Tearing my cutting garden apart and replanting it is one of my most labor intensive annual garden projects. I'd thought I might put it off until early November but the Santa Ana winds brought my dahlia season to an abrupt end. I started removing dahlias from the raised planters last Friday, moving on to the zinnias and other plants on Monday.
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| This was what the cutting garden looked like on October 19th, when the winds got started |
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| All but the last 4 dahlias in containers have been pulled up. I tossed 2 plants out but I still have more than I want to store through their dormant period. Once I clean them up, I'll try to take some divisions and perhaps give away some clumps. |
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| I had all the zinnias and coneflowers pulled up by Monday afternoon but forgot to put them out for neighbors until after dark. However, there were just 5 bottles of flowers left when I went to photograph them the following morning. The rest were gone before the end of the day. |
After all the plants were removed from the raised beds, it was time to refresh the soil in preparation for replanting them.
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| I mixed in soil especially designed for raised beds, a bit of regular compost, and worm compost. I worked around several anemones that came back from last year's crop. |
Once the beds were ready for planting, I start sowing sweet pea seeds, before moving on to bulbs and plugs of cool season annuals.
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| It's generally recommended to start sweet peas in September here so I'm well behind schedule but then that was the case last year too. I couldn't get hold of some of my favorites like 'Blue Shift' but I still had more seeds than I could possibly use in the raised planter reserved for them. I soaked the seeds for 12 hours prior to sowing them. |
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| I also soaked my Anemone coronaria for 4 hours prior to planting. I invested in 5 varieties of Italian Anemones this year: 'Mistral Rosa Chiaro', 'Mistral Plus Rarity', 'Mistral Bianco Centro Nero', 'Mistral Azzuro', and 'Mistral Grape'. They're more expensive but they put on a good show. |
My Ranunculus corms are still in transit but I'm happy to be more than halfway done with the replanting process.
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| This is what the beds looked like late yesterday afternoon. In addition to the sweet pea seeds and the anemones, I sowed Nigella papillosa and Consolida ajacis (larkspur) seeds, and added a dozen Antirrhinum majus (snapdragon) plugs. |
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| Closeups of the 3 raised planters. I've laid down pieces of hardware cloth in 2 of the beds in an effort to keep the birds and critters from foraging there until the seeds germinate. |
According to the seller, the Ranunculus corms I ordered won't arrive until Monday so my projects for the weekend will be cleaning up the dahlia tubers to get them ready for storage and/or cleaning up the back slope, two of my least favorite tasks. Of course, if it rains on Saturday, I may get a reprieve; however, the most recent forecast for my area shows that the chance of that happening has dropped to twenty percent. It also now projects no measurable rain for us, which is disappointing to say the least.
Another recent disappointment is that the peafowl are back. To my dismay but the cat's delight, three peahens showed up in our back garden Wednesday morning.
Even with the current rain forecast what it is, my fingers are crossed that we'll get a little. For one thing, a bit of downtime would be much appreciated right now. Have a nice weekend. And, if you haven't already done so, VOTE!
All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
Peahens the reality stars of Meeko's TV? Do they attract Coyotes?
ReplyDeleteYour ready-for-rain tidied beds look great. 'Mermaid's Dream' was quite pretty here last year, tho they started flowering several weeks later than 'April In Paris' or 'Cupani'.
Did quite a bit of chopping here. More to go. Voted, of course. California (unlike some other states) makes it easy. A tree guy is coming tomorrow to trim the tall hedges. They've gotten too tall for me.
According to the survey filed by her prior owner when she was deposited at the shelter, Meeko has a history of being a "scaredy cat." That was the case in her response to the stray dogs recently so I was glad she was more interested than nervous when she saw the peahens for the second time - even though they're about 3 times her size! Although peafowl are common on the peninsula, the fact that we didn't have any in our area has always been attributed to an active coyote population. We know the coyotes are still active but, for whatever reason, this new peafowl family seems to have avoided predation. Maybe the city has been moving them out - there were a LOT of complaints about coyotes during the peak Covid years.
Delete'Mermaid's Dream' was one of the first of the sweet peas to bloom in my garden last year - at least that's what I thought it was. 'April in Paris' didn't bloom until the very end of the season. We'll see what happens in 2025!
We are going to get out first measurable rain overnight-hoping for 1/2 inch. I planted out all my saved and new Ranunculus yesterday and today and started hardening off the Sweet Williams -have you ever tried those Kris ? They are so easy from seed and produce like crazy in spring for me. I started them inside under my lights about a month ago. My sweet pea plans were dashed when I realized that the space I planned for them has been in full shade since Sept. I had already planted shelling peas in the spot I did sweetpeas in the last couple of years. I need to pick another spot.
ReplyDeleteI'm envious if your rain, Kathy! Our chance of it tomorrow has plummeted to 24% so I'm no longer expecting anything. I've only occasional grown sweet william and always from plugs rather than seeds but they did hold up for an extended period in one of my barrels. I hand water the barrels but expect that my borders would be too dry for them. The Ranunculus in my raised planters also need more water than my borders offer. At some point I suspect the borders will consist mostly of succulents...
DeleteLots of fall gardening action going on. I've not been as ambitious. Started drying apples, but am a bit behind. The peahens are disturbing. Something I would obsessively worry about while I was away at work, but at least you are home to guide them somewhere else. Can you remind me or point to a link on how you prepare and store your dahlias for winter? I've got a tuberous Nasturtium that will need to go dormant at some point and I am a little nervous about accidentally killing it.
ReplyDeleteEverything I know about digging up and storing dahlia tubers I learned from Floret Farms, Jerry. Floret's online workshop is currently available and you can "enroll" here (watching it on your own schedule): https://workshop.floretflowers.com/2024-dahlias-fall-mini-course-opt-in
DeleteThe hardest part of storing dahlia tubers is dividing them beforehand. Most form very big clumps over the course of the growing season but I'm guessing that might not be an issue with Nasturtiums. For dahlias, I give them a short time to dry after digging them up, hose them of dirt, divide them if appropriate, let them dry again (but not so long that the tubers wither or go soft), seal them in a bag or container covered in either perlite or vermiculite, and then store them in a cool, dry spot (a cupboard in the garage in our case).
Un grande lavoro quello delle aiuole da taglio! Complimenti! Inoltre spero davvero che arrivi la pioggia che desideri.
ReplyDeletePrima di salutarti voglio dirti che mi sono piaciuti troppo i tuoi pavoni, quasi come al tuo gatto!
Un caro saluto e a risentirci presto!
Thanks Gabriel. Unfortunately, we did not get any measurable rain at all - the skies just spit at us yesterday and today is windy and very dry. Hopefully, it will arrive later this month.
DeleteThe peafowl, especially the peacocks, are attractive birds but they can be noisy pests. As temporary visitors, they are fine but I hope they will not become permanent residents!
My goodness, that looks like a lot of work Kris. You certainly do a job thoroughly. Do you have to dig your dahlias up, won't they survive outside? Or is it because you need the space? The peahens are pretty, are they destructive in the garden?
ReplyDeleteDahlia tubers can remain in the ground here but, yes, I dig them up to make use of the space for cool season plants. I also do it to manage their water requirements. If I left them in the raised planters while replanting, the dahlia tubers would quickly rot. And I don't put them in my borders because they need much more much water during their growing season than any of my borders get. As to the peafowl, they're both noisy and destructive, at least when there are lots of them, as is the case in some areas of our peninsula. We previously had only occasional visitors, usually juvenile males who've been kicked out of their family nests. This year, they formed a family group, which is showing signs of remaining here - unless the coyotes drive them out.
DeleteOh a job or should I say jobs well done Kris. It sounds like you are most organised in your approach. Such pretty illustrations on the Renee's Garden seed packets. 'April In Paris' is beautifully scented. I've never soaked my sweet pea seeds although I do soak anemones 😀
ReplyDeleteWith the amount of rain you get, soaking your sweet pea seeds probably isn't necessary, Anna! Given how dry we are year for months on end, my seeds need that moisture boost :)
DeleteIt is exciting to anticipate the vases we'll enjoy once your new plantings begin blooming. I adore sweet peas, anemones and ranunculus.
ReplyDeleteYour dahlia tubers look robust. I finally dug mine last week, but have yet to divide them, a chore I don't feel I am good at, those eyes are tough to see. But I can't wait until spring as the roots get too tough for me to cut through. When do you divide yours? Eliza
While I've sometimes left the dahlia clumps alone until spring when I prepare to plant them, this year many were too large to store like that so I ended up dividing them. However, I still left some smaller ones intact as clumps, just trimming off the broken or damaged tubers attached to the main stem. The dahlias that are easiest to divide are those that have more than one strong stems - holding on to 2 stems you should be able to jiggle them apart, leaving small clumps of only 2 or 3 tubers. The dahlias with one big fat stem are admittedly hard to deal with - I usually turn the clump upside down and hack it into 2 parts roughly down the middle. I inevitably damage some of those tubers but there are usually plenty left even after I've removed those I cut into. FWIW, I have a terrible time detecting the tubers' eyes too, Eliza! But I no longer try to separate all the dahlias down to a single "perfect" tuber. I note that many growers (e.g. Eden Bros) offer clumps rather than individual tubers.
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