HOMES: Helen Chesnut on seasonal shifts
An abrupt seasonal change fell upon our sunny days after mid-month, as autumn was about to officially begin. Rainfall blessed our parched gardens. Overnight temperatures dropped.
My immediate reaction to the first drops of rain was to buy more microclover. An early spring overseeding of the scruffy boulevard gave results that were gratifying enough to prompt followup fall and spring overseedings, until the boulevard and lawns predominate in this easycare, neat lawn plant.
Don Gamble, who gardens in Parksville, sent along a photo of a lawn he had overseeded in a microclover and fescue mix. He cut the original grass short first, and spread some topsoil before overseeding. He’s pleased with how the clover is taking over. “It stayed green all summer but does require watering.” Like me, he plans to continue the overseeding, on the back lawn.
I usually leave my boulevard unwatered, but to encourage the young clover plants I watered just a few times this summer. They stayed a vivid green. Containers for winter. Another personal early autumn ritual is to plant pansies in containers for the patio. This simple little project delivers more flowery pleasure than any other planting I can think of. I set a series of shallow, bowl-shaped pansy planters on stands at the glass doors into the family room, where I can enjoy the cheery blooms through the autumn, all winter, and into late spring. A few crocus, dwarf iris, or dwarf daffodil bulbs popped in among the pansies add to the late winter and early spring show.
In some years, I also plant containers with more permanent plants: dwarf conifers, small ornamental grasses, colourful heucheras (coral bells), ferns, heathers, variegated ivy. Lemon cypress is a popular, shapely, golden-hued evergreen that is lovely in container plantings while it is small.
Containers planted with evergreen perennials and shrubs can be embellished with small bulbs, winter pansies, ornamental cabbage or kale, a few cut branches of red twig or yellow twig dogwood, and even sprigs of holly, pine cones, and tiny, twinkling Christmas lights in December and early January.
These containers can often be kept going for a few years, with a few seasonal tweaks. Eventually, the shrubs and perennials can be transplanted into the garden. More timely projects: • Plant late tulips ( Single Late, Double Late, Fringed, Lily Flowered, Parrot, Green) and Dutch iris to extend the spring flower bulb season into late May and early June. • To ensure coloured bracts for Christmas in saved poinsettias, bring the plants into a bright daytime location where darkness is uninterrupted between dusk and dawn. Ten weeks of 10-hour days does the job. • Harvest winter squash and pumpkins when the skins have hardened and the stalks are dry and brown. Leave about five cm of stem. Wash them well and further harden (cure) the skins with a week in warmth. Store ‘ cool (10 to 15 C) and dry. • Check out garden centres for plants to add vibrant fall foliage colour to your landscape. For fall and winter interest look for flowering heathers and berried shrubs.
GARDEN EVENTS
Peninsula meeting. The Peninsula Garden Club meets Monday in the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney at 7 p.m. Master Gardener Brent Schorr will speak
about fire smart gardening, a timely topic in view of the summer’s wildfires this year. The evening includes refreshments, a parlour show and plant stall, a Master Gardeners’ table, and the library. Non-member drop-in fee is $5.
VHS meeting. The Victoria Horticultural Society meets Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., in the Garth Homer Centre, 813 Darwin Ave. Claudia Copley, Entomology Collections manager of the Royal B.C. Museum, will explore how to attract wildlife into cultivated gardens. At the pre-meeting workshop at 6:30, Bruce Carter of Wes-Tech Irrigation Systems will provide tips and techniques for keeping watering systems working effectively and efficiently.
Herb workshop. The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd., is offering a workshop on herbs for immune health, Sunday, 1 to 3:30 p.m. Learn about herbs that boost the immune system and how to build a natural home-medicine chest. Participants will make a herbal tonic to take home. Cost to HCP members $45, others $50. Register by calling 250-479-6162. hcp.ca.