Another Growing Season Ends
September 2019 by Shelley Corey, Owner of The Mum Farm
The hours of daylight are becoming fewer, mornings require a light jacket, leaves will soon be falling, our growing season is quickly coming to a close. We all love the fall in Upstate New York. If only it could last for months on end! What a summer we enjoyed! I believe it was almost darn near perfect. Granted, we got off to a slow start, but then came the endless days of sunny, warm weather. Perfect growing weather with beautiful rainfalls of an inch a week. There were days on end that I hardly had to look at my weather apps. I just got up, dressed for a summer day and went out to tend to outdoor chores.
As the days get cooler, its time to think of all the things around the yard that need to be taken care of before winter. Raking leaves, mowing one last time, draining and putting away the garden hoses and watering cans. emptying the clay containers of soil and storing away. Remember to re-use that wonderful potting soil somewhere in the landscape. It’s a perfect amendment to our heavy clay soils.Then we need to put the mower away and get the dreaded snowblower in place. I’m considering making a list, so that each year I can remind myself of everything that needs to be done. Even I have left enough water in a hose to have it burst during the winter, leaving it unusable come spring when I need it!
By now my cherished houseplants that went out to my shady yard for a summer vacation, have made the trip back indoors. I’ve checked over everyone for insects, I’ve washed the outside of all the pots, placed them all on or into nice decorative saucers. I often use beautiful old dishes as a substitute for traditional plant saucers. Reusing what I already have and finding new uses for “old treasures” brings me joy. I always designate one day a week throughout the winter to be my “watering” day. That way I get to check on each one, they rarely require more than watering once a week. And just like watering the outdoor plants, they benefit from a through watering and then allowing to dry out. Water rarely needs to drain through the soil into the saucer, but giving each plant enough to saturate the entire root zone makes for a happy plant.
Now comes the indoor entertaining with family and friends. I look forward to this season almost as much as I do the spring! Cooking the old-fashioned favorites and trying new recipes always brings me joy. Bringing out all the wonderful glassware and serving dishes that have sat idle for over six months.
I hope everyone is able to find joy in the upcoming months, whether it be with others, or simply on your own. I may just snuggle with my one year old lab Bailey and watch the weather outside my windows. But I’m sure you’re going to see me right out in every kind of weather because Bailey wants to be an “outside” dog and we both can use the exercise that getting outside provides.
As this growing season comes to an end, it won’t be long before the gardening catalogs start appearing in our mailboxes and we can start looking over all the pictures we took this year of our plants and containers to get ideas for next season. Remember to smile…another growing season will be here before we know it!