SEATTLE — Seattle Gardening Guru Ciscoe Morris says don’t let fall fool ya- there’s still plenty to do in the garden.
"You’ve really got to put it to bed, and you want to get rid of the ugly stuff so it doesn't look horrible for the neighbors. But at the same time you want to leave some things that are going to feed the birds,” he said, pointing out some echinacea that had seen better days.
“I know you're looking at these coneflowers thinkin' that does not look pretty. Oh la la but if you were a bird you would think it’s great, because these are packed with seeds birds love to eat!” He advises leaving seed heads in the garden for feathered friends.
He adds that plants with decaying broad leaves like his Golden Flame calla lily should be cut back. But after cutting back the leaves, there needs to be something in place to keep our Northwest fall storms from soaking the bulbs to the point of rotting in the ground. Ciscoe has a great organic solution that involves recycling parts if another plant he’s cleaning up.
"So what I do is I put evergreen fern fronds over it! Why evergreen fern fronds? They're one of the best insulators I know, but best of all it repels water. It lets a little get through to keep it healthy and growing, but it doesn't let it just get saturated and rot.” Ciscoe also says once you’ve laid fern fronds over what you want to protect, put a stone on top to keep them from blowing away.
Fragile garden art should go into storage now also.
Prune your spent roses to tidy them up but be sure to leave some of the old blooms so that they can form rose hips. This signals to the rose that growing season is over, and helps it slip into dormancy for the winter.
Finally, Ciscoe leaves his big allium seed heads right where they are in order to feed birds – but they have another use as well – to remind him where his allium bulbs come springtime. If he doesn’t mark the spot, he’ll try to put a new plant there and slice those bulbs right in half when he’s digging the hole.
And if you’re a neat freak and need to remove those allium seed heads – mark the spot with a special rock to keep you from digging there later in the season. Ciscoe's says “Eat Brussels Sprouts & Be Happy.”
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