In Good Thyme - by Mariana Graham

We're well into autumn, and after the first wind-and-rainstorm of the season, the garden is looking a little disheveled. So are we gardeners, who are every bit as busy now as in early spring. We're cutting back spent foliage and finding room in the garage for the lawn chairs. We're clearing windowsills for the return of houseplants that have summered on decks and porches. We're still cutting lush bouquets of dahlias, roses, asters and mums. And every year at this time, we wonder whether to go ahead and harvest those stubbornly green tomatoes!

If you have a pumpkin patch, you're probably reaping the fruits of your labor about now. After you've carved the family jack o'lantern, scoop out another plump pumpkin and set a potted mum inside the hollowed-out shell. It's an attractive seasonal display for the front porch that should look good through Thanksgiving. Eventually the pumpkin-pot will rot, but by then you'll be tired of it anyway. You can heave it into the compost pile, cut back the mum and plant it in the garden for more blooms next fall.
Some of us are still planting winter veggie crops. If you get to the nursery right away, you can still purchase winter spinach, arugula, late season cabbage and other cole crops, corn salad (mache) and scallion transplants. Get them in the ground ASAP, while there's still enough daylight to give them a good start. Make sure you purchase winter varieties, not stock left over from summer inventories.

If you have raised beds, which are inherently warmer and drier, you can include lettuces and other leafy greens in your winter garden. Cold frames, cloches and row covers extend the season even longer. Speaking of row covers, that filmy white material is also great for fashioning billowy Halloween ghosts. Hang them from your trees for the trick or treaters.
Purchase garlic bulbs now from nurseries, as the supermarket variety is sometimes treated to prevent sprouting. Plant with the pointed top about two inches below the soil surface, approximately six to eight inches apart.

If you'd rather watch football on TV than tend a winter veggie garden, consider treating your dormant vegetable beds to a nourishing cover crop. Now's the time to plant crimson clover, fava beans, annual rye or Austrian winter peas. In springtime before they bloom, turn them over and work into the soil. These leguminous plants will add nitrogen, as well as rich organic material to your beds.

If you haven't already done so, mulch, mulch, mulch! Think of mulch as a winter blanket for your garden. It helps insulate the soil and keep temperatures even. It inhibits those maddening weeds that pop up when everything else is dormant. It creates a cushion between the soil and the hard winter rains that can wash out nutrients and cause compaction. Compost is fabulous mulch. Bark looks nice, but tends to deplete soil nitrogen. If you use it, remove it in the spring and fertilize the mulched area. Beware of straw, which often harbors weed seeds. My personal favorite is cocoa mulch, made from the hulls of cocoa beans. It has all the good qualities of compost mulch, plus it looks great, slugs hate it, cats don't like to dig in it, and it smells faintly of chocolate! What more could you want from a mulch? The downside is its cost, about twice that of bark mulch. You might want to give it a try in a small section of the garden, anyway.

If you have fruit trees, clean up fallen fruit and leaves below the trees where disease and pests may overwinter. On rural Whidbey Island, there's little problem with windfall fruit. Deer usually eat them as soon as they hit the ground. Last week I watched a coyote munching the last of my Italian plum windfalls!

Continue planting spring-blooming bulbs, and get trees and shrubs in, as well. As soon as your perennials go dormant, you can begin to move and divide them, if you so desire.

If you come across plant disease or pest problems when doing fall garden chores, remember that trained volunteer Island County-WSU Master Gardeners are here to help with diagnosis and advice. Take samples to the office, located on the first floor of the new County building in Coupeville or call 679-7327 to arrange for a visit from a Master Gardener.

OLDIES BUT GOODIES
I often get requests for copies of past columns. Every column I've written since April 2000 is available on the Washington State University Extension website, www.island.wsu.edu. Click on my name for the most current column, then on "more articles" for a list of past columns by date and title. Click and print the ones that interest you.

Garden questions or comments? Call 675-6611, e-mail wnt@whidbey.net. Mariana Graham is a Master Gardener and member of Garden Writers Association of America.

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