THE TILTH-Y BITS

I had such a nice time in the garden today! We had a long and arduous weekend. Parties on friday for Hubbie's  work. Then went to  Sunrise Tree Farm on Saturday and got a fat, wonderful, and TOTALLY unmanageably heavy tree for the house. Saturday evening went to Namaste Vineyards and had a wonderful meal with owners Dave and Kassie. Got up next morning and Hubbie began the process of putting the lights on the tree. OMG!!!! Lights were out, took two trips to store to get more. Then that evening had a tree trimming party with friends. (tree photos later) So blasted tired from all the fun and food!
I figured it was time for me to (literally) get back to my roots. The garden was a mess, it always is around this time of year. Its wet, its been wet and it will be wet for the next 6 months!!! Stuff is rotting, covered with mildew, and crawling in slugs and slime. Not a very pretty sight. That's why I will not subject you to photos. (I'm SO nice!) Here's one when it IS nice (and dry).

 So it was out into the yard, gloves on, clippers in my apron and the kitties keeping me company. I am a big believer in mulch. In the backyard  the Oak tree provides a good leafy cover. It's easy, leave the leaves right where they've fallen on the grass and mow the lawn.  As you mow, the leaves and grass mix and TA DAA! Mulch! I then toss this messy mix around the gardens and apply a little extra on top of plants that may need protecting;  Hostas come to mind. The rest is placed in a pile to compost and break down  for the spring.

One very popular plant, if you have the room, is the Comfrey plant, also known as Boneset. The leaves are VERY high in nitrogen and are great for fertilizer. It is also a Medicinal herb. I have made salves from it. If you choose to try it please read up on it. Never use a home herbal remedy without knowing about it. Today I cut off all the leaves and dumped them into the compost. They'll break down and add nitrogen to my garden in the spring.
Next the tops of many plants have withered and rotted so I clip off the tops, pulling away any particularly icky leaves and dump these. I have found that keeping the tops contributes to some diseases and allows last years buggies to remain nice and warm in the compost. Not in MY yard you insect! These tops may have seed and if you place this in the compost you may get more than you bargained for when they germinate. I did this with a tomato plant and had tiny little tomatoes everywhere but where I wanted them.

One nice thing about the wet soil here is that it is easy to pull out plants and weeds at this time of year. The soil is soft and wet enough a good tug can lift out a great many pesky roots. I like Asters but their root systems are very agressive. Be warned once you got 'em they got you babe. This time of year I can pull on the stems and the plant, root and all, comes out. There will still be plenty of roots that sneakily stay put but you can pull them up as they stick their little sprouts out of the soil.
I trimmed Dahlia stems - they were all gucky and rotten. Oh yes! Be sure you have MARKED the locations of your plants! Use any kind of marker you like - here's my favorite Markers . They're tall so I don't lose sight of them in the summer when other plants may block my view. When you are happily pulling away and trouncing those nasty weeds, its good to know where the good guys are planted (been there, done it, WAY too many times).
Where was I? Oh yes the Dahlias. Some people will leave the bulbs in the ground here. I do a bit of both. Some I Store and I leave the rest where they are if I have been leased with their growth. I have already done my storage so now I just clean up the icky leaves, and put a little mulch over the area.
I'm running out of steam and have just enough in me to do a quick rake and dump the crud into the big compost bin for the garbage pickup. Its nice to know that all your garden waste isn't wasted, we have a great system that mulches everything! If you are interested in knowing all the garden chores for December in Oregon go here: HERE . I'm gonna go inside, write in my Blog, and have a nice hot pot of tea!

"The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.  ~Hanna Rion"