I then put the lid on and they come back in the spring.
Last winter the plants died to the ground level but grew new shoots and I harvested lots of ripe figs. The last ones were just last week. I might try to move some of them as they need as much sun as possible but the two I planted in full sun were very productive.
For more information: 250-558-4556 jocelynesewell@gmail.com.
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