Drought Tolerant Perennials: A Toronto Master Gardeners Guide<\/a><\/p>\nThink Spring this Fall<\/p>\n
September is the time to be thinking of spring colour.\u00a0Crocus, daffodils, tulips, alliums and hyacinths will start growing as soon as the ground has thawed and, in early spring, provide bright spots of colour before shrubs leaf out and herbaceous perennials push through the soil.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Local stores will soon be bursting with bags of spring bulbs for planting.\u00a0But it\u2019s not too late to order spring bulbs from online nurseries. You\u2019ll find a greater variety of species from online sources that will ship your bulbs at the correct time for planting.<\/p>\n
Here in Collingwood and most of southern Ontario, late September and October is bulb planting time. Wait until the daytime temperatures are consistently below 15C.<\/p>\n
Most bulbs need a few weeks before the ground freezes to develop roots that will see them through the winter, but if they are planted too early, they will sprout and use up the energy they need to bloom in spring.<\/p>\n
Follow the package directions for the correct depth to plant. A bulb planter tool might be helpful if you are planting a lot of bulbs. There are long-handled bulb planters to make it easier for aching knees and hips.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Remember: Plant bulbs pointy side up!<\/p>\n
But Don\u2019t Forget Fall Colour<\/p>\n
While you are thinking about spring colour, take a moment and check out the colour on display in your garden now. Fall gardens don\u2019t need to be drab.<\/p>\n
There are some beautiful plants that bloom in September and October and possibly into November if the weather stays mild.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Group 3 clematis are fall blooming as well as many sedums and salvias. There is a long list of native plants that bloom well into fall, some even surviving light frosts along the way. Consider adding these plants to your borders for fall colour: asters; goldenrod; bottle genitian; great blue lobelia; liatris; gaillardia; agastache; heleniums and obedient plant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grasses flower and set attractive seed heads in fall. Native grasses such as Little Bluestem; Prairie Dropseed and Purple Lovegrass create texture and movement in the border and their seed heads are natural bird feeders if left standing all winter.<\/p>\n
Fall Veggies and Spring Greens<\/p>\n
Just because the tomatoes are finished doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t more food to grow.<\/p>\n
Go out right now and sow leaf lettuce and spinach seeds. There\u2019s still time for them to sprout and grow enough for fall salads.<\/p>\n
Leaf lettuce will persist until a killing frost if protected from light frosts. Spinach plants will take a little frost and, if well mulched, survive the winter and begin to grow again as soon as the ground thaws providing those fresh green veggies that your body will crave after a long winter of imported foods.<\/p>\n
Kale can also be sown now and harvested as baby greens in three to four\u00a0weeks or left to grow on. You can harvest mature kale plants all winter long. Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens and collards can take frost and freezing and still be good to eat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Root crops such as carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips and rutabagas can be left in the ground and harvested until the soil freezes. In fact, frost and cold temperatures improve the flavour of these nutritious vegetables.<\/p>\n
You can delay frozen soil with a thick mulch of straw or leaves. But even at that, carrots and parsnips can be left over winter under a mulch and then harvested as soon as the ground thaws in spring.<\/p>\n
Marianne Lepa is a Master Gardener based in Collingwood, Ont. and member of the board for the Collingwood Garden Club.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Master Gardener Marianne Lepa talks climate, fall colours and harvesting veggies after a frost in her inaugural column…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,64750,66],"class_list":["post-115334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-marianne-lepacollingwood-master-gardener","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}