FALL CHORES

The morning after hurricane Floyd roared his way through central New Hampshire, I awoke to shocking devastation. Trees fractured in half, power lines down, and my garden flattened. The strong northeast winds that accompanied Floyd shredded leaves and plastered them to every available surface. Houses and cars looked like they had grown irregular green scales overnight. Peppers and tomatoes were strewn around the yard as though a huge hand shook the plants violently and then batted the fruits about. Hardly a pepper was left on the plants. The tall annuals and perennials that weren't snapped off were prostrate on the mulch. Sunflowers suffered the fate of many trees, their heads hanging to the ground on broken stems. The oddest part was that nothing was uprooted, not even the trees.

Once I got over the initial trauma of seeing my garden in ruins, I realized Floyd's destruction began my fall chores. It was time to start clearing out. I love this time of year. The drudgery of weeding and watering, the endless hours of preserving the harvest start slowing down and I can enjoy the days, crisp and cool as the first bite of an apple. I'm ready to get back out there and get my hands dirty.

I like to let my perennials and some of the self-seeding annuals go to seed. This makes for a rather ratty looking late summer garden and fall's the time to tidy the mess. I shake each dried perennial stalk a few times before pruning it back to the soil line. If I have a bare patch in the garden, I may shake the seeds over it too. Dead annuals get uprooted, of course, but receive the same shake treatment. Plants that are exceptional self-seeders include coreopsis, digitalis, hollyhock, anise hysop, nicotiana, cleome, and cosmos.

Many gardeners don't realize that early fall is a perfect time to plant more than spring-flowering bulbs. Go ahead. Take advantage of those fall shrub and tree sales. You need not worry they won't set a good root system before snow flies. The plants are just beginning to go dormant for the winter and that means they will put their efforts into establishing roots after being planted, rather than making leaves or flowers.

As far as spring bulbs are concerned, don't be too eager to plant daffodils. Wait until we've had a few good cold snaps, otherwise they may not stay dormant. Any new growth put up now will just be killed off. Besides, it wastes the resources stored in the bulb and lessens next spring's show. If bulb suppliers insist on sending you daffs too early, as they always seem to do, store the bulbs in a cool (less than 50 degrees F) dry place until you can plant them. It is perfectly all right to plant tulips now. They don't tend to break dormancy the way daffodils do.

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