October Gardening

Happy Autumn, Floral City Garden Club!! Floral City friends were just here in CT visiting and were shocked to experience our low to mid eighties weather with very high humidity. They certainly felt right at home.

Still hot and dry many places in Florida although spots have had rain for several days straight. Gardening seems a bit like dealing with teenaged children with so many different strategies needed depending on the weather.

With the fall "season" having begun there are numerous activities, lectures, demonstrations, and classes available to learn more about Horticulture. Just doing the actual planting and caretaking gives one experience and is a must, but often by participating in some of these outside offerings we can learn things that make our gardening more successful.

For some people successful gardening is somewhat of a "natural." These people often have a hard time telling others how they achieve their phenominal success with their flowers/vegetables. It just seems like common sense to them. There are others who really require blueprints to understand how things grow. One of the first places where many start is with soil.

How many of us have had our soil tested?? Hope that many have, but many haven't and have had great success(which is wonderful, but not always the case.)

The acidity/alkalinity as well as the drainage/nondrainge of the "dirt" in your yard will make a difference in whether the plants that you are so excited about will grow/exist/ or thrive. Of course, if you buy a plant that is rootbound or has a fungus/problem and just put it into the perfect ground without any doctoring done to the plant, even in the best earth the plant may not thrive. However, if you have a particular plant that you would like to have in your yard, it would save you money and time if you found out the soil requirements just as you do the sun/shade/water requirements.

Some plants thrive in poor soils, believe it or not! When put into rich organic loam their roots are unhappy and quite often die. Mostly we hear of the opposite, but the differences in plants is fantastic---and can be problematic when we are unaware of what the specifics are.

One reason why gardeners are rarely ever "Finished" with their gardens is because of these differences only discovered After the plant/bush has been in a certain spot for a while. How often have you dropped in on a friend to find them moving one plant to another spot because for some reason or other it just didn't thrive where they put it originally.

Having the correct soil/sun/water conditions all in alignment can be very hard to determine, which makes gardening a non-exact activity. It also is the reason why certain personalities don't ever get "into" gardening. However, for those of us who are "into" gardening it is a thrill when we get it all right and the plant/bush/tree thrives successfully!!

So examine your soil(s). You may have one type in one part of your yard and another on the other side of the house---like the temperature. Close to a house concrete foundation will be more alkaline and under an oak tree with the leaf mulch will be more acidic and if it is just sand it will drain well (or too well) and if clay it won't drain at all. When you know your soil you are starting off on the right path for successful gardening. Amending the soils for the plants that you want can be done so even with a difficult soil you can have pretty flowers.

Soils that allow water to drain rather than to pool are better for growing things so the size of the particles of soil makes a difference. Fine particles like clay prevent draining so are good for road building or things other than gardening. A silty soil is somewhat in the middle between sand and clay and has organic matter to help keep the compaction from taking place which could prevent plants from receiving food or water from the soil.

Some of you have had hanging baskets early in the spring which had a basket full of soil to help feed the plant and when you looked at it in the fall the soil was gone---utilized by the plant until it was gone---no food left for the plant and no place for water to stay long enough for the root hairs to absorb it. What you had was a plant slowly dying of starvation. That can happen with a plant in totally clay soil with no added food, too. The clay can prevent water from flowing down into the earth which can drown the plant (unless the plant is a water plant, of course.)

Our job as gardeners is to know our soils as well as knowing our plants' needs. Then we'll know how to care for them so they are able to do what they do best---beautiful blooms or beautiful foliage.

Now that that is said, get ready to do your herb planting this fall. There are so many unusual ways to utilize herbs other than just enjoying their attractiveness as a plant. Thyme can be used for cooking, of course, but dried thyme leaves can be scattered in the linen closet to freshen the scent and (reputedly) to repel insects.

Tarragon tea is an old French remedy for insomnia and hyperactivity. Steep 1-1/2 tsps. of the dried, cut herb in 1-3/4 Cups boiling water, cover, and keep away from heat for about 40 minutes. Prepare about an hour before retiring, then strain and drink the tea while it is lukewarm. Tomatoes may not be a herb, but has some interesting uses. Many dog owners have used the tomato juice bath for trying to get the skunk smell from their dogs. Some people who work where their hair picks up chemicals or odors from the air do the same thing with their hair. Saturate the hair, cover witha shower cap for about 10 minutes, then rinse and shampoo. Applying a compress of fresh tomatoes to the skin was once used to try to rid skin of freckles.

Amazing what plants can do.

Some of you may know some unusual ways to utilize herbs or other plants. Let me know and I'll share them with the club next month.

Happy Planting! Horticulture FCGC 10/2007