October Notes

Every year at this time I scramble to see what other gardeners are doing for fall color.  I am particularly taken this year with the variations of the Cutleaf japanese maple (Acer palmatum dissectum), sure to be glowing orange and yellow for another a week or so.

Cutleaf japanese maple in Greenwich Village dooryard garden

If you are not satisfied with the brilliant display offered by deciduous shrubs and trees and want something closer to the ground, there a few plants worth trying.  My favorites are the Japanese anemones  (Anemone japonica).  The cup-shaped flowers are a flawless pink or luminous white and are carried high on stems that dance in the breeze.  Sweet autumn clematis (Clematis paniculata) will grow 20-30 feet in a season and cover a multitude of sins.  Asters are also reliable standards, and blue salvias hold their own well into the cold weather.

October Calendar

WEEK ONE

Give a weekly soaking to all shrubs and trees planted this year.  Keep this up until frost.

If you are planting after a dry spell, water well.

Order Now for Fall Spring bulbs in city gardens will benefit from mulch, more so on rooftops than on the ground.  On rooftops bulbs will pop up too early when sunny days in late winter thaw the ground unexpectedly early.

You can plant most trees in the fall, except the ones you can’t --  Magnolia, Dogwood and Birches.

Out and About in Manhattan

If you spend a lot of time walking around the city -- and look up at buildings instead of watching where you’re walking -- you’ll notice floor after floor with empty balconies.  Granted, those postage stamp bits of outdoor space are a little dizzying, but people do pay a premium for them.  Wouldn’t you think they would be filled with furniture and plants and actually used by their owners? If not planted by the owners, what about the developers or the landlords?  They could give some competition to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon by nailing a few boxes to the railings and filling them with plants.  Think how beautiful streets would be if buildings had vines cascading down their facades.

A surprising basement entry

September Calendar

      Hurricane Irene has damaged – if not leveled – most of our gardens and the September work ahead is not pleasant to contemplate.  Our corner of the Catskills was devastated, and the YouTube videos are painful to watch.  Our house was relatively unscathed but our friends and neighbors in low-lying areas near the furious creeks and riversides suffered terribly. 

It seems frivolous to write about ordinary garden work in such extraordinary times, but on some sunny day we will drag ourselves out of our armchairs and head back outdoors.  Gardens look to the future, and the fall cleanup and planting help us deal with the often difficult present and the loss that comes with it. 

Print the calendar, post it on your refrigerator and as the mood strikes you, head out.  September can be the most restful month in the garden, or the best month for some hard work.  It’s your call. 

Growing for the Table

         I can describe my visit to Gail Witter-Laird’s garden briefly as follows:  I trailed after her while she and her son Maxwell dug potatoes, harvested onions, garlic, squash, tomatoes, lettuce, and rosemary.  We came indoors and Gail prepared a lunch from the morning’s harvest: Ratatouille, potatoes sautéed with rosemary, a green salad, cheese from a local farmer, bread from a re-located pastry chef, and two beautiful wines. 

Gail and Maxwell