Time for the Great Garden Clean Up

Time for some serious garden clean up. So why not just leave it until spring or, better still allow Mother Nature to take her course? A question for you: would you allow your home to be left that long? (On second thoughts, don’t bother to answer.) Leaving debris, piled up leaves, weeds and similar sights encourages problems for next season.

Eliminate overwintering resorts for pest and disease by pulling spent annuals and weeds, trimming back dead perennials to ground level. Cut back dead or diseased branches on shrubs. Rake leaves into piles, then shred by running the lawnmower over them. The resulting soft, fluffy mass makes fine mulch. Store clay and artificial stone containers and ornaments inside in a frost-free place to prevent cracking, flaking or splitting. Clean bird feeders and baths with a mild bleach solution. Reposition feeders away from lawns where bird droppings and seed husks destroy sod.

Diversion No. 1

Black Thumb? She thought contract gardeners were a little rough around the hedges.

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Cleaning out the veggie patch, you might have noticed how productive it is for such a small area. Mixing in herbs seemed a good idea, also. Commercial farmers require acres; you did well from a hundred or so square feet. Science is on your side. A recent study from Europe headed by ecologists from the University of Zurich have discovered that diverse plant communities are more successful and enable higher crop yields than pure monocultures. The flowering plant border also flourished, as did mixed plantings in containers. We all know what leaving a person in isolation does to them. Could something of the same happen with plants? So when such a respected science journal as Nature says that ‘plants grow better together’ it is time to pay attention. More-diverse plant communities are commonly more stable and productive, an effect that often increases through time, states Nature, citing two recently published papers.

Diversion No. 2

Soccer teams in Britain are benefiting from confiscated cannabis grow lights. Two top-league clubs have been enabled to improve grass – this time the turf in problem areas of their pitches.

Will vertical gardening drive your neighbours up the wall? Down Under, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Graham Ross tips vertical gardens as a hot ticket item. Climate and soil combination creates gardening challenges for Canberrans, says Ross. It is rarely a bore to read what ignites interest in Australia’s gardening world, particularly so as when here in the so-called temperature latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere winter threatens, so spring arrives over much of the Land of Oz. So we have all winter formulating plans to follow in Graham Ross’s wellies . . . And to empathize with his compatriots in the ‘Top End’ – the tropical Northern Territory – where pathogens have brought disaster. Weeks ago watermelons in the Katherine area there were found infected green mosaic virus, invoking strict government quarantine on growing and selling the fruit for two years. Despite this the virus spread to an area near Darwin, then jumped to pumpkins. Another pathogen, banana freckle, may sound amusing but likely dooms plantations all over the Territory as officials order their destruction. It is delightful to turn back to The Sydney Morning Herald and learn Jackie French’s joy with “the good old faithful ‘Iceberg’ rose” in her spring garden. Roses come and roses go but a few deservedly stay with us. But ‘good old’? This horticultural hack remembers when it was first introduced . . .

Diversion No. 3

First Lady Michelle Obama posted a Vine showing her dancing with a white turnip to promote her healthy living campaign. During a Vine Q & A session to promote her healthy living Let’s Move! campaign, Michelle Obama was asked how many calories you burn “when you turn up.” Groan.

Blaming lawns for draining water supplies has become a popular practice among certain self-ordained environmentalists. Have these claims firm foundations? California aims to reduce residential water consumption by 20% through implementing fines on wastage, explains Moshe Almaro of MIT in the prestigious journal Nature. However, he notes that residential water use – such as household use, swimming pools and gardens – is less than 15% of the total demand, with the rest used mainly for agriculture. Thus, he says, a 20% reduction in residential demand will amount to less than 3% of total demand – a mere drop in the bucket, as he describes it. Nevertheless, cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas have declared war on lawns even to the extent of offering several dollars per square foot of turf torn up and appointing ‘water police’ to patrol the suburbs. Yet the Los Angeles Times recently reported on the farming town Stratford, California where so much water has been pumped that the water table has fallen 100 feet in just two years. On the fringes of same state’s Central Valley similar water depletion for agricultural use has caused the land to sink over 30 feet.

Diversion No. 4

A nearly 500-pound black bear was left to sleep off what local residents suggested was a fermented apple hangover one recent Thursday night after he went on a rampage through a Port Coquitlam, B.C. neighbourhood and then passed out in a bramble bush, reported CTV News November, we suspect according to certain U.S. commercial interests, is both ‘Sweet Potato Awareness Month’ and ‘National Pepper Month’ while the 14 November is ‘National Guacamole Day’ and 23 November ‘National Cashew Day.’

In China, 11 November is a sort of anti-Valentines Day when the young ‘uns celebrate being unwed. Alas, ‘Singles Day’ has turned into nothing more than an excuse for excess online shopping as entire populations indulge in a spending spree. It might slow things down a tad if they paid attention to Sadie Hawkins Day, the Saturday that follows 9 November, or the 15th this year. The girls of Dogpatch, U.S.A. got their guys that day – gently or by force – as all who revel in Al Capp’s Li’l Abner know. Finally Britain celebrates what in these politically correct times is known as Bonfire Night on 5 November. It was on that day back in 1605 that disenchanted Guy Fawkes planned to explode barrels of gunpowder under Parliament when the King James I came to open proceedings. He failed and was executed for his trouble. As a consolation prize his infamous Gunpowder Plot was commemorated until very few years ago as Guy Fawkes Night with his effigy incinerated on many a bonfire amid exploding fireworks.