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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first column by Colleen Connor, a Marblehead gardener and community volunteer. Connor, also the Independent’s inaugural columnist, will share seasonal insights and lessons from her cottage garden in this regular feature.
I think I got my love of gardening from my mother. We both like being outside, getting our hands dirty and then seeing the results. My garden in Marblehead is best described as a cottage garden with a touch of chaos.
Every few weeks, I’ll share what I’m doing to help you figure out what you can do at this time of year — just a few timely tasks.
Take note and snap shots with your phone camera. This way you’ll remember what worked and, more importantly, what didn’t work and may need to change next year. I’m shifting my dahlias to a sunnier spot next year. Oh, the plans I will devise over the winter would make any husband shudder.
Water your evergreens — azaleas, holly, rhododendrons, boxwood and yes, those arborvitaes. They need it now.
Collect seed pods. It’s easy and economical. Use a paper bag so they continue to dry out, and label them. I usually write my own descriptions such as “hot pink zinnia” or “not too tall white cosmo.” The trick is to store them in a dark, dry place. I use my very dry basement laundry room.
If you brought houseplants outside, start debugging them and clean the saucers and pots they’re in. Trim them up, especially citrus. That way you may have blossoms for Christmas.
It’s not a bad time to plant perennials. Go to the garden center and pick up something you love. It’s also a good time to dig up and divide plants such as hostas and daisies that doubled in size. If you stop by a friend’s house with some of your plants, they might let you take a chunk of that creeping thyme you’ve been admiring.
If you’ve always wanted a peach tree, now is the time to buy one and plant it. Water it well. In two to three years, you’ll have your own fruit. I squeezed 12 dwarf fruit trees into my tiny 6,000-square-foot backyard. Remember, fruit trees need at least six hours of sun.
Celebrate the season and take it all in.
ABOUT COLLEEN
Colleen has been playing in soil since her ditch days on Onondaga Hill, New York, where her parents taught her to plant and harvest vegetables on their 50-plus acres of farmland.
She is co-president of the Cottage Gardeners of Marblehead and Swampscott and helped run the club’s successful plant sale the past two years. Colleen also runs a subcommittee called D & D (dig and divide).
She is the mother of two young men — also known as root diggers and weed pullers — and adoring wife of the “amazing obelisk maker.”
Colleen likes to wear wellies year-round, eye other people’s gardens and stop at every garden center in New England. She obsesses over plants and insects and wishes she had paid more attention to science in school.
