Our last Saturday of summer weather has just passed, followed by the rainy fall weather of Sunday. These days I squeak in the high-priority things when I can and leave the rest for the following weekend. Luckily, many outdoor tasks can wait. I loved having the time to enjoy New England’s fall color during the recent dry spell.
While the weather was dry, we screened our compost from the bin that has been “finishing” since last fall. The screen is a homemade frame of two-by-fours about three feet on each side. You can also use a pallet with the center boards removed. We used a staple gun and stapled a piece of hardware cloth to the frame wrapping it up the sides. Using quarter-inch square mesh will screen your compost ultra fine. I screen with half-inch square mesh, and that has worked well to screen out the largest pieces. Having a few bits of stick or tiny rocks in your garden soils will still break up clay soils and bind up sandy soils.
I like the size of the screen’s frame because I can lift it and place it over my wheelbarrow. I use a shovel to put compost onto the screen and gently push it through the screen with the shovel back, a trowel, or my gloved hands. It is a meditative job and very satisfying to create this black gold from our kitchen and yard waste.
I took a wheelbarrow load of compost to my perennial bed and dumped it in a convenient spot. From there, I used my shovel to scoop enough to form a ring of compost about one inch deep around each perennial. The compost will serve as an enriched mulch now and improve the soil around each established perennial. I didn’t bother turning the compost in. That is not necessary before winter. The compost will settle into the existing soil and improve it.
This fall has been perfect for the Lazy Berkshire Gardener. Not much frost has allowed me to spread out my fall gardening tasks. My dahlia hasn’t frosted yet, but dahlia will need to come out if you haven’t done it already this next weekend. Photos next week! We had a light frost a week ago, and by the publish date of this column, surely a harder frost will have finished the dahlia. But last weekend, I found evidence that coleus do not like any bit of frost. All the leaf edges were crispy.
My Hosta also had the yellow collapse that happens after a frost. I don’t cut them back right away. If allowed to die in place for a week and get very soft, the mushy Hosta leaves can be raked right out of the perennial bed with less stooping and cutting from me.
The iris leaves have not “melted” to nothing yet. I inspected those plants and chose not to cut back the older leaves. Again, that can wait until the next frost kills the old foliage. The new growth won’t be affected. By waiting, I will know what leaves to cut. The fresh iris growth is small, stiff, and spiky.
Now that the leaves are just about off the trees, rake piles to save for your compost through the winter. I like to rake the piles onto a big tarp and drag the tarp to a leaf ‘holding area’ near our compost. If raking out leaves left under shrubs or in wooded areas, you may find long worms that twist rapidly when disturbed. These are likely invasive jumping worms.
Jumping worms—invasive worms that degrade soil instead of enhancing it—are probably in your flower beds or shrub borders. The mature worms will die in the winter when soil freezes, but their cocoons will survive until next May. The best strategy is to avoid moving soil from an infested location. Because the cocoons are impossible to discern from soil, you cannot know where they are until worms develop to mid or mature size—typically visible July through September.
One positive control strategy I have learned is to focus on the heat of your compost pile. Jumping worm cocoons do not survive in compost that is above 104 degrees for at least three days. This is a relatively low temperature and can be done by keeping the pile moist with a supply of green yard trimmings (or kitchen scraps) and brown carbon sources like leaves or torn paper. To keep compost hot over the winter, keep adding material to the pile and stir regularly (about once a week) to make sure oxygen reaches the center of the pile. Visit the UMass fact page on Jumping Worms for more information and tips to distinguish this pest.
After removing all our finished compost, we started composting anew with some of the first piles of leaves. The pile gets cooking faster with some starter soil. I had just the thing.
I emptied some of my containers of annuals, spent basil plants, and marigolds into my wheelbarrow. I cut the dead stems into smaller pieces that will break down more easily in the compost pile. I also poured the soil into my wheelbarrow. The masses were solid with roots, but I easily broke the soil into pieces. Stems, soil, and leaves made the first layer in the bin. We will start adding our kitchen scraps to this new pile and let our other recent bin settle or “finish” until next fall.
However, the raised beds still have Brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, arugula, and strawberries! I may have lost a few fruits of strawberry to the cold, but I will check anyway in daylight. The rest are fine for a few more days out in the garden. Once I pull these cold lovers, I will spread more of that winter rye seed to provide a green ‘manure’ or green ‘compost’ next spring. The rye has already emerged where the tomatoes grew this summer.
Have the lady beetles invaded your home? Don’t swat or smash these invaders unless you want red polka-dots on your walls and ceiling. When stressed, they emit a smelly red fluid that tastes bad to predators. These insects can be vacuumed up and released to the outside. Beetles are confusing your home with trees and just seek shelter in the nooks of tall structures. Note which rooms have the most insects and plan to re-caulk windows or other potential gaps in that room. Southern- and western-exposed rooms (read warmest) often have the most critters. Likewise, fill cracks in foundations to keep voles and mice from moving into your cozy dry basement and up the walls.
I call myself the Lazy Berkshire Gardener because I don’t want to work too hard in my gardens. I want to enjoy them. I find it easier to observe my landscape and let the compost happen, the water pool up, or daisies to self-sow. I look for ways to do the minimum task for the biggest impact. For example, mulching is better than spraying and much better than weeding all season. I look for beautiful, low-maintenance plants that thrive in or at least tolerate my garden conditions. Plus, I’m willing to live with the consequences if I miss something.
