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Another season of Garden Club begins this month and it begins with a wonderful program of horticulture!
The programs that Florida Yards and Neighborhoods do are always informative and helpful to those of us concerned with protection and conservation of natural resources as well as having beautiful plants to look at while providing food for the birds and butterflies that we enjoy so much. Hope that many of you will be attending the meeting at Debbie Barney's house on Friday! I can't be there but HD has agreed to attend and take notes for me.
The speaker will probably remind you of what's good to plant this month and give you tips on how to deal with whatever weather we may be having at that time. Tactics vary, of course, depending on what Mother Nature is handing out. It is a good time for planting and transplanting if watering will be available for the trees/plants for the next couple of weeks. So you can feel good about purchasing some sale plants that you've wanted but thought that they were too expensive. This is also a great time to share plants if you are seeing a well liked but extremely fast growing plant take over your garden this summer. Someone else may have room for that plant to grow its heart out.
Investigate bulbs (or corms or tubers) for next spring now. Don't sigh and wish for the tulips, but check out the many bulbs that do well in our area and set aside an area for them. Amaryllis, zepheranthes (rain lilies), some of the gingers, freesias (in special circumstances), and, of course, Louisiana (or other) iris. Pot some if you don't have a place that you think they'll do well.
If you are vegetable oriented then plant your winter veggies now for enjoyment in the cooler days of December/January. We were successful with broccoli one year and were thrilled to be able to be working in the yard and snap off a broccoli flower and enjoy. You'll have a professional at the meeting who can answer all sorts of questions that you might have about having fresh veggies of your own. Might save you money, too.
Weeds seem to think September is their own special growth month so when there are cool early mornings, be prepared to get them out of your beds before they can throw all of their seeds down for winter hibernation to pop up again next spring and bother you again. Be careful where you put some of your weeds with seeds or they'll take over your compost pile. There are some weeds that really should be burned rather than recycled. Check with the Florida Yard professional if you've questions.
So very thankful for the rains that we've had this summer and also thankful for no killer hurricanes, but it would be nice if we could get a gentle tropical storm to provide some more water for this area before winter. Keep that in mind as you are out enjoying the lessening of the heat (somewhat) at this time of year. Bring some of the blooms inside and practice your floral design; particularly if you have a special plant that has just one or two remaining blooms before it stops blooming for the year. In a bouquet inside each blossom won't look like the "last rose of summer" whereas if left outside it is beautiful, but lonely looking.
We're still having warm weather up here, but know that it won't last as long as Florida's so we've already done a lot of our transplanting and will begin to cut the iris and peony leaves/stalks so that the damaging insects won't have a place to live over the winter. We leave some flower stalks so that the seedheads will give some interest in the white snow time. The blackeyed susan seed heads give some contrast and they are easy to remove in the spring. Most of the rest we cut to prevent any disease from overwintering. Not sure if you are aware that the goldfish in the pond will slow their metabbolism and live under the ice in the pond all winter.
Then when the ice melts and the water warms, so do they. People turn down their metabolisms to stay cool in the high heat of summer and the fish do the same to survive in the icy cold of winter.
Hope that the results of your efforts in each of your yards this summer have been to your liking and that you have many questions about what you're planning to do in your garden/yard next. Programs are planned so that we may all learn what we need to really enjoy nature's beauty and bounty in our yards and neigborhoods. Some topics may be more serious than others, but by all of us sharing our knowledge we hope to have beauty available for us and for other people to enjoy in our daily lives.
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