The Old Household Garden: When the Garden Supplied More Than Flowers

  

There was a time when the garden was not merely a pleasant place surrounding the house. It was, in a very real sense, part of the household economy.

A well-kept garden might provide flowers for the parlor table, certainly, but flowers were only the beginning. Beyond the back door grew vegetables for dinner, herbs for cooking, plants for teas and home remedies, fruits for preserves, gourds for useful vessels, and fragrant leaves and blossoms for scenting rooms and linens. The garden supplied the kitchen, pantry, medicine cupboard, workroom, and sometimes even the dye pot.

Our ancestors expected a surprising amount from a patch of earth.

The Garden as an Extension of the House

Before supermarkets, pharmacies, garden centers, and overnight delivery, a household had good reason to produce what it could at home. This was especially true in rural America and throughout the South, where farms and household gardens might lie considerable distances from town.

The garden nearest the house was often different from the larger fields devoted to corn, cotton, wheat, or other crops. It was intimate ground—frequently tended with the daily needs of the family in mind.

Here might be beans climbing poles, cabbages standing in neat rows, onions and garlic tucked into convenient corners, and tomatoes sprawling wherever they could be accommodated. There might be collards, turnips, mustard greens, peas, squash, cucumbers, okra, peppers, and sweet potatoes.

What grew depended upon the region, the season, family custom, and whatever seed had been saved or obtained.

The garden was not simply a hobby. It was a working part of the household.

A Pantry Growing Just Outside the Door

The old household garden supplied food when it was fresh, but its usefulness extended far beyond harvest day.

Beans could be dried. Cucumbers became pickles. Cabbage might be made into kraut. Fruits were dried, canned, preserved, or turned into jams and jellies. Peppers could be dried and stored. Herbs hung in bundles from rafters or were kept in jars for winter use.

Even the garden's abundance had a calendar.

Spring brought tender greens and early vegetables. Summer produced beans, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and melons. Autumn brought roots, pumpkins, winter squash, and the last great gathering before frost. In mild Southern climates, collards, turnips, mustard, and other hardy crops might continue producing well into the colder months.

The pantry was, in a sense, the garden preserved in jars, crocks, sacks, and strings.

The Household Herb Garden

Herbs once occupied a more important place in everyday life than they generally do now.

Sage flavored meat and dressing. Thyme, parsley, rosemary, mint, dill, fennel, and other herbs served the kitchen according to local custom and family taste. Mint might find its way into beverages and sauces. Dill accompanied pickling. Lavender and rosemary could serve purposes both practical and ornamental.

Then there were plants grown because generations believed them useful for common household complaints.

Chamomile, horehound, peppermint, catnip, lemon balm, comfrey, feverfew, and many others appeared in traditional household gardens at various times and places. Some old remedies had genuine medicinal properties; others owed more to folklore than pharmacology. Our ancestors possessed considerable practical plant knowledge, but they also occasionally prescribed things that make a modern bottle of aspirin seem a blessing indeed.

Still, the important point is that the garden was expected to provide more than food.

It was the household apothecary as well.

Flowers Had Work to Do

Even ornamental plants were not always purely ornamental.

Roses provided petals for potpourri and scented preparations. Lavender could perfume linens. Certain flowers supplied dyes. Others attracted bees necessary for pollination. Some edible flowers found their way into the kitchen.

And, of course, flowers served one purpose that cannot be measured in pounds or bushels: they made ordinary life more beautiful.

That mattered.

A family might have little money to spare, yet still grow roses beside the porch, hollyhocks by the fence, daffodils along a path, or chrysanthemums near the door. Beauty was not considered incompatible with usefulness.

Indeed, the finest old household gardens often mixed the two so thoroughly that the distinction almost disappeared.

Plants for Cleaning, Scenting, and Making Things

The usefulness of plants extended into less obvious corners of domestic life.

Gourds could become dippers, containers, birdhouses, and utensils. Plants rich in natural pigments could provide color for cloth and yarn. Fragrant herbs and flowers were placed among stored linens or made into sachets and potpourri.

Wood ash from the household and garden fires had uses of its own. Plant material became compost or was returned to the soil. Corn shucks, straw, pine needles, leaves, and other materials were put to work rather than immediately thrown away.

The old household was remarkably good at finding a second life for things.

Not because everyone had adopted an environmental philosophy, but because waste cost something.

When goods required considerable labor or money to obtain, throwing useful material away made little sense.

Seeds Were Part of the Household Wealth

One of the most important products of the old garden was something we seldom think of as a harvest: seed.

Gardeners saved seed from beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, melons, flowers, and countless other plants. Some varieties passed through families and communities for generations.

Seeds were traded across fences, carried when families moved westward, mailed to relatives, and shared among neighbors.

A particular bean might have been grown because someone's grandmother always grew it. A rose might have come from a cutting taken at an old homeplace. A fig tree might descend from one planted decades earlier.

These plants carried stories along with their genes.

Modern gardeners call many of them heirlooms, which is appropriate. They were inheritances in the truest sense.

Nothing Stood Entirely Alone

Perhaps the greatest difference between the traditional household garden and many modern gardens is that the old garden belonged to a larger cycle.

Kitchen scraps returned to the compost pile or fed animals. Manure returned to the garden. Fallen leaves became mulch or leaf mold. Seeds were gathered for another year. Surplus vegetables were preserved or shared. Prunings might become kindling. Rain was watched carefully because there was no automatic irrigation system waiting to correct a dry week.

The gardener understood, whether scientifically or simply through experience, that one season prepared the ground for another.

Nothing was entirely separate.

The kitchen depended upon the garden. The garden depended upon the household. Both depended upon the seasons.

What We Lost When Gardens Became Decorative

During the twentieth century, the American home landscape gradually became more specialized.

The front yard became lawn and shrubbery. Vegetables were relegated to a rectangular plot somewhere out back, if they were grown at all. Herbs came dried in bottles. Fruit came from the grocery store. Medicines came from the pharmacy. Compostable material went into the trash.

We gained tremendous convenience.

But we also lost something.

We lost some of the intimacy between household and landscape—the habit of looking at a piece of ground and asking not merely, What would look pretty here? but also, What might this provide?

Those questions need not be enemies.

A blueberry bush can be handsome and productive. Rosemary can be ornamental and useful. A fig tree provides shade, character, and fruit. Muscadines can cover an arbor while filling baskets in late summer. Herbs can edge a path. Strawberries can serve as groundcovers. Flowers can feed pollinators while furnishing bouquets for the house.

The useful garden need not be ugly.

Our ancestors certainly did not think so.

Bringing the Household Garden Back

Few of us need to recreate a nineteenth-century farmstead, and probably fewer still would enjoy doing all the work that such a household demanded.

But we can recover some of its wisdom.

Start with one small thing.

Grow parsley outside the kitchen door. Plant a rosemary bush beside the walk. Put a few lettuce plants in a container. Grow strawberries beneath taller plants. Compost vegetable scraps and autumn leaves. Plant a fig, blueberry, or muscadine if your climate allows it. Save seed from an heirloom flower that has done particularly well.

Then add another useful plant.

Before long, the garden begins to change character. It becomes more than scenery.

You begin walking outside because you need rosemary for supper. You notice that the lettuce is ready. You gather mint for tea. You turn the compost. You pick a handful of berries before the birds discover them. You save seed because that particular bean performed exceptionally well.

The garden quietly becomes part of the household again.

A Garden That Earns Its Keep

There is much to admire in a beautiful ornamental garden. Flowers, shade trees, lawns, and handsome shrubs have their rightful place.

But there is something deeply satisfying about a garden that earns its keep.

The old household garden was beautiful precisely because it was alive with purpose. It fed people. It seasoned their meals. It supplied remedies and fragrances. It provided materials for household tasks. It preserved favorite plants from one generation to another.

And among all those useful things, our ancestors still found room for roses.

Perhaps that is the lesson worth recovering.

A garden need not choose between usefulness and beauty. At its best, it can provide both—a place where flowers bloom beside vegetables, herbs scent the path, fruit ripens overhead, yesterday's leaves become tomorrow's soil, and the ground around the house once again becomes a small but productive part of everyday life.

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Grow Something on the Kitchen Counter You Can Eat

 

You don’t need a vegetable garden, a greenhouse, or even a backyard to grow something worth eating.

Sometimes all you need is a sunny kitchen window and a few inches of counter space.

There is something deeply satisfying about snipping fresh herbs for supper or harvesting crisp sprouts that were seeds only a few days before. It is gardening reduced to its simplest form: seed, water, light, patience—and something fresh for the table.

Better still, kitchen-counter gardening can be done throughout the year.

A Garden Within Arm’s Reach

Most gardening requires a certain amount of planning. We prepare beds, watch the weather, wait for the proper season, battle weeds, and occasionally surrender a promising crop to insects, rabbits, deer, drought, or some other member of nature’s vast conspiracy against the gardener.

Growing food indoors is considerably simpler.

A small container beside the kitchen window can produce herbs, microgreens, sprouts, or even another crop of green onions. Because the garden is only a few feet from where meals are prepared, it is also more likely to be used.

There is no journey to the garden with basket and boots. Reach over, take what you need, and leave the rest growing.

Start With Microgreens

Microgreens are among the easiest edible crops to grow indoors.

They are young vegetable and herb seedlings harvested shortly after their first true leaves begin to appear. Broccoli, radish, sunflower, mustard, kale, peas, and many other plants can be grown this way.

Seeds are sown thickly in a shallow tray containing a little growing medium or on a mat designed for microgreen production. Keep them moist, give them adequate light, and many varieties can be ready to harvest in little more than a week.

Cut them just above the growing surface with clean scissors.

Microgreens can be sprinkled over salads, tucked into sandwiches, added to soups just before serving, or used as a fresh garnish. Radish and mustard provide a surprising little bite. Pea shoots are tender and sweet. Sunflower microgreens have a pleasant nutty character.

A tray of them on the counter is also rather handsome—which is more than can be said for many things we keep on kitchen counters.

Sprouts Require Even Less Space

If you have room for a jar, you have room to grow sprouts.

Unlike microgreens, sprouts don't require soil or even much light. Seeds intended specifically for sprouting are soaked and then rinsed and drained regularly while they germinate. Depending upon the variety, they may be ready in only a few days.

Broccoli, alfalfa, radish, mung beans, lentils, and various seed mixtures are commonly used.

Cleanliness is particularly important when growing sprouts because the warm, moist conditions that encourage germination can also encourage unwanted microorganisms. Use seeds sold for sprouting, keep your equipment clean, rinse according to directions, and refrigerate the finished crop promptly. People at higher risk from foodborne illness should follow current food-safety guidance concerning raw sprouts.

Give Green Onions Another Chance

Here may be the cheapest kitchen garden of all.

The next time you buy green onions, don't throw away the white bases with their roots attached. Place them upright in a small container with the roots in water while keeping most of the bulb above the waterline.

Fresh green growth should soon appear.

Change the water regularly and put the container where it receives good light. You can snip the tops as needed for potatoes, soups, eggs, salads, and other dishes.

Eventually the plants will weaken if grown only in water. Moving them into potting soil can keep them productive longer.

It is a small thing, certainly. But our grandparents would have understood the principle immediately: if something still has usefulness in it, why throw it away?

Keep Fresh Herbs Close at Hand

A sunny kitchen window can also support a small collection of culinary herbs.

Basil is an obvious choice during warm weather. Parsley, chives, thyme, oregano, mint, and cilantro are possibilities, though their requirements differ. Mint tolerates somewhat less light than many Mediterranean herbs, while rosemary and thyme generally want all the sunshine you can give them.

Good drainage is essential. Herbs sitting constantly in soggy soil seldom prosper.

Don't assume that indoor plants need frequent watering simply because they are indoors. Feel the soil first. Water when appropriate, allow excess water to drain, and don't leave the pot standing indefinitely in a saucer full of water.

And harvest them. Herbs are not supposed to become untouchable houseplants. Pinching and cutting many culinary herbs encourages bushier growth while providing exactly what you grew them for.

Try Wheatgrass or Cat Grass

Wheatgrass is another simple countertop crop. It grows quickly from seed and produces a thick patch of fresh green growth.

Similarly, cat grass—often grown from wheat, oat, barley, or rye seed—can provide indoor cats with greenery of their own.

The great advantage of these crops is speed. There is something encouraging about sowing a tray and seeing it turn vividly green within days, particularly during the gray months when the outdoor garden is asleep.

What About Lettuce?

Leaf lettuce can be grown indoors, but it generally needs more light and room than sprouts and microgreens. A very sunny window may suffice during certain seasons, though supplemental grow lights make the results much more dependable.

If you want to experiment, choose compact loose-leaf varieties and harvest individual outer leaves rather than waiting for full heads.

The same principle applies to many indoor edibles: grow crops for leaves rather than fruit.

Trying to produce a respectable tomato crop on a dim kitchen windowsill can become an exercise in disappointment. Growing radish microgreens there is much more sensible.

Light Is Usually the Limiting Factor

Our eyes are remarkably good at adjusting to indoor light, which can fool us into believing a room is brighter than it really is.

Plants are not fooled.

Place edible plants near your brightest suitable window, usually a south-facing one if available. If seedlings become pale, weak, and stretched toward the window, they are asking for more light.

A simple grow light can greatly expand what you can grow and can make winter countertop gardening much easier. It doesn't have to turn your kitchen into a commercial greenhouse. A modest light over a small growing area is enough for many herbs and greens.

Begin Small

It is tempting to purchase trays, pots, lights, seeds, growing media, gadgets, and enough equipment to establish a small agricultural college.

Don't.

Start with one thing.

Grow a jar of sprouts. Sow a tray of microgreens. Regrow some green onions. Put a pot of basil beside the window.

Learn what succeeds in your particular kitchen.

Then grow another.

Gardening has always been partly about self-reliance—the quiet satisfaction of producing something useful with your own hands. A kitchen-counter garden may not fill the pantry or feed a family through winter, but that isn't really the point.

You planted a seed.

You tended it.

And now you're eating it.

That's gardening, whether the garden covers forty acres or twelve inches beside the kitchen sink.

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Don't Throw Away Autumn: What Fallen Leaves Can Do for Your Garden

  

Every autumn, nature delivers one of the finest soil amendments available—and then we spend a surprising amount of time raking it up, stuffing it into bags, and hauling it away.

Fallen leaves are not garden waste. They are part of the garden.

Walk through an old hardwood forest and consider what happens there. No one bags the oak leaves. No one carts away the hickory and maple leaves. Year after year, they fall, accumulate, decay, and return their nutrients to the earth. Beneath them lies that dark, crumbly woodland soil gardeners are forever trying to imitate.

Your garden can benefit from the same ancient process.

Leaves Are Nature's Mulch

A layer of fallen leaves protects the soil much as mulch does. It moderates temperature, reduces evaporation, cushions the earth against pounding rain, and helps suppress weeds.

This is particularly useful going into winter. A covering of leaves can help protect the crowns and shallow roots of perennial plants from sudden swings in temperature. In the South, where winter weather can seesaw from shirtsleeves to hard frost in a matter of days, that insulation can be especially valuable.

Whole leaves can sometimes mat together, particularly large leaves such as sycamore or magnolia. Running them over with a lawn mower or shredding them before use produces a looser mulch that admits air and water more readily.

Spread shredded leaves a few inches deep around shrubs, trees, and established perennials, keeping them slightly away from trunks and crowns.

And there you have it: mulch that costs nothing but a little autumn labor.

Feed the Soil, Not the Landfill

Leaves contain nutrients that trees have drawn from the soil during the growing season. As those leaves decompose, some of those nutrients become available again.

Just as important is their organic matter.

Organic matter helps improve soil structure. In sandy soil, it increases the soil's ability to retain moisture and nutrients. In heavy clay, it helps create a more open, workable structure. Over time, decomposing leaves contribute humus—the dark organic material associated with fertile, living soil.

Throwing leaves away interrupts that cycle.

Keeping them on your property allows some of what the trees borrowed from the earth to return home.

Make Leaf Mold

One of the simplest uses for autumn leaves is also one of the best: make leaf mold.

Despite the rather unappetizing name, leaf mold is wonderful stuff. It is simply leaves allowed to decompose, primarily through fungal activity, until they become a dark, soft, earthy material resembling woodland humus.

Making it can be remarkably uncomplicated.

Pile leaves in an out-of-the-way corner, place them in a simple wire enclosure, or collect them in a ventilated container. Shredding the leaves first will speed decomposition, and keeping them somewhat moist will help.

Then wait.

Nature is not in a hurry.

Depending upon the leaves, moisture, climate, and degree of shredding, the process may take a year or more. The finished leaf mold can be worked into garden soil, spread around plants, or used as a soil-conditioning mulch.

It is especially useful for improving the soil's ability to hold moisture.

Add Leaves to the Compost Pile

Autumn leaves are also excellent "brown" material for compost.

Kitchen scraps, fresh grass clippings, and other green materials tend to be relatively rich in nitrogen. Dry fallen leaves provide carbon. A mixture of the two creates better conditions for decomposition than either material alone.

This presents an opportunity worth planning for.

Instead of putting every autumn leaf into the compost pile at once, save some dry leaves in bags, bins, or a covered enclosure. During the following months, add handfuls or layers whenever you add kitchen scraps or other nitrogen-rich material.

In effect, autumn can provide part of your composting supplies for the entire year.

Shredded leaves decompose more quickly, but whole leaves will eventually break down too. The microbes are patient even when gardeners aren't.

Leave Some Leaves for Wildlife

There is another reason not to make the autumn garden too tidy.

A layer of fallen leaves provides habitat for an astonishing assortment of small creatures. Beneficial insects, spiders, beetles, caterpillars, and other organisms may overwinter among fallen leaves or beneath them. Some moths and butterflies spend part of their life cycles in leaf litter.

Birds know this very well.

Watch a brown thrasher, towhee, or other ground-feeding bird scratching through leaves. It isn't admiring your landscaping. It is looking for supper.

Removing every leaf from every corner of the property can remove some of the shelter and food sources upon which these creatures depend.

That doesn't mean your front walk needs to disappear beneath six inches of oak leaves. There is room for order and stewardship together. Clear the lawn, paths, gutters, and places where heavy accumulations might cause problems, but consider leaving leaves beneath trees, around woodland borders, and in less formal portions of the garden.

A garden need not look abandoned to remain alive.

What About Leaves on the Lawn?

A light scattering of leaves can often simply be mowed into the lawn. A mulching mower chops them into small pieces that settle between the grass blades and gradually decompose.

A thick blanket is another matter.

Heavy layers of whole leaves can block sunlight and air, hold excessive moisture, and smother turf. If you cannot see much grass beneath the leaves, it is probably time to rake, mulch, or collect some of them.

But "collect" needn't mean "discard."

Move them to flower beds. Put them beneath shrubs. Compost them. Make leaf mold. Store them for later.

There is almost always somewhere better for a leaf than a garbage bag.

A Word of Caution

Not every fallen leaf should necessarily be returned directly to the garden.

If plants have suffered badly from certain diseases, infected foliage may harbor organisms capable of causing trouble again. Good sanitation can be an important part of disease management. When dealing with seriously diseased material, determine whether composting, disposal, or another treatment is appropriate for the particular disease.

Also avoid piling leaves thickly against tree trunks, shrub stems, or the crowns of perennials. Mulch should protect plants, not bury them.

As with most things in gardening, moderation and observation are better guides than rigid rules.

The Old Way Wasn't So Foolish

Before plastic bags, municipal leaf collection, and truckloads of commercially packaged soil amendments, gardeners had little reason to regard leaves as rubbish.

They composted them. They piled them. They dug them into gardens. They allowed them to rot beneath shrubs and trees. They understood something that modern convenience can make easy to forget:

A garden produces many of the materials needed to sustain itself.

The leaves falling across your yard this autumn are part of next year's garden.

They can become mulch around your perennials, carbon for your compost pile, shelter for overwintering creatures, organic matter for tired soil, and eventually the dark humus from which new roots will grow.

So rake where you must. Shred where you can. Compost some. Pile some. Leave some beneath the trees.

But don't throw away autumn.

The garden has spent an entire season making it for you.

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Fall Is for Planting: Why Cooler Weather Gives Plants a Better Start

  

When summer begins to loosen its grip and the first cool mornings arrive, many gardeners assume the gardening season is winding down. The lawn grows more slowly, leaves begin to turn, and thoughts drift toward rakes, pumpkins, and putting the garden to bed.

But for planting many trees, shrubs, perennials, and ground covers, fall isn't the end of the gardening season at all. It may be the best part of it.

Spring gets most of the attention. Garden centers fill with flowers, seed catalogs arrive, and warm sunshine tempts us outdoors. Yet spring planting has one considerable disadvantage: summer is waiting just around the corner.

Plant in fall, and the whole equation changes.

Cooler Air Means Less Stress

Newly planted trees, shrubs, and perennials must perform two jobs at once. They need to maintain their leaves and stems above ground while establishing a new root system below.

During hot weather, that can be a tall order.

High temperatures increase the amount of moisture plants lose through their leaves. A newly planted specimen with a limited root system may struggle to replace that water quickly enough. Add blazing sun and a few rainless days, and a plant can become stressed remarkably fast.

Fall's cooler temperatures reduce that strain. Plants lose water more slowly, the soil doesn't dry quite as rapidly, and transplant shock is generally less severe.

In other words, the plant can spend less energy merely surviving and more energy getting settled.

The Soil Is Still Warm

One of the great advantages of fall planting is easily overlooked: the air may be cool, but the soil is still warm.

Soil temperatures change much more slowly than air temperatures. After months of summer sunshine, the earth retains considerable warmth well into autumn.

That creates an excellent environment for root growth.

Even after the top of a deciduous plant begins preparing for dormancy—or has already dropped its leaves—roots may continue growing as long as soil conditions remain favorable. Those weeks of quiet underground activity can make an enormous difference the following year.

The garden may appear to be going to sleep, but beneath the surface there is still work being done.

Fall-Planted Plants Get a Head Start

Consider two identical shrubs.

One is planted in October. The other is planted the following April.

The October shrub has the opportunity to establish roots during autumn, rest through winter, and resume root growth as conditions improve in late winter and early spring.

By the time summer arrives, it may have had many months to become established.

The April shrub, meanwhile, has only a short interval before it must face the heat of June, July, and August.

That doesn't mean spring planting is wrong. Gardeners have successfully planted in spring for generations. But where winters are reasonably mild, fall often gives hardy plants a valuable head start.

Instead of beginning summer as newcomers, they enter it with roots already in the ground.

Cooler Weather Makes Watering Easier, Too

Fall planting doesn't eliminate the need for watering. Newly planted trees, shrubs, ground covers, and perennials should still be watched carefully until established.

But autumn usually makes the job easier.

Cooler temperatures mean less evaporation from the soil and less water loss through foliage. Seasonal rainfall may also become more dependable in some regions.

A thorough soaking after planting is essential. After that, check the soil rather than simply watering according to the calendar. The goal is consistently moist soil around the developing root system—not soggy ground.

And don't forget plants simply because the weather turns cold. Evergreens in particular continue to lose moisture through their foliage during winter and can suffer if they enter a dry spell without adequate soil moisture.

Fall Is Especially Valuable in the South

Southern gardeners have an additional reason to appreciate fall planting.

Our summers can be brutal.

A shrub planted in late spring may scarcely have time to recover from transplanting before it encounters weeks of heat, intense sunshine, and high water demand. In much of the South, autumn provides a long period of relatively mild weather during which hardy landscape plants can establish themselves.

In areas with mild winters, root development may continue for surprisingly long periods.

That's one reason generations of Southern gardeners have planted woody ornamentals, shade trees, fruit trees, and hardy perennials during the cooler months. Long before anyone spoke of "plant establishment strategies," gardeners noticed what worked.

Sometimes the old ways became old ways for good reason.

What Should You Plant in Fall?

Fall is particularly well suited to many trees, shrubs, hardy perennials, ornamental grasses, vines, and ground covers. It is also, of course, the traditional season for planting many spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils, crocuses, and tulips.

Hardy native plants can also benefit from autumn establishment, especially when they are well adapted to local soil and climate.

There are exceptions.

Cold-sensitive tropicals and other tender plants may be better planted after danger of frost has passed. Plants near the northern limit of their hardiness range may also need more time to establish before severe winter weather.

The lesson isn't that everything should be planted in fall. It's that gardeners shouldn't automatically assume spring is always the best planting season.

Give the Roots a Good Beginning

The advantages of fall planting can be squandered by poor planting technique.

Dig the planting hole wider than the root ball, but avoid planting too deeply. The top of the root ball should generally be level with, or slightly above, the surrounding soil. Backfill with the native soil unless the particular plant or site requires something different.

Water thoroughly to settle the soil around the roots.

A layer of mulch can help conserve moisture, moderate soil temperatures, and discourage weeds. Keep mulch away from direct contact with trunks and crowns. The familiar "mulch volcano" piled against a tree trunk does no favors to the tree, however tidy somebody may think it looks.

And resist the temptation to pamper a new plant with excessive fertilizer. Establishing a healthy root system is more important than forcing a burst of tender top growth.

Plant for the Garden You'll See Next Year

There is something particularly satisfying about fall planting.

Spring gardening is full of immediate rewards. We plant flowers because we want flowers. We sow vegetables because we are already imagining the harvest.

Fall planting requires a little more faith.

You dig a hole on a cool afternoon, set a seemingly modest plant into the earth, water it, mulch it, and then watch the season fade. Winter comes. The garden grows quiet.

But the plant isn't merely waiting.

Its roots are becoming acquainted with the soil. When spring finally returns, it doesn't have to begin entirely from scratch.

So when cooler weather arrives, don't be too quick to hang up the shovel. Take another look around the garden. Is there an empty corner that needs a shrub? A slope that would benefit from ground cover? A place where you've always wanted a flowering tree or a sweep of perennials?

Autumn may be telling you something.

Fall isn't merely the season when gardens wind down. It's one of the finest seasons for beginning again.

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Turn Kitchen Scraps Into Garden Gold: Why Fall Is a Fine Time to Start Composting

  

Autumn has always been a season of gathering. We bring in the last vegetables, rake leaves from the lawn, clean up spent flowers, and begin putting the garden to bed. Yet much of what we gather need not be hauled away. Fallen leaves, vegetable trimmings, coffee grounds, and the remains of the summer garden can become something far more valuable: rich, dark compost.

If you have been thinking about starting a compost pile, fall may be one of the best times of the year to begin.

Why Start Composting in Fall?

The great advantage of autumn is simple: the ingredients are everywhere.

A good compost pile needs a mixture of materials rich in carbon and nitrogen. Gardeners commonly call them "browns" and "greens."

Browns include fallen leaves, straw, small twigs, shredded cardboard, and other dry materials. They supply carbon.

Greens include vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds, fresh grass clippings, and green garden waste. They are comparatively rich in nitrogen.

During much of the year, gardeners may have plenty of one and not enough of the other. Fall brings an embarrassment of riches in the form of fallen leaves.

Instead of bagging those leaves and sending them away, save them. They are one of the finest compost ingredients a gardener can have.

Your Kitchen Produces Compost Every Day

Once you begin looking at kitchen waste as a resource rather than rubbish, it is surprising how much useful material an ordinary household produces.

Vegetable peelings, apple cores, banana peels, coffee grounds, tea leaves, eggshells, wilted lettuce, corn husks, melon rinds, and other plant-based scraps can all be returned to the soil through composting.

Keep a small covered compost caddy in the kitchen and empty it regularly into your outdoor pile, tumbler, or compost bin.

There is no need to make the process complicated. Our grandparents did not require electronic monitors and smartphone applications to turn organic matter into humus. Nature has been managing the business quite successfully for a very long time.

What Shouldn't Go Into the Compost Pile?

For an ordinary backyard compost pile, avoid meat, fish, bones, dairy products, fats, oils, and heavily greasy foods. Although some of these materials will eventually decompose, they can produce odors and attract unwanted animals.

It is also wise to avoid diseased plant material, particularly when you cannot be certain that your compost pile will become hot enough to destroy pathogens.

Weeds that have already produced mature seeds can also be troublesome. A cool compost pile may preserve rather than destroy those seeds, giving you an unpleasant surprise when the finished compost is spread around the garden.

Pet waste from dogs and cats should not be added to compost intended for vegetable gardens.

Fallen Leaves Are Garden Treasure

There was a time when fallen leaves were commonly regarded as something to be raked, burned, or hauled away. A gardener who understands soil sees them differently.

Leaves are stored fertility.

Trees have spent the growing season drawing nutrients from the soil and using sunlight to manufacture their foliage. When those leaves fall, much of that organic material can be returned to the earth.

Shredding leaves with a mower before adding them to the compost pile will help them break down faster. Whole leaves work, too, but some—particularly tough or waxy leaves—can take considerably longer to decompose.

If you have more leaves than your compost pile can accommodate, save them in a separate enclosure or pile. They can gradually break down into leaf mold, a wonderful soil conditioner prized by gardeners for generations.

Building a Simple Fall Compost Pile

You do not need a complicated formula, but diversity helps.

Begin with a loose layer of coarse brown material to encourage airflow. Add kitchen scraps or other green materials, then cover them with leaves or another brown material. Continue adding layers as material becomes available.

Think of it less as constructing a layer cake and more as maintaining a sensible mixture.

If the pile becomes wet, slimy, or unpleasant-smelling, add more dry brown material such as leaves or shredded cardboard.

If it sits for months without seeming to do anything, it may need more green material, moisture, or air.

A compost pile should generally be about as damp as a wrung-out sponge. It should be moist, but water should not pour from it.

Turning the pile occasionally introduces oxygen and speeds decomposition. If you are in no hurry, however, nature will still do the work. It will simply take longer.

What Happens During Winter?

Gardeners sometimes assume that there is little point in starting compost in autumn because winter is approaching.

Quite the contrary.

Decomposition slows as temperatures fall, but it does not necessarily stop. A sufficiently large and active pile can remain surprisingly warm inside even during cold weather. In milder Southern winters, biological activity may continue for much of the season.

And there is no harm if the process slows down.

Continue adding appropriate kitchen scraps, covering fresh additions with leaves whenever possible. When warmer weather returns, bacteria, fungi, earthworms, and countless other decomposers will resume their work with enthusiasm.

By beginning in fall, you are giving next year's compost a considerable head start.

Composting Doesn't Require Much Space

A traditional compost heap is perfectly satisfactory if you have room for one, but there are plenty of alternatives.

Enclosed compost bins keep the material tidy and contained. Tumbling composters make turning easier and can be useful where space is limited. Worm composting systems allow organic material to be processed in remarkably small spaces. Bokashi systems provide another method for handling kitchen scraps, including some materials that aren't normally recommended for an ordinary backyard pile.

Even gardeners with patios, courtyards, or small suburban lots can find a system that suits the space available.

The important thing is to begin.

Why Compost Matters

Finished compost does much more than simply "feed" plants.

Mixed into garden soil, compost improves its structure. Sandy soil becomes better able to retain moisture and nutrients. Heavy soil becomes easier to work and better aerated. Compost supports the vast community of microorganisms upon which healthy soil depends.

Spread over the soil surface, it can also help conserve moisture and gradually improve the earth beneath it.

There is something deeply satisfying about the entire process. Yesterday's coffee grounds and potato peelings become tomorrow's garden soil. Autumn leaves that might have been hauled to the landfill become nourishment for tomatoes, roses, shrubs, herbs, and flowers.

Very little is truly wasted in a well-managed garden.

Begin This Fall

You do not need to wait until spring to improve next year's garden.

Set aside a place for a compost pile or choose a bin that fits your property. Save some of those autumn leaves. Put a small container in the kitchen for vegetable scraps and coffee grounds. Then allow time and the innumerable small creatures of the soil to do what they have always done.

By spring, the pile you began on a cool autumn afternoon will already be changing—settling, darkening, and slowly losing any resemblance to the scraps and leaves from which it began.

Given enough time, what once seemed like waste becomes something a gardener can never have too much of: rich organic matter.

This fall, don't send all that potential fertility away. Keep it at home, return it to the soil, and turn your kitchen scraps and fallen leaves into garden gold.

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Here’s a gardener’s to‑do list for September 2026—tailored to each U.S. region.

 

Here’s a gardener’s to‑do list for September 2026—tailored to each U.S. region. This month is the garden’s second act: a time to gather, save, sow, and prepare for the shift into autumn’s quieter grace.

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🌾 Northeast

• Harvest & preserve late-season crops (tomatoes, squash, apples) before frost.

• Weed and clean up garden beds—clear spent annuals & compost healthy debris.

• Soil test & amend, and build new beds or paths for next year.

• Plant spring bulbs (tulips, daffodils) and divide perennials like peonies, irises, daylilies.

• Dig up tender bulbs (dahlia, gladiolus, begonias) to store.

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🌽 Midwest

• Harvest pumpkins, squash & onions, and cure or store properly.

• Plant bulbs and divide or transplant perennials.

• Clean up beds, compost spent plants and leaves.

• Sow cool-season crops: radishes, lettuce, broccoli, spinach.

• Mulch trees/shrubs for winter readiness.

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🌿 Southeast

• Target invasive weeds (bindweed, knotweed) before they resist.

• Harvest & succession-sow brassicas, beets, lettuce, greens for fall.

• Plant bulbs & fall annuals — mums, pansies, kale, flowering cabbage.

• Divide/transplant perennials, trade with friends—chasers of seasons.

• Cut back dead growth and leave seeds/seedheads for wildlife habitat.

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🌵 Southwest

• Plant late seeds: peppers, kale, beans, chard, even tomatoes in warmer zones.

• Divide spring perennials, plant annual wildflowers.

• Fertilize acid lovers (rhododendrons, azalea) and patch bulb beds.

• Mulch & maintain soil moisture as temps cool.

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🌲 Pacific Northwest

• Deadhead & divide perennials (iris, peonies) to keep blooms going.

• Harvest green tomatoes to ripen indoors if frost threatens.

• Stop feeding shrubs/trees—new growth is vulnerable before winter.

• Plant cool-season crops, spring bulbs, and sow annuals (pansies, snapdragons).

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⛰️ Mountain West

• Leave seedheads to feed birds and wildlife through winter.

• Harvest & cure onions, clean beds, and mulch.

• Plant bulbs and divide perennials as nights cool.

• Improve beds—amend soil with compost; mulch for frost protection.

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🌴 California (Zones 9–11)

• Sow successional veggies: beets, kale, lettuce, collards, Swiss chard, peppers, tomatoes late into month.

• Plant perennials, shrubs & trees—fall is perfect for strong root establishment.

• Add fall annuals / bulb flowers: mums, pansies, snapdragons.

• Mulch deeply to retain moisture and insulate before winter.

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September 2026 hums with purpose—harvest, tidy, sow, and prepare. A gardener’s gentle reckoning, setting the stage for autumn’s rest and spring’s rebirth.

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Amaryllis: The Magnificent Hippeastrum — From the Tropics of the Americas to the Christmas Windowsill

 

Few flowers possess the theatrical grandeur of an amaryllis. A seemingly lifeless bulb, brown and rather unpromising, suddenly sends up a stout green stalk crowned by enormous trumpets of scarlet, crimson, pink, salmon, white or some marvelous combination of them all. And it performs this little miracle just when the garden outside has grown quiet.

That is why the amaryllis has become so closely associated with Christmas. Alongside paperwhites, holly, mistletoe and evergreen boughs, it brings living color into the house during the darkest weeks of the year.

But the plant we commonly call “amaryllis” has a story considerably more exotic than its place beside the Christmas tree might suggest.

First, a Botanical Curiosity: Amaryllis Isn't Really Amaryllis

The familiar Christmas amaryllis belongs to the genus Hippeastrum.

True Amaryllis is a different genus altogether, best represented by Amaryllis belladonna, the belladonna lily of South Africa. Our familiar holiday bulbs, by contrast, belong to a large group of plants native primarily to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas.

The confusion is an old one, and after generations of gardeners calling Hippeastrum “amaryllis,” there is little prospect of persuading everyone to stop.

Nor is there much reason to try.

In ordinary gardening language, amaryllis means Hippeastrum, and probably always will.

The name Hippeastrum itself comes from Greek words referring to a horse and a star, giving rise to the wonderfully picturesque translation “knight's star” or “horseman's star.” One glance at a great red flower held high on its stalk makes the name seem quite appropriate.

A Flower from the New World

Wild Hippeastrum species are native to the Americas, with their greatest diversity in South America. Their range extends through tropical and subtropical regions where different species evolved in forests, grasslands, rocky places and seasonally dry habitats.

Europeans encountered these remarkable bulbs as botanical exploration of the New World accelerated during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

There isn't really a single moment when one can say that Hippeastrum was “discovered.” Indigenous peoples of the Americas obviously knew the plants long before Europeans arrived, and different species reached European botanical collections at different times.

The taxonomic story became particularly tangled.

Carl Linnaeus placed plants that we would now recognize as belonging to both Amaryllis and Hippeastrum together under Amaryllis in the eighteenth century. As botanists obtained more specimens and understood the plants better, it became apparent that the South African and American plants represented distinct groups.

The English clergyman and botanist William Herbert formally established Hippeastrum as a separate genus in the early nineteenth century.

And from that point the great adventure in Hippeastrum breeding really began to gather momentum.

The Watchmaker Who Helped Create the Modern Amaryllis

One of the charming episodes in amaryllis history involves not a professional botanist, but an English watchmaker.

Arthur Johnson of Prescot, England, crossed two species of Hippeastrum around 1799. The resulting plant became known as Johnson's amaryllis, Hippeastrum × johnsonii.

It was one of the earliest important hybrids in the long development of the modern garden amaryllis.

Johnson shared his hybrid with the Liverpool Botanic Garden—an especially fortunate decision because his own greenhouse was later destroyed by fire.

During the nineteenth century, additional South American species were brought into European collections. English, Dutch and other European breeders crossed them repeatedly, selecting offspring for larger flowers, stronger stems, richer colors and more reliable blooming.

The rather graceful wild flowers of South America gradually gave rise to the enormous trumpets familiar today.

From Wildflower to Floral Aristocrat

Modern Hippeastrum hybrids scarcely resemble some of their wild ancestors.

A good bulb may produce one or more thick flower stalks, each carrying several enormous blossoms. Flowers of large hybrids can approach eight to ten inches across.

The traditional colors remain glorious: deep Christmas red, snowy white and every shade of pink between them.

But modern breeding has greatly expanded the possibilities.

There are now salmon, coral, orange and greenish cultivars; picotee flowers with contrasting edges; striped and feathered flowers; narrow-petaled spider forms; miniatures; and extravagant doubles whose blossoms sometimes look more like peonies than traditional amaryllis.

The New Generation of Hippeastrum

Some of the most interesting breeding work involves forms far removed from the old-fashioned giant red Christmas amaryllis.

Cybister-type Hippeastrum, developed using species with narrow, spidery petals, have introduced an entirely different silhouette. Their flowers can be graceful, exotic and almost orchid-like.

Double-flowered hybrids have become increasingly sophisticated as well. Instead of merely producing extra petals, the better modern doubles form great, carefully layered flowers.

Breeders are also selecting for shorter, sturdier plants better suited to containers, unusual color combinations, increased flower counts and improved performance as cut flowers and potted plants.

Hippeastrum breeding remains very much alive. A 2026 scientific study of new breeding material noted that an average of about 33 new Hippeastrum cultivars are registered annually in the international register maintained in the Netherlands. Modern researchers are also using genetic analysis alongside traditional hybridization to understand and exploit the remarkable diversity available to breeders.

So this is by no means a flower whose story ended in Victorian conservatories.

We are still making new amaryllis.

The Christmas Miracle in a Bulb

Perhaps the greatest virtue of Hippeastrum is that an enormous quantity of stored energy lies inside that big bulb.

The flower has essentially been prepared in advance.

Give the bulb warmth, moisture and light, and the performance begins.

Unlike tulips, daffodils and many other spring bulbs, newly purchased prepared amaryllis bulbs generally do not require the lengthy cold treatment associated with traditional spring-flowering bulbs. This makes them exceptionally easy to bring into bloom indoors.

How to Force Amaryllis for Christmas

If you want amaryllis blooming around Christmas, timing matters—but nature reserves the right to alter the schedule by a week or two.

Different cultivars bloom at different speeds. Temperature, bulb size and the condition of the bulb also influence flowering.

As a general rule, allow approximately six to eight weeks from planting to bloom, although some bulbs can take longer. For Christmas flowers, planting from late October through early November is usually sensible. If Christmas bloom is particularly important, err on the early side.

Choose the largest, firmest bulb available. Large bulbs contain greater reserves and frequently produce more than one flower stalk.

Use a sturdy pot with drainage holes only about one or two inches wider than the bulb. Amaryllis actually perform well when somewhat pot-bound. A heavy clay or ceramic pot also helps prevent a tall, flower-laden plant from becoming top-heavy.

Fill the container with a loose, well-drained potting medium.

Set the bulb so that approximately the upper one-third to one-half remains above the soil. Do not bury it as you would a daffodil.

Water thoroughly after planting and allow excess water to drain.

Then exercise restraint.

Until active growth begins, excessive water is much more dangerous than insufficient water. Keep the medium only slightly moist. Once the flower stalk and leaves are actively growing, watering can be increased, but the soil should never remain waterlogged.

A temperature around 70° to 75°F encourages growth. Once flowers begin opening, moving the plant to a somewhat cooler location—roughly 65° to 70°F—and keeping it out of strong direct sun can prolong the display.

Turn the pot periodically as the stalk develops because it will lean toward the light.

And then wait.

Watching an amaryllis grow is half the pleasure. A stalk that seems barely to have moved one morning may have gained noticeably by evening.

Plant Several for a Longer Christmas Display

One of the best ways to enjoy amaryllis throughout the holiday season is not to plant them all at once.

Stagger the plantings.

Plant a few bulbs in late October, another group a week or two later, and perhaps another toward the end of November.

Instead of gambling everything on one Christmas Day performance, you can have flowers opening from Advent through Christmas and perhaps well into January.

Several bulbs planted together in a large decorative container can be magnificent.

There is something almost architectural about a group of red amaryllis rising above a broad bowl on a dining table or in an entrance hall.

Don't Throw the Bulb Away After Christmas

An amaryllis is not necessarily a disposable Christmas decoration.

After flowering, remove the spent blossoms so the plant does not waste energy making seed. When the flower stalk begins to yellow, cut it back.

But leave the green foliage alone.

Those long strap-like leaves are solar panels. Through photosynthesis they replenish the food reserves exhausted in producing those enormous flowers.

Place the plant in bright light, water normally and fertilize periodically while the foliage is actively growing.

When warm weather arrives, the pot can be moved outdoors after danger of frost has passed. Introduce it gradually to stronger sunlight.

With good treatment, the bulb can grow larger and stronger each year.

Making an Old Amaryllis Bloom for Christmas Again

Reblooming is fairly easy.

Timing the bloom for Christmas requires a little more planning.

After allowing the plant to grow vigorously through spring and summer, reduce and eventually stop watering toward late summer or early autumn. Allow the foliage to yellow naturally.

The dormant bulb can then be kept dry in a cool location around 50° to 55°F for approximately eight to ten weeks. After its rest, return it to warmth and light and resume watering.

Allow another six to eight weeks for flowering.

This means the gardener works backward from Christmas.

The calendar becomes part horticulture and part arithmetic.

Growing Amaryllis in the Garden

Gardeners in warm climates have another option: plant Hippeastrum permanently outdoors.

And this is where amaryllis becomes much more than a Christmas novelty.

In the landscape, a well-established colony can produce a spectacular spring display year after year.

Choose rich but well-drained soil. Poor drainage is one of the surest ways to lose the bulbs.

A location receiving morning sun with some protection from the fiercest afternoon heat is often excellent, particularly in the Deep South.

Space bulbs roughly a foot apart if you want them eventually to form substantial clumps.

Do not bury them deeply. The upper portion or “nose” of the bulb should remain near the soil surface. Clemson recommends planting landscape amaryllis with the bulb tops only lightly covered, while University of Georgia guidance similarly places the nose around soil level.

Over time, mature bulbs produce offsets and handsome colonies can develop.

What USDA Zones Can Grow Amaryllis Outdoors?

This question deserves a little caution because Hippeastrum hardiness varies among cultivars and species.

USDA Zone 9 is the safest general recommendation for leaving most Hippeastrum outdoors permanently. University of Georgia notes that some species and hybrids are hardy outdoors in Zone 9.

However, gardeners can push considerably farther north with appropriate cultivars and protected locations. Clemson Cooperative Extension reports that amaryllis can be grown as landscape plants through USDA Zone 8 in South Carolina.

Therefore, a practical rule is:

Zones 9–11: Generally excellent territory for permanent outdoor culture.

Zone 8: Often successful, particularly in sheltered locations with good drainage and winter mulch, though cultivar hardiness matters.

Zone 7 and colder: Treat ordinary Hippeastrum primarily as container plants unless experimenting with unusually hardy selections and protected microclimates.

And gardeners should remember that winter wet can sometimes be as destructive as winter cold.

A bulb planted beside a warm south-facing wall in sharply drained soil lives in a rather different world from one sitting in cold mud at the bottom of a slope.

Microclimates matter.

Amaryllis in the Southern Garden

Hippeastrum deserves greater use in Southern landscapes.

An old clump beside a porch, garden gate or front walk has a completely different character from a single Christmas bulb in a foil-covered pot.

It becomes part of the place.

Plant amaryllis among evergreen groundcovers, along the edge of a shrub border, beneath high-canopied deciduous trees, or in the old Southern fashion near foundations and walks where generations of gardeners traditionally planted treasured bulbs.

The foliage persists long after flowering, so companions should be chosen with that in mind.

Hostas, ferns, liriope, cast-iron plant and other broad-leaved plants can soften the appearance of the long amaryllis foliage after bloom.

In suitable climates, a dozen bulbs planted together and allowed to multiply can eventually become a great spring colony.

That is gardening on a different scale from buying a Christmas bulb every December.

A Bulb That Can Become an Heirloom

Perhaps the most appealing thing about amaryllis is its longevity.

Properly cared for, a bulb can live and flower for many years, increasing in size and producing offsets that can eventually be separated and replanted.

That gives the plant something increasingly uncommon in our disposable age.

Continuity.

An amaryllis received as a Christmas gift need not disappear with the wrapping paper and Christmas tree. It can be grown through summer, rested, flowered again, divided, shared with children and grandchildren, or—where climate permits—planted beside the house and allowed to remain there.

Some of the finest garden plants are those that acquire a history.

“This came from Grandmother's garden” is a pedigree no plant breeder can improve upon.

One More Curious Fact: The Bulb Can Bloom Without Soil

The enormous reserves contained within an amaryllis bulb explain the recent popularity of waxed amaryllis.

These bulbs are prepared and sealed in decorative wax. They need neither pot nor soil and are generally sold with enough stored energy to produce their flowers without ordinary watering.

It is an extraordinary demonstration of what a bulb actually is: not merely a root, but a living storehouse containing the resources for another season's growth.

For long-term culture, however, the traditional potted bulb is the better choice.

A Little Tropical Splendor in Midwinter

There is a wonderful contradiction in the amaryllis.

It is a child of the warm Americas that has become one of our most beloved flowers of northern winter.

Outside the window may be bare branches, gray skies and frost.

Inside, a green spear rises from an enormous brown bulb.

Then another.

The buds swell.

And suddenly there are trumpets of scarlet or white opening beside the Christmas greenery.

That transformation explains why generations of gardeners have loved Hippeastrum. Few plants provide so much spectacle for so little effort, and fewer still can move so gracefully between Christmas windowsill and Southern garden.

Plant one for Christmas and it is beautiful.

Keep it for twenty years, divide it, plant its offspring around the garden and pass a bulb along to someone you love—and it has become something more.

It has become an heirloom.

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