Saturday, October 1, 2011

Fall Gardening Tips

I'd like to share with you some of the things I do in my garden in the fall.  When I clean out my flower pots I remove the Geraniums, shake off the dirt, tie them with string loosely and hang them upside down in the garage or ( basement if you have one).  Or you can also put them in a cardboard box and place them in the garage too. The Geraniums hold water so they will stay dorment thru the winter.  When I get them out in the spring to replant them most of them have already started to grow.
I don't normally cut the branches off,  except this one is going in my studio so I cut it up.


In the spring I repot them and voila! Here's one of them this summer.
Now onto my Zinnias. My favorite is the State Fair mix, they grow very tall.

Through out the summer when the flowers look dried out and before the petals fall off, I cut the dead heads off and throw them into a paper bag. I leave the bag on a shelf in the garage and in the spring when its warm enough to work outside, I loosen the soil and smash the dried flowers in my fingers and they fall into the soil and reseed themselves. The seeds are attached at the end of the dry petals. They grow fast.


My Bachelor Buttons Grow over 2ft tall. They are a perennial.When they start to bloom out in the middle of summer, I take my hedge clippers and cut them almost to the ground. They come right back as a new plant and they are in beautiful bloom right now.

Now for the snapdragons, I never pull out the plants at the end of the growing year. These are annuals but they almost always come back the following spring.  Same goes for marigolds.
Can you see the difference in the color of the pictures of my morning glories? I keep the seeds and replant them every year, but this year they are alot darker blue than they have been. So i'll collect the seeds soon and I wonder what color they will be next summer, Navy blue?





6 comments:

Cindy Adkins said...

Wow, How beautiful your flowers are, Mary!! "How does your garden grow?" just like the nursery rhyme!

I wanted to tell you what a favicon is....I will be covering it all in Seminar 2 next week, but see the little "B" for blogger at the top when a blogger blog is open? Well, if you go to any of my blogs, they are all customized. I have my own favicon and it just looks more professional. I found out about them because I have a website and that is what I needed it for. Before I knew it, each blog had one too!!!

So, if you take a quick look at my blog, look in the address bar and to the left, you will see a little itty bitty picture--that's a favicon.

And you can make one for yours too...Just follow the directions that are on my magazine blog....It has an address where to go to make them and every step for you to follow. I have never seen a tutorial like mine and I wanted to make sure that all my blogger friends could make one too!!!

Happy Pink Saturday to you! and really, your garden is beautiful.
XO
Cindy

romance-of-roses said...

Hi Mary, would you believe that I was just coming over to pay you a visit when in came yours...wow! Thanks for the great garden advice, I did not know you could do that with geraniums. I had the shingles last summer and the only thing that took away my pain was geranium oil, it's just wonderful. Thanks again and I love your garden. Smiles...Lu

Celestina Marie said...

Hi Mary,
Your garden tips are so helpful and your flowers are beautiful. I will have to try the geranium one for sure.
My morning glories never bloomed this year. I think we were just too hot over 100 for 71 days.
I so hope your back is doing better and your have a wonderful Fall season. Thank you for stopping by for a visit. So great to see you. Have a nice week ahead.
Blessings and hugs, Celestina Marie

Ikealady said...

Thanks for your kind comment on my blog.
I shall really try your way to preserve my Geraniums.
Have tried so many methods but there are only just one of two that
normally survives.
Perhaps our garage is too warm.
Your Geraniums looks lovely.
Today Oct 2 one my roses
The Prairie Dawn is still blooming like it haven´t realized that it is fall.
I can see it from one of my kitchen windows while I am cooking and that is really nice.
Love your unicorn by the way, he is really cute.
Regards, Ikealady

Denise said...

Oooo How wonderful!Thank you for so much info.I loved it.Thanks also for your sweet comments on my blog. Denise

Kim Hanauer said...

Mary,
Thank you so much for your comment! The garden tips are great! I will definitely give them a try. Happy Pink weekend~
Kim

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