Wheelbarrow Days - PaolaPrints

Leaf drop is in full swing and the wheelbarrow has been overloaded per usual this time of year. Remember this-frost is coming! First frost could come as early as October 5 here in Connecticut, probably starting closer to October 19. Hard to believe. The glads are in the basement and transplanting is under way. I planted some dutch iris a few years ago and discovered they were yellow. The plant shape worked really well behind the astilbe but the color wasn’t my favorite.

*The new iris I planted are a combination of blue, green and white. Can’t wait to see them. The large stone sitting to the right volunteered itself as I was excavating .*

The Real Reason I Garden

To make beautiful designs from my garden flowers!!! See a favorite new chiffon scarf just in!

*Hydrangea Blue -I have one in stock and another too that I call Snowflake.*

Crazy Jumping Worms. Every Gardener’s Nightmare.

The bad worm invasion is well underway in the northeast. I have a serious infestation in the beds and am on the move to combat them. There is as yet, no known cure. The down side? The worms multiply even as they winter over. They degrade the soil and deny nutrients to plants we love. I’ve noticed it in the ground cover. The Golden Carpet I planted this Spring just couldn’t keep up and literally fell out of the beds. As I started to rake the edge of the beds where the soil was tumbling, I discovered generous helpings of worms just below the surface trying to escape. I reached out once again to friends at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. They didn’t disappoint. A new fact sheet just published at the end of September will tell you how to see if your soil has these invasive worms and what you can do.

As there is not yet a cure for invasive worms, the recommendation is to add abrasive materials like biochar and diatomaceous earth to the soil to make the garden less friendly. I don’t know if it will help but decided to rake a trough along the edge of the beds out and put sand in against the metal edging.

This week, I’ll be sending my soil out for testing to see what nutrients I need to get back into the garden to support the plants. Great idea for any garden. When the arborist came out to spray my boxwoods he looked around at the copious trees around the garden and suggested I consider balancing the acid from leaves and rain with an additive to the soil. Never would have occurred to me! Next week the samples will get mailed out. https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/CAES/DOCUMENTS/Publications/Brochures/CAES-Soil-Testing-Trifold-Brochure_Web.pdf