Spring is, without a doubt, the busiest time of the gardening year. Everything seems to burst into new life in the same short span of time. Plants grow at exponential rates. Weeds spring up even faster than that, especially onion grass. As if that isn’t bad enough, winter debris lurks everywhere and must be ferreted out. Grass starts to grow and shrubs, looking slovenly after winter’s worst, need attention.
Right now, though, I feel as if autumn is the year’s greatest challenge. Leaves are everywhere, the grass still needs mowing, the spring weeds are doing their autumnal re-run, wind-driven debris are accumulating, bulb shipments are on the doorstep awaiting action, and clean-up chores taunt gardeners from every bed, border and pot. To top it all off the hours of available daylight are decreasing. If you don’t have fortitude and a headlamp, it is impossible to put in even a half hour of yard or garden work at the end of the day.
All of the above really needs to be done before the holiday decorations go up.
Of course that is impossible for those who put up holiday decorations the day after Halloween, but a smidgeon of hope may exist for the rest of us—if this year’s monsoon abates long enough.
To avoid feeling overwhelming and defaulting to a recliner and a box of chocolates, I work in time increments and do my best to multi-task. I dislike both mowing and leaf raking, so I combine them. As long as the leaf accumulation is less than four fluffy inches, I can mow right over the leaves on my lawn, mulching them as I go. My front yard is the envy of the neighborhood because of this practice. It also saves having to bag up the leaves or haul them to
the overflowing compost pile.
Of course, the leaves don’t always fall on the lawn, so when I rake, I tend to put them there, so that I can dispatch them when I get the mower out.
As I cut back the dead perennial stalks and remove the soon-to-be-blackened annuals, I plant bulbs. This is especially satisfactory with the annuals, since you create holes when you haul them out of the ground. All you have to do is deepen those holes a bit, and you can plant a handful of daffodils, crocuses or hyacinths.
Of course, it helps if you have marked the spots containing bulbs planted in previous years. You can do this in spring by inserting colored golf tees by the established clumps of plants. If you don’t want to do that or think golf tees require too much bending, take pictures of your beds and borders in full spring bloom. Refer back to them in fall when you put in new bulbs.
If you forget to do anything at all, go ahead and plant bulbs anyway, If you dig up some previously established bulb clusters, put them right back in and add a few extra bulbs while you are at it. Most of the older ones will be just fine.
While you are pulling out those spent annuals, you can also pull out nearby weeds. After all, the weeds and the dead annuals are all going to the same places—either the compost pile or the yard waste bag. The practice also allows you to have the satisfaction of getting a particular area tidied up all at once.
Busy people have to take their pleasures where they can in busy seasons.
And about those bulbs…Of course, many of us order too many every year. This is not a character flaw, but the triumph of hope over experience. The catalogs that arrive starting in the spring planting season are just too tempting for the average individual. Bulbs are relatively cheap and it is easy to let enthusiasm get the better of you when it is May and you know you won’t have to worry about bulbs until at least the end of September.
Then, suddenly, it is the end of November. In some places the ground has turned to stone and the Thanksgiving turkey is browning nicely in the oven. The still-unplanted bulbs scream accusations from the box on the back porch.
The best thing to do with those bulbs is pot them up, lasagna-style in large containers. Plant large bulbs, like full-size daffodils and hyacinths, about eight inches down. Top those with a layer of potting mix, and position tulips, smaller daffodils and similar size bulbs. Add another layer of potting mix and finish off with crocuses, chionodoxas and other small bulbs. Top with a final layer of soil. Don’t worry about bulbs not sprouting because of other bulbs on top of them. The bulbs always organize themselves without additional help.
Place the container in an unheated space, like a garage or porch. Water a few times during the winter and when spring arrives, your bulbs will come up in sequence. You can put those pots in the garden wherever you have bare spots, or leave them to decorate patios, paved areas or anywhere else that needs a blast of spring color. When they have finished blooming in spring, wait until the leaves start to turn brown and wither, then clip them off and plant the bulbs in the ground. Except for the tulips, they will bloom again the following spring.
And, since you will still be busy and still be multi-tasking, plant the bloomed-out bulbs while you put in spring annuals and perennials. At the end of the process, make sure to congratulate yourself lavishly, since egos also need a little cultivation from time to time.