It’s hard to believe, but today is February 15th and I worked in my garden! In Chicagoland! In 60-degree weather! Every so often we are blessed with a winter day that isn’t frigid and ca-ching, I’m out there.
This really works out since I’m the one who doesn’t do much garden clean-up in October. I like to leave something out there for the snow to land on because flat is boring. The pollinators appreciate it too, with seed-heads remaining and a place for beneficial insects to overwinter.
Fortunately, I had nice new gardening gloves, complements of the Wheaton Garden Club. I spoke for them Thursday about Winter Interest, and the gloves were in my goodie bag. Maybe Ronnie knew what was coming. As you can see, they don’t look so new anymore.
We are very deliberate in what we cut this early. Mostly just grasses and annuals. Certainly nothing that could be damaged by freshly cut stems that freeze, like roses. Ands nothing that disturbs new growth, like autumn joy sedum that had tiny sprouts.
Brown is a color, and I accept it for winter. Not today, I am already thinking spring. The sweet autumn clematis came down.
Mike got in the act too. Notice – He isn’t even wearing long sleeves. Woohoo! Yes, it was time for the kale to go. It holds out pretty well through at least December. But it was very done today.
I have to admit I have had enough gardening by October anyway. But today, today! The sun was shining and there was no keeping me inside.
Wow – I had so many beautiful dahlias to pick from today. I wanted 5 to give away tonight when I give a dahlia presentation. You will quickly see why the presentation is called “Living fireworks”. Here are the blooms I am going to share.
HollyHill Big PinkKetchup and MustardKelvin FloodlightNeon SplendorThomas Edison
Our tri-color mum from Costco was a WOW last year, so we were so excited to see Costco has them in again, and only $17.99. Here is how it looked last year, and we look forward to that again.
We bought the new one last week, with high expectations once we saw all the buds.
Want one? Head over to Costco cuz once they are gone, they are really gone!
Our Steve Meggos dahlia is the first to bloom and it’s a beauty. Of course, so many are beauties that we grow 65 plants. Wanna see lots and lots and lots of quality dahlias in bloom? Come to the National Dahlia Show at Chicago Botanic Gardens on September 20 and 21. You can even say hi to Mike and me while you are there. See the Central States Dahlia Society Site for details.
Steve Meggos Dahlia
And here are a few tidbits about our garden per the photo below:
Our dahlias are budding up. Its time!
The plants vary in size. They should all be tall by now, but you just never know.
BE SURE to give them a big hug with twine like ours. We just wrap the whole plant, not individual stems. We didn’t lose any in the big storms recently.
And lest you think its just dahlias in our garden, nope. There is so much more to see, like these.
Don’t even get me started on invasive plants. There are way too many for my liking. But (isn’t there always a “but”), we all pick our poisons. In this case, I do not mean actual poisons so much as the two invasive plants I am willing to put up with. The two that I enjoy so much that I am willing to put in the extra work to control them. Yes, more work than I am generally volunteering for these days, but we all need to decide what is worth the work to us, and what isn’t.
Let me warn you, the picture below is scary and you may not be able to unsee it. It shows you what happened the year we let cleome have its way.
It was totally cool. It is also something that we have NEVER let happen again. Here we have this year’s photo. Still a lot of cleome, but a lovely border to the path.
The magic is two part. One, grow it in a contained area. Mine is only “sort of” contained. The path on the right does let a few cleome grow, and some do try to sneak in on the left. Two, I need to be diligent in snagging the young seedlings when I walk past. Note I said diligent, and I mean it. No digging, just pull the babies out. They are really easy to recognize, and for the beautiful border I get, I am willing.
I also let larkspur live. As long as it pops up where I want it. Again, a controlled area, this time with grass on one side and a path on the other, and a recognizable seedling to pull, Its a “memory plant” for me. You know, the kind of plant that comes with memories. The seeds came from Betty, my vice-president at the Elk Grove Garden Club many years ago. Seeing the larkspur reminds me of Betty, who has long since retired to Florida.
So, there you have it. My true confession that I simply can’t always opt for easy in my garden.
We’ve grow a lot of dahlias, and we have learned a lot during the 25 year trek.
We have made it easier on ourselves, and by “ourselves”, I mostly mean Mike. Our 40 tubers will still make enough sprouts to create 200 plants to grow ourselves and to share.
Nothing says you have to start your dahlia tubers inside, or make multiple plants from each. Feel free to wait till after frost to put them directly in the ground. Be sure to plan ahead and put in a support like rebar right away. Now that’s really easy.
For us though, we want an early start and lots of plants. We get a great return on our easier process for starting them inside, so I’ll share. Its kinda the “necessity is the mother of invention” rule. Separating the tubers and finding a gazillion pots to start them in was just to much work. Here’s the secret in a nutshell: don’t separate the tubers, just plop the whole tuber in dollar store turkey roasters with some potting medium. Sometimes the tubers are so big that its one tuber per turkey roaster, often its two per roaster.
Yes, conventional knowledge has you separating the tubers, looking for eyes on them, and planting each portion in a separate pot. We have learned that the tubers will do what God intended them to do. They don’t need as much help from us at that early stage. Not sure? Take a look, here is our basement now:
When a sprout is about 3″ tall, Mike will cut it off.
For us, the cutting goes in oasis in a tray of many. They will go into pots once they have roots. Just a few? A plastic or Styrofoam cup with potting soil will do. Add a plastic cup top like Frank did years ago and you have a mini greenhouse.
Lots of light, some water, some patience, and you are off to a great start.
Its time! Its time! The coming of spring sure brightens my spirits. It wasn’t even a tough winter, and its not even quite spring, but the sunshine and temperature made me feel like was spring one day last week. For those of us who garden, this is a much awaited time. For those who don’t garden, well, they just may miss all of the excitement. We had a 60 degree sunny day, last week. I could hardly wait to get out there with my garden wagon full of tools, and my dog.
Now, don’t go crazy and start doing all kinds of garden tasks. For example, if I had trimmed my rose bushes, the new growth would die from the frost we will still be getting. But look at this, new growth where I cut down the autumn joy sedum. The old stems are out of the way for the new growth, and I know they won’t care about the weather. We also brought the coal buckets up from the basement. The daffodils clearly know its time to move along. If I get fearful of a really cold snap, I can bring them in.
Grasses as a big deal for us. Some look great over the winter, some just topple over. Oh well, they all get to try again next year. We especially like leaving the grass behind this planter. We even leave the mums. Something for the snow to land on.
Are we done? Far from it! I will consider us to have arrived when the shed doesn’t look like this. But done? Never!
Yep, I got your attention with fast, easy, and cheap. After all, who doesn’t want Christmas guests to be impressed with your holiday decorating acumen even before they come in the house?
I change the look of this planter every season, so that change really does have to be fast, easy, and cheap.
The birch branches stay from season to season.
The plastic evergreen branches and red plastic berries get reused every winter.
The live evergreen branches and pinecones are from my yard.
The snowman made from a branch has a dollar store hat and a ribbon. I do plan to change out the ribbon to something that says “winter”, not “Christmas” so I can leave him in longer.
The sign and truck came from the dollar store too. The sign can stay way past Christmas, because unfortunately, “Baby its cold outside” lasts well into March here is Chicago.
So get to it…a fast, easy, and cheap planter that you can make.
A tomato cage does not have to be ugly. Or boring. Or not strong enough. Yep, we’ve got the solution. Take a look. My gosh, its even upcycled. I’m not sure what the sides were in a past life, but they definitely weren’t from a tomato cage. You get the idea though, maybe you could use old trellises or fence pieces.
We reuse it every year, and every few years the paint needs a touch up. One other great thing about it is that we can rearrange the horizontal rebar as needed. See, they just stick through the decorative scrolls and we can move them up as the plants grow.
We couldn’t ask for more. They even store flat. Give me a few minutes and I could probably think of more pluses. But you get the idea, so go treasure hunting and make your own.
