{"id":2893,"date":"2019-11-04T07:35:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T15:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2893"},"modified":"2019-11-04T07:35:56","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T15:35:56","slug":"second-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/second-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Holiday<\/a>A generation or more ago, fall was a time when you would clean up the garden, put out a few mums, and plant the spring flowering bulbs.\u00a0 In the midst of all that, there was ample time to lose yourself watching the little wrens flitting through the aster stalks in search of delectable seeds.\u00a0 The wrens still flit, but now, the horticultural industry has made fall into a second spring.\u00a0 Mail order vendors ship perennials through the first weeks of October.\u00a0 Nurseries stock pansies, violas and a selection of perennials alongside the pumpkins, mums and gourds.<\/p>\n

There is just so much to do.<\/p>\n

All of this \u201csecond season\u201d garden activity keeps you in constant motion, getting those last few perennials in the ground and plugging pansies into the bare spots.\u00a0 If you finish that before the weather gets nasty, you can still look forward to leaf removal, bulb planting, pruning and retrieving the houseplants from their warm weather vacation spots.\u00a0 In my garden, I must also stow the large rose pots in the garage and lift the dahlias if time permits.<\/p>\n

All of that comes at a time when you are likely to be just a little tired of the garden and completely occupied with all the other business of life.\u00a0 The hours of precious daylight are waning, so little can be done in the evening after the workday is over.\u00a0 The challenge is to get the garden chores taken care of in a way that doesn\u2019t make you feel like a lab rat stuck in a maze or a high school student confronting a timed test.<\/p>\n

The only answer to this dilemma is multi-tasking, but it has to be done intelligently to work.\u00a0 Every action you take should serve more than one purpose and it helps to think in advance\u2014if only a few minutes in advance.\u00a0 For example, you go out of the house to retrieve a houseplant that has summered in the front yard.\u00a0 Before you go, fill the watering can and take it with you.\u00a0 Water anything outside that needs moisture, then grab the rake or leaf blower and round up leaves for ten minutes.\u00a0 When you are finished, scoop up the houseplant and bring it inside.\u00a0 In the space of about fifteen to twenty minutes you have made a difference in the garden.<\/p>\n

Make the most of small bits of time and large number of bulbs by making lasagna.\u00a0 In this case the \u201clasagna\u201d is not a delectable pasta dish, but a time-honored method of planting lots of bulbs with minimal work.\u00a0 Do this by locating a place in your garden that needs spring color.\u00a0 Grab your spade, and bags of crocus, daffodils and tulips.\u00a0 Dig a hole that is about eight inches deep and twelve inches wide.\u00a0 At the bottom of the hole, deposit an odd number of daffodil bulbs\u2014most likely five or seven will fit.\u00a0 Cover them with a thin layer of soil.\u00a0 Position the tulip bulbs atop that soil layer and cover with another thin soil layer.\u00a0 Finally, scatter crocus bulbs\u2014probably seven or nine\u2014atop the soil.\u00a0 Cover the crocus layer with several inches of soil.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry about possible collisions among the bulbs\u2019 sprouts next spring.\u00a0 They always find their way and you will\u00a0 have a nice succession of blooms.<\/p>\n

The lasagna method works for container gardens too.\u00a0 Just make sure that your container is deep enough to give all the bulbs enough room.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t like daffodils, substitute hyacinths.\u00a0 Any little bulbs, like grape hyacinth or chionodoxa, can be substituted for the crocuses.\u00a0 The best rule of thumb is to plant the biggest bulbs the farthest down.<\/p>\n

Another quick way to multi-task while getting the bulbs in is to pick an area of the garden that needs an amount of clean-up that can be done in about fifteen minutes.\u00a0 Clear away the dead annuals, cut back the desiccated perennial stalks and pull the weeds.\u00a0 Now that you have a bald spot.\u00a0 Dig a large hole and plant an odd number of bulbs in that hole.\u00a0 Cover and tamp down.\u00a0 If you use the lasagna method in the newly cleared space, you can make it a horticultural triple play.<\/p>\n

Even if you don\u2019t make lasagna, never plant a single bulb when you can plant a handful.\u00a0 If you are digging holes, the time saving rule is \u201cgo big or go home.\u201d\u00a0 After all, who wants rows of tulips or daffodils that stand single file like wooden soldiers?\u00a0 I prefer naturalistic clumps, and planting multiple bulbs in a single large hole gives you clumps.<\/p>\n

As for those late season perennials, you can also do double duty by cleaning up the area where you want the perennial, digging the planting hole in the newly cleared area and installing the bargain plant.\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget to water if it hasn\u2019t rained in a few days.<\/p>\n

If all of the preceding sounds just a little frantic, it isn\u2019t, at least not to me.\u00a0 At the end of a fifteen minute multi-tasking adventure, I feel purposeful and smart.\u00a0 The jobs get done before snow flies\u2014usually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A generation or more ago, fall was a time when you would clean up the garden, put out a few mums, and plant the spring flowering bulbs.\u00a0 In the midst of all that, there was ample time to lose yourself watching the little wrens flitting through the aster stalks in search of delectable seeds.\u00a0 The … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,5],"tags":[449,372,456,267,492,502,2199,2081],"class_list":["post-2893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-winter","tag-bulb-planting","tag-crocus","tag-fall-clean-up","tag-fall-gardening","tag-houseplants","tag-indoor-gardening","tag-lasagna-gardening","tag-spring-color"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2894,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions\/2894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}