Fall Gardening
Yesterday was the Fall Equinox, as you may know. I did a little unplanned gardening.
A couple of weeks ago, I picked up some basil that was on sale at a local shop, but the moon was waning and the weather was cooler and rougher than it normally is at this time of year, so I hadn't yet planted. I was thinking of keeping it potted over the winter and planting it in the spring, but it clearly was not very happy in the pot. It seemed to want to be in the ground, so yesterday in it went. Basil is an annual, so I'll have to get some organic mulch on it too, if I hope for it to survive the winter. But I live in USDA Zone 8, so sometimes annuals here act like perennials.
I also moved several small thyme clumps from various garden patches to a single large container at my back doorstep.
I laid down some black plastic around the rosemary bush to keep down weeds over the winter. The basil and oregano also got black plastic around them. I finally got some stakes up to surround the mugwort, which always grows huge in the summer, falling down over the other herbs and generally making a big mess. I still need to get some kind of twine around the stakes, but the stakes are certainly a step in the right direction. I don't have to mulch around the mugwort or lemon balm because they are much too fierce for weeds to mess around with them. These herbs love to grow big and strong! Each year, I spend part of my gardening time pulling their babies up from other spots in the garden.
A few bulbs I missed when I harvested my garlic were sprouting again already, so I pulled them up, separated them, and replanted them. The cloves are small, but I hope to manage a bit of garlic out of them anyway.
I still need to harvest a bit of the rosemary, and my sage is just enormous this year. I'll cut some of that for drying in the next day or two.
Photo of my herb garden to come!
A couple of weeks ago, I picked up some basil that was on sale at a local shop, but the moon was waning and the weather was cooler and rougher than it normally is at this time of year, so I hadn't yet planted. I was thinking of keeping it potted over the winter and planting it in the spring, but it clearly was not very happy in the pot. It seemed to want to be in the ground, so yesterday in it went. Basil is an annual, so I'll have to get some organic mulch on it too, if I hope for it to survive the winter. But I live in USDA Zone 8, so sometimes annuals here act like perennials.
I also moved several small thyme clumps from various garden patches to a single large container at my back doorstep.
I laid down some black plastic around the rosemary bush to keep down weeds over the winter. The basil and oregano also got black plastic around them. I finally got some stakes up to surround the mugwort, which always grows huge in the summer, falling down over the other herbs and generally making a big mess. I still need to get some kind of twine around the stakes, but the stakes are certainly a step in the right direction. I don't have to mulch around the mugwort or lemon balm because they are much too fierce for weeds to mess around with them. These herbs love to grow big and strong! Each year, I spend part of my gardening time pulling their babies up from other spots in the garden.
A few bulbs I missed when I harvested my garlic were sprouting again already, so I pulled them up, separated them, and replanted them. The cloves are small, but I hope to manage a bit of garlic out of them anyway.
I still need to harvest a bit of the rosemary, and my sage is just enormous this year. I'll cut some of that for drying in the next day or two.
Photo of my herb garden to come!
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