B11

Karon Dressler - Gardening

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The Miramichi Garden Club is holding its next monthly meeting Thursday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. at the Nordin Rec Centre. We are lucky enough to have Bob Osborne from Cornhill Nurseries coming to speak to us. He is a fountain of information once it comes to gardening and plants. Everyone is welcome.

Brrr ... October is here already. The weather sure has been unpredictable for gardeners! I get such a chill through my bones this time of year, but I always remember my grandfather saying this was his favourite time of year. He worked in the woods and could hardly wait to see the change of the leaves. What beauty nature puts out in the leaves, letting us know it's time for bed for the winter.

I know we don't live in a bear's den, but what is the sense of being negative? Winter is coming and being positive about it will just help us through, so it's your choice!

For us gardeners, it's time for a lot of prep work to get the beds ready to sleep for next spring. Don't burn your leaves in the autumn as this contributes to air pollution. Instead, add them to a compost heap where they can biodegrade and so enhance your soil in years to come. Fallen leaves carry 50 per cent to 80 per cent of the nutrients a tree extracts from the soil and air, including carbon, potassium and phosphorous. A mulch of leaves spread over a garden limits weed growth, adds organic matter and protects the soil.

So, bonus! Let those leaves work for us. I set my lawn mower at its highest setting and run it over them a couple of times while they are piled on the lawn up to 6 inches [15 cm] thick. Breaking the leaves down into smaller pieces this way helps to speed the decomposition process and reduces the space that the leaves take up in the compost bin by up to 80 per cent.

October is the only month left to plant daffodils and narcissus and still expect a great show of colour come spring. Tulips, crocus and hyacinths can be planted in November still. Remember to sprinkle generously with bone or blood and bone meal to help bulbs.

October is a great month to dig-and-divide your perennials. I divide all of my Hosta (that need it, of course), day lilies, peonies and coneflower (Echinacea).

In fact, most any perennial, including the ornamental grasses, will move quite nicely this time of year. If I don't do it now, I'll forget come spring which ones have to be divided! (The age thing...) Now if I can just find the time to do it!

Happy gardening, and we hope to see you Thursday evening.