Most of us occasionally do everything else we can think of to avoid doing what we know we should be doing – whether that is doing laundry before writing a newspaper story, shopping before cleaning the house, or taking a nap before cleaning up sad old tomato plants.
Unfortunately, that’s what time it is – time to start cleaning out those spring and summer plants that for months brought us so much optimism, joy, salads and even meals.
Some of us nurtured them from seed to transplant, from starter-in-a-tray to six-foot-high fruit-bearing vine. We gave them our love and lust, passion and precision, care and cuddling.
And our veggies usually gave back – gave of their very beings, and gave their lives, spent with fertile productivity, from tiny, budding flowers to pollinated blossom and bulging fruit.
Those of us who tried not to water had varied results, and feared we were depriving our pet plants of their juices of life. Dry-farmed tomatoes can be super tasty, as many people found, and often turned out to be much more thick skinned than we, their nurturing gardeners.
While leaves falling and vegetable plants wilting can be depressing, they can signal our own hibernation (this is where the nap comes in) or signs of new opportunity.
My glass is always half full. So while I would love a nap, I see the raking and sweeping of leaves (as opposed to gas blowers) as a transition, and a chance to pile them up to compost and make rich, natural soil and fertilizer for perennial plants and next year’s veggies.
While I hate to see this year’s tomatoes and zucchini plants go, and it pains me to pull them out of the ground or to cut those last roses, I’m practically salivating to begin cleaning up debris to create a fresh start.
As you trim your dead rosebuds, start to cut them back a little farther than usual, giving yourself an eventual boost on the pruning process in December or January.
Soon you will see various bulbs in nurseries, garden stores and even big-box stores. Crocuses, daffodils, Dutch irises, freesias, homeria, hyacinths and tulips all do well in Sonoma Valley. Some people put tulip, crocus and hyacinth bulbs in their refrigerator’s vegetable drawer in a paper bag (and not among your veggies) to chill them, apparently to emulate weather in the Netherlands or somewhere, but it really isn’t necessary. For a couple of years I actually removed mine from the soil and replaced them in the fridge, but I didn’t see any more flowers as a result than when I just left them in the ground.
Garlic has not arrived in our nurseries yet, but when it does, go for it for a great crop next summer. Remember, elephant garlic isn’t more garlicky. It’s just bigger and has absorbed more water, so it’s actually milder in flavor than what we know as garlic. More on garlic varieties when they are actually available.
Most petunias have nearly pooped out and are producing a few bright blooms at the ends of long struggling stems. When you can handle it, pull them out of pots or gardens. If planting in pots, completely replace the dirt with new potting soil if you can, because miniscule mites and bugs may have laid their eggs and will gobble those tender baby roots once you plant some more color to cheer up yourself and your garden.
For now, you can color-up your garden with annuals such as pansies, primulas or primroses, chrysanthemums, and maybe even snapdragons and stocks. I often plant the latter two in November and December and, with trimming, stretch their fertile productivity for months. I began that custom when we were teaching at the University of British Columbia and wanted to come home for “spring break” in early February to some fun and color after a bleak Vancouver winter.
Veggie growers can see bright lights at the end of the winter tunnel even before entering it by planting colorful fall and winter “starts” of chards, of which I found four varieties at Sonoma Mission Gardens.
Fill winter doldrums with Broccoli Munchkin (love the name), Broccoli De Ciccio, Waltham 29 or Marathon broccoli and Broccoflower; Savoy Perfections, Red Mammoth or Golden Ace cabbages; Walla Walla or torpedo red onion starts; kohlrabi, collard greens and kale; Snowball or Snow King cauliflower; pak choi, Chinese cabbage, and radicchio; and loads of lettuces from a “sweet mix” to a variety of romaines and European mesclun mixes.
Jessica Daly of Sonoma Mission Gardens advises that gardeners “get ready to spray roses and fruit trees in a month or so,” if you do that. I don’t, and my plants and fruit trees are quite happy, and squirrels, birds, raccoons and skunks (phew!) like the garden as well, thank you very much.
Daly does pass on some great rose news: Right now SMG has a rose sale going on to clear out this year’s batch for bare root roses set to arrive in January. If you buy two roses, you get one free. If you don’t have room for three new roses in good sun, you can opt for a 33 percent discount on one or two rose plants. Great opportunity.
“Long experience has taught me that whereas people will take advice about love, and about money, and about nearly all the problems which beset us in life, they will scarcely ever take advice about their gardens. Well…it may not really matter much, so long as they love them.” – Beverly Nichols, from Garden Open Tomorrow.
Get down! Get dirty!
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When in doubt, take a nap!
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