Good morning! We had an inch of rain, and I don't need to water this morning, which is a relief. Before I go shovel and haul 10 more cubic yards of mulch, let's talk about ...
PLANTING
Many people plant in the spring, because that's how many of us are trained. I prefer fall planting for the following reasons:
1. I don't like being hot. I would rather wake up, have my coffee and go out to work on my time, without temperatures climbing above 80F.
2. Plants are going dormant, and that is the perfect time to move them! If I shock a plant in the fall, it might go dormant early, and that's ok. If I shock a plant in the spring, I will be nursing it back to health for weeks.
3. Spring planting should happen earlier than most people think for best results. March and April, which can be cold and wet. After that it's getting hot, and in recent years, we haven't had the rain.
I'm hauling mulch today to prep new beds for October plantings. I usually wait until October and plant all the way to Christmas (that's our family's winter time marker), as long as the ground isn't frozen. Here's how I work:
1. Tarp new areas for 2 to 3 weeks to kill grass and weeds.
2. Call 811 or OneCall to make sure you don't dig up a utility line.
3. Mulch the area with natural mulch or leaf litter, and top with compost.
4. Plug in new plants! and add more leaf litter for some insulation for new roots and crowns. (I'll make a video detailing proper planting when I'm doing it in a few weeks).
5. Give everything a good drink to saturate the soil area through the bottom of the rootball, and all around. Water is a good insulator and helps protect roots from freezing.
6. Topdress with a couple inches of leaf litter to insulate plant crowns. This can be repealed in spring if the layer is still covering the crowns or trunk flares.
7. Get cozy inside thinking about how much you've added to your landscape.
What we're adding to our orchards this fall, for future offerings!
- rose milkweed
- prairie dropseed
- side oats gramma
- bundleflowers
- false solomon's seal
- long-headed coneflower
- rattlesnake master
- evening primrose
- common evening primrose
- blue lobelia
- downy woodmint
- Meadow willow
- prairie pussytoes
- amorpha flower (new population)
- monarda fistulosa (new population)
We'll take photos and put our progress on our socials. Until then, happy planting!