As the days go by during September, a familiar seasonal sense of winding down and dreaming of new beginnings takes hold. Spent plantings are cleaned out of the garden, compost heaps built and tended, plots tidied. At the same time, plans start to take shape for next year’s garden.
It’s a time for looking back over the spring and summer, for assessing what did well and what did not, and for looking forward, too, as helpful changes are noted and planned for. This is the true new year of the garden, a chance for a fresh start.
Perhaps it’s time to eliminate from the landscape an irksome plant that needs constant care or lavish watering to keep it looking presentable. Maybe there’s an awkward bed that calls for revision.
A fast-draining, sandy soil compounded with tree root invasion from neighbouring properties makes certain parts of my garden difficult for most plants. I’ll be renovating one such plot this fall. As the ground becomes rain-softened, the timing will be good to remove the struggling plants, dig out as many roots as possible, and begin adding compost or/and composted manure to ready the area for planting with drought-resistant plants in the spring.
One such strip renovated like this has successfully housed alternating Arp rosemary and Grosso lavender shrubs for several years now. Filling such sites with all lavender or all rosemary would work as well, as would tall grasses. All these plants have the added virtue of being deer resistant.
Contentment. The looking back and the forward planning that comes with the advent of autumn brings a certain quiet happiness. For food gardeners, there is the added joy of anticipating much fine feasting on home-grown edibles.
There is pleasure too in the beauty and bounty of the present — like fresh young bush and runner beans from July seedings. My two best bush beans have done it again. Alicante (Dominion Seed House), as always, produced first, with dense clusters of long, slim French gourmet green beans.
Next to produce was Purple Teepee, an heirloom bush bean that produces bundles of purple beans in easy-picking wigwam fashion. The purple and pale lavender flowers are gorgeous. A current seed source is Chiltern Seeds.
Early in July I sowed a few Painted Lady runner bean seeds on either side of a Peaches and Cream honeysuckle growing against tall wire fencing. Before mid-September, as the honeysuckle was giving a vivid flush of flowers, the first runner beans, dangling amidst their bright red and white blooms, were ready to pick.
September has brought more lively colour in the potted patio garden as well, in two hardy hibiscus plants with their huge, flared blossoms — one in deep magenta (Plum Fantasy), the other bearing pink-streaked white blooms with deep cherry-purple centres. It is aptly named Cherry Cheesecake. The plants were from Veseys Bulbs.
Garlic time. Ideal garlic planting time is now. Choose a sunny, well-drained site enriched with compost or/and composted manure. For inspiration, consider checking out the Greater Victoria Public Library’s DVD set of Les Blank documentaries. Disc No. 3 has the wonderful film Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers. Thanks to the librarian who alerted me to the film’s availability.
GARDEN EVENTS
Orchid meeting. The Victoria Orchid Society will meet on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Gordon Head United Church Hall, 4201 Tyndall Ave. Master grower Ingrid Ostrander will speak about controlling pests on orchids. Ingrid has grown prize-winning plants and has been a senior American Orchid Society judge for many years. Plant sales and display table viewing begin at 7. Guests are welcome. victoriaorchidsociety.com.
Cactus meeting. The Victoria Cactus and Succulent Society meets Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in First Memorial (Funeral Services), 4725 Falaise Dr. in Royal Oak. The meeting room is at the back and is accessed by the walkway from the left side of the parking lot. victoria.cactus-society.org.
Peninsula anniversary. The Peninsula Garden Club will celebrate its 60th anniversary on Oct. 3, with a Bud to Bloom event from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Mary Winspear Centre, Sidney. The event will feature flower and plant displays, vendors, a lunch prepared by Truffles catering and Dan Hinkley speaking about Notable Plants Discovered in the Past 60 Years. Tickets at $35 are at Tanner’s Books and the Dig This stores. More details at peninsulagardenclub.ca.
