Veggies in Autumn

Parsley in front with snow peas behind.

     I am repeatedly surprised by the huge number of people who give up on their vegetable gardens a couple of weeks after Labor Day. Our season at this latitude is short enough without chopping off the hind end of it. Today is November 1, so I thought it would be a good time to give a "state of my garden" report.

     My cukes and zucchinis made it into the first week in October before giving up the ghost, along with their last fruits. Our Italian basil gave up about ten days ago, but it appears that Thai basil is made of sterner stuff. The leaves are small and sparse, but still healthy, and a little bit goes a long way.

     We ate our last green beans last night after we added all their leaves and stems to the composter.

     We had a frost scare last night, so we picked any tomato or pepper that was turning red, while leaving the green ones alone. Years ago when I had more time and energy, I would have rushed out to throw a tarp over these plants. Now I am too lazy. I just hedge my bets and go to sleep soundly. Sure enough, it was a false alarm. The tomatoes and peppers are fine.

     These are the "tender" veggies and will be lucky to go another two weeks. But there is a lot more out there. The parsley is luxuriant, and the broccoli must be working on its 12th harvest by now. Our Swiss chard is going to give us harvest number 5.

     We pulled one Brussels sprout plant too early just for fun, but we have the real harvest here ahead of us. The spinach seeds we planted germinated only spottily, but what we have is doing well and will probably be added to the chard when the time comes.

Flowering Snow Peas

     But the star of the fall show is our patch of snow peas. You may recall that our spring crop ran out of gas in mid-July. We waited about three weeks, then planted a new crop in August. This is what they looked like yesterday. The 30" plants on the right have already given us one crop and are still flowering like mad.

     The plants on the left were a big surprise. They are over 5 feet tall and everything else about them is over-  sized as well. They only began to flower last week and are in a real race to produce before the cold gets them. For these guys I might actually get out with a tarp just once. 

     All of these plants will survive a series of light frosts -- the kind we get frequently in late fall. Their speed of growth slows down but they do continue growing and producing. I hope to be harvesting some of these crops over Thanksgiving weekend.

     So why rush out and end everything? Yes, it is true: when you finally do your garden clean-up, it will be colder. But you don't have to do anything now and you get rewarded with more food as well. A genuinely lazy gardener like me cannot pass this up.

The Back Side of Storm Sandy in Chicago

     A very busy spell followed by a major computer meltdown kept me away far longer than I expected. In penance I offer a few photos of Lake Michigan as it caught the back end  of Sandy.

     This guy got soaked. He was one of six people I saw who were foolish enough to come to the lake despite official warnings.

     This was one of the views from Promontory Point near the University of Chicago. Weather reports claimed wind gusts of up to 50 MPH and waves up to 25 feet on the lake yesterday. The lake looked a bit like the Atlantic ocean.

     Across the waves one can see the downtown Chicago skyline. The walk is wet from spray I carefully avoided. The temperature was in the '40's, so the fierce winds made the lakeside bone-chilling. I was dressed warmly enough , but I needed bare hands to use the camera. When my fingers refused to move I beat a hasty retreat. No body surfing today, thank you.

       To my friends on the real Atlantic, I hope all is well.  

NOT YET

     That is my answer to clients who have been calling to ask about putting mulch down for the winter. It is still good planting weather out there. We can't even plant bulbs for another month because it is too warm -- and it is supposed to hit 80 one day next week. So let us not be in too big a hurry to welcome winter back.

     Many people put down mulch way too early because they don't really understand what it does. It's job is not to keep plants warm like a sweater. Rather its main job is to keep the temperature around plant roots from fluctuating wildly.

     Most of us in Chicago are aware of the lake's effect on temperature. Since the denser water changes temperature more slowly than the air, the shore area tends to stay cooler during the day and warmer at night. Similarly, lake shore temperatures tend to be cooler during spring and summer and warmer during fall and winter.

     The land acts the same way. It changes temperature more slowly than the air above it, and the deeper down you go the less affected it is by air temperature.

     By adding an extra layer on top, your mulch is in effect pushing your plant roots further down and making them less subject, not so much to cold weather per se, but to the variations in temperature that those of us above ground love so much.  Those variations may include a -30 degree cold snap that lasts a day or two. But they also include those January thaw days, and the cycles of freezing and thawing that cause frost heave in our plants and even kill them.

     Plants respond to the shorter days and lower temperatures of fall by beginning to shut more and more processes down and going dormant. When we put down mulch too early, we are fooling our plants into staying active longer than they should. So lets not get into too big a rush. Let your plants go through several hard freezes when your thermometer breaks 20 degrees before you reach for the mulching shovel.

SEPTEMBER

     It is mid-September and no longer summer mainly in the sense that our weeks in the 90's are probably over and we can stray from our AC units. The average first frost date here is supposed to be October 15, but I am betting we get at least two weeks to a month longer. My fall crop of snow peas planted the second half of August are doing well, and the spinach seeds that I procrastinated planting popped up last week. Along with my parsley, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, they should continue to thrive through the first several frosts.

     September is one of the best months to plant trees, shrubs and perennials. The soil is still warm. The early, energy-consuming spurts of growth are over, and the roots can comfortably establish themselves before winter. You can plant perennials as long as there is enough foliage left to determine that the plant is healthy. If I cannot tell, I prefer to wait. Trees and shrubs can be planted as long as you can get a shovel in the ground.  We have plenty of time left to figure out what to do with them, although you should keep in mind that nurseries want to run out of stock before winter, so your selection will become more and more limited.

     The same thing is true of bulbs. Moreover, the best way to buy bulbs is mail-order, so you need a little lead time for that. Most nurseries will keep your babies safe in a controlled environment until they think it is time for you to plant in late October or November, but you will have them reserved and don't have to fear  that they will no longer be available. We can talk more about planting when the time comes closer. For now you need to begin deciding what you want. For more about bulbs you can see my entries last November.

     If you want to throw your money away on tulips that last only a few years, be my guest. But be sure to include in addition some  perennial workhorses that naturalize in your garden and provide those wonderful harbingers of spring year after year. I am talking about spring bulbs like Crocus, Muscari (grape hyacinths). Narcissi (daffodils), and Galanthus (snowdrops).



     The smaller and earlier-blooming Crocus and Snowdrops can be planted directly in the lawn if you wish. Their bloom will be over before the grass begins to grow and they can be mowed right along with the rest. I like to tuck my larger bulbs behind perennials. There they can shine while your other plants are barely noticeable, but as they fade the later plants grow up to conceal them.

     But above all, think big. Don't plant some spindly little row  of 20 bulbs that will barely be noticed. Follow the instructions for your plant and pack as many bulbs in each square foot as you can. If you want to experiment first or have a small budget, pack all the bulbs you can into one square foot and then add more next fall. I know neighbors with small to medium yards who have 6000 bulbs planted and the yard is not crowded. Just make sure you can still see your perennials when you plant so you can plant all around them.

   Bulbs are one of the most under-utilized elements in the garden palette. Planted with enthusiasm they can be spectacular -- and add weeks to our spring flowering season. So go wild!

Sweet Autumn Clematis

Clematis paniculata

     Sweet Autumn  Clematis is a controversial plant. Botanists cannot even agree on what its Latin name is. Besides C. paniculata, other candidates for the plant include C. terniflora and C. maximowicziana (seriously!).

     This vine has many champions for many good reasons. It is a robust grower; it seems to thrive on neglect (for us lazy gardeners); and it even blooms in the shade. Best of all, you can train it to climb over any ugly spot you have in the yard. And it has a lovely perfume in bloom. There are few plants in the garden as spectacularly beautiful in September.

     Alas, our Sweet Autumn has her detractors as well. For one thing, she arrived here from Japan in 1864. That is well before many of us arrived here, but it still does not make her a native. Most of us plant people have nothing against "foreign" plants -- as long as they don't escape the garden and begin competing with our native species in the wild. Sweet Autumn is not on Chicago Botanic Garden's invasive list. It is, however, a "robust" grower. One expert describes it as "extremely vigorous to the point of
viciousness."

     I have worked with one of these vines for 10 years or more, and I had to dig it up and relocate it about 5 years ago. It was easy to transplant and, after a tenuous first year, re-established itself in new territory. In all that time I found it both pretty and well behaved. This year, however, it really took off and began scrambling all over the ruin of an old wooden play set. This is exactly what my client wanted to happen. Vigorous growth does not seem to be a problem so long as you know that you have to train the plant, prune ruthlessly in late winter and then chop away over the season. Planting in partial shade will also slow it down and give us lazy people time to react when it grows where we don't want it.

     The other new development this year, however, was the appearance of new seedlings in various parts of the yard -- including some that were trying to climb up the AC units. So much for the lazy gardener. This year, at least, I will have to be on the alert to remove these uninvited guests before they get established. Still, one year of aggravation out of ten is not so bad, and my client's "ruin" looks gorgeous.

     But don't say that I didn't warn you.

EATEN ALIVE!

     Does this look familiar? Besides a plague of powdery mildew and other diseases,  our plants this year are suffering from a plague of hungry insects like this Japanese beetle. In part this is payback for our wonderfully warm winter. During that second week in February when we are asking ourselves why on earth we live in Chicago and dreaming of a home in Zone 7, we are not considering the advantages of a nice, cold winter.

     Both fungal spores and insect larvae have to hide out somewhere during the winter. The Japanese beetle lays eggs in the soil, where they become grubs the following year. Eggs and spores that cannot survive a typical winter here mean that those species cannot plague us here.They plague our friends further south instead. But within our zone the harsher the winter the lower the survival rate for any organism exposed to it.  From that point of view, our motto should be, "Let it freeze, let it freeze, let it freeze." There is no free lunch -- except for the beetles chewing on our roses.

     So what to do about these unwelcome guests? Our options for getting rid of adult beetles are fairly limited. They are clumsy fliers and some people try to knock them off into a liquid. There are lots of beetle traps available, which I think are more trouble than they are worth. If you are feeling more adventurous than I, there is a wasp called Tiphia vernalis that preys on adult beetles. It is more available to the east of us than it is here, but it is effective. Otherwise you are stuck with some of the standard poisons like Malathion and Carbaryl. The plant based insecticide, Rotenone, can also be tried although it is rated less effective than the first two.

     Prospects look much better when it comes to attacking the grubs. My lawn clients have been using Milky Spore -- a bacterium that eventually kills off the grubs that become Japanese beetles. Like most organic methods, however, it takes a while to become fully effective - in this case 2-4 years. For more immediate results you can use Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

     Any of these methods will help you get your insects under control. but it will not get rid of them. Just like digging up all your dandelions will not prevent seeds from next door from drifting over, your efforts here will not stop Japanese beetles from flying in from the next block the following day and settling down again. Sigh. The real benefit of gardening is that it teaches us patience.

MORE PLAGUES --PART ONE

     We have experienced more plagues this summer than just drought. One of them has been an explosion of powdery mildew. A traditional enemy of common  lilacs, this fungus attacks many shrubs, perennials, fruits and vegetables. The nursery industry has devoted many years to developing mildew-resistant strains of your favorite plants, and this has been a big help. Proper housekeeping and clean-up by home-owners, especially at the end of the season, also helps. For most people powdery mildew has been only an occasional problem on some plants.

     Not this year. There is now powdery mildew in almost every yard. Peonies and phlox have been particularly hard-hit. The problem started, I believe, during the monsoons of last summer, when all our rainfall and humidity allowed the disease to gain new foot-holds. By the time we began to notice problems, the season was drawing to a close, so most of us did not do much about it. The mildew had a chance to create its spores, and they  in turn had a wonderfully easy time surviving our mild winter. The result is the minor epidemic we see now. And all the recent watering we have done with sprinklers has spread the fungus even more. One of the first things you can do to resist powdery mildew is to replace your sprinklers with soaker hoses in your shrub and perennial beds.

     Powdery mildew is easy to spot, as you can tell from the photograph. It harms fruit and vegetable production. For most plants it is disabling, but not fatal. It is, of course, disfiguring. Some of us have lived with our old mildewed lilacs for years, but other plants can be too ugly to look at.

     The first step in controlling this pest is pruning. You should prune out as much diseased foliage as is practical, and, while you are at it, prune the area to thin and to increase air circulation as well. The leaves should not be composted. They are covered with spores that can spread the disease elsewhere. For badly infected perennials that have already bloomed (like peonies), it is probably better to cut the entire plant to the ground and wait for next year. Clean the ground around the plants thoroughly as well and remove any mulch you have in the immediate area. Again, remember those spores.

     As for treatment, organic methods, are, as usual, more work and less effective than others, but still worth trying first. The easiest is to mix 1/2 tsp. of baking soda with a quart of water and spray regularly. This increases the leaves' PH and makes them more inhospitable to the fungus. Neets  oil is also recommended by some. Sulfur is one of the most effective  treatments for garden diseases. You can make  your own sulfur solution  with a garlic press, a strainer and a quart of water. Garlic has a high sulfur content.

     If you are discouraged by this, you can always "nuke 'em" by using a commercial fungicide that contains sulfur or triforine. Read the label carefully. While toxic in liquid form, many are much less so once they have dried. It is worth mentioning that even these products don't "cure"what is already damaged; they just prevent new damage. And they are most effective when the fungus is first evident.

     In short there are no miracles here. To have a better season next year you need first to clean up thoroughly this fall. Then look for disease resistant cultivars when you buy new plants next spring. Use soaker hoses. And thin your plants to get plenty of air circulating. After all, how much garlic do you want to crush when you can not even eat it?