Backyard Gardener

Beeautiful Fall Gardens Story and Photos by Kat Long / Contributing Writer

Ahhhh, October. This is my favorite month. There is Halloween; my daughter’s birthday; first date with my hubby many, many years ago; and did I mention, Halloween? Walking the yard this week has been a blast. As I start cleanup on the sunflowers and other dying things, the orb spiders have made an appearance. Apparently, they were hiding under the sunflower canopy which sheltered them from hungry birds. I know, I know: Spiders. But they are very important markers of a good ecosystem, along with praying mantis, ladybugs, bees and wasps. So, let’s talk fall chores and what is still edible in the yard.

Five things to get the yard ready for spring now while you do fall cleanup. Grab a Hoe I found a new tool this year. It is called a hula hoe. It is a hooped hoe that works really well to displace weeds so you can pull them up. Great reviews and I really like it. If you need a new hoe, I recommend this one.

Fork It After you get all those pesky weeds up, grab your fork and move that soil around. Big forks, known as digging forks, are great for moving your compost pile around as well. If you are looking for a digging fork, may I recommend a fork with thicker tines and a nice stout handle. Better to turn dirt and compost piles over.

Myco Bloom This is a granular mycorrhizae inocula which helps build strong roots and increases plant access to nutrients in your soil. Myco Bloom is the one I am using, and I will let you know if it helps with the squash borers and other live-in-the-dirt and eat-yourplants critters. And speaking of nutrients …

Small Bee Apartment

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GARDEN Continued from Page 57

Worm Castings and/or Compost

Mix the Myco Bloom about 1 to 10 into worm castings. If you are going to use compost, don’t mix the Myco Bloom with compost. It messes up the mycorrhizae’s symbiosis process.

And worm castings alone or compost are great. If using the Myco Bloom, sprinkle on the hoed, forked soil. Using a rake, work it in and then use the flat side to smooth the bed down. If adding compost, add on top and before …

Straw for the Win Straw makes a great mulch and grass barrier. Bonus: straw will decompose over the winter and add to your bed while making sure grass seeds don’t get a foothold. If you have access to sourced wood chips, you can also use those on top of the bed. It won’t decompose as well as straw, but it’s still a pretty effective grass/weed barrier. Just make a hole in the straw/wood chips in the spring and plop those seed starts into the ground.

Bonus Points Think about where pollinators can overwinter in your yard. Solitary bees like small branches and hollow tubing to lay eggs for next year. Ladybugs will lay their eggs in mulch/leaf piles as well as the bottoms of perennial plants. Spiders, mantises and other similar beneficials will attach egg sacs to existing vines and leaves, so keep a lookout for them when cleaning up dense areas like fruit bushes, grape plants or climbing vines. If you do come across an egg sac, try to keep it in a similar setting, but move it somewhere it will not be disturbed. This is a great science project for the young’uns.

In The Yard Right now, I am still at the cleanup stage. Small snafu in the front yard: I have had to move perennials around due to street sight lines. The sunflowers all have to be cut down, all the branches trimmed back, including the sand cherries, blackberries and bee balm. The good news is I have plenty of seed from the bee balm to replant somewhere not in a street sight line.

As I was cutting the sunflowers, I found an orb spider, an egg sac, ladybugs and some praying mantises. I also found a few butterfly chrysalises which I left alone, as they might be monarchs. I will say the grasshoppers this year have eaten most of the mint outside the fence: lemon balm, spearmint, mojito mint and hyssop have all been eaten down to nubs. Inside the fence, I am still waiting on tomatoes (I think there have been four or five little ones), but the peppers have loved the heat this summer. And the basil: mmmmmm, basil. So much basil! Thank goodness for all the ideas on preserving basil from TikTok: freezing, pesto, drying, Oh My! Other things ready for harvest are lemongrass, oregano and thyme.

Halloween idea: When cutting down tall stalks, bunch them together with twine. You can use these like cornstalks and stretch spider webbing between two or three. Then, throw them in the compost pile after Halloween. I am using sunflower stalks about eight feet tall on either side of a window for decoration. Next month, we prepare for Christmas. So, save those seeds, dry your herbs and of course, Happy Garden Cleanup.

Lemongrass - ready to harvest Basil - Cinnamon and Large Leaf

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