Well, I’ve neglected this blog for long enough, haven’t I? There’s nothing too extraordinary going on in the garden at the moment, just routine fall chores of cleaning up and clearing out.
What is a little different this year is that we had a slightly late Indian summer and then another stretch of relatively warm weather a couple weeks ago, so a lot of the things that would be going dormant now are only just getting the idea. It’s nice to have it stretched out a bit, actually, because it makes the fall chores a little more relaxed.
All of the truly tender things are inside and have been for at least a week now. I turned the heat on a few days ago. Bringing plants in well before the central heating goes on helps them to cope with the shock in stages rather than all at once. Some things (turmeric and ginger) will be allowed to dry out and go dormant, while the things that don’t have a dormant cycle will be kept going as best I can.
I think I have to face reality and invest in a light garden. I have too many houseplants/tropical plants to fit comfortably in the sunny places now, and overcrowding them is, in the long term, a recipe for horticultural disaster. I already have a few grow lights, but I will need those for starting seedlings early next year.
