Hort shorts
- Fall is a good time to survey the lawn and garden and contemplate design changes. To help visualize the shape of new beds and borders, create an outline using a garden hose. Arrange the hose until you’ve created a desirable shape. Sprinkle flour on the ground to mark the outline, remove the hose and dig in.
- There’s more to a garden than curb appeal. Remember to create garden spaces you can enjoy from indoors too. Plant tall flowering plants in front of dining room and sitting room windows so you can enjoy hummingbirds and butterflies at close range.
- Pick ornamental gourds after they have fully ripened on the vine—the shell should be hard and the vine withered. Leave several inches of stem on the gourd.
- Harvest the heads of edible sunflower varieties when the outer shells of the seeds have hardened and the back of the flower head is dry and brown. Cure in a paper bag for several weeks in a warm, well-ventilated place.
- Sow spinach and leaf lettuce for autumn salads. Set out transplants of collards for a holiday harvest.
- Take cuttings of impatiens, begonias and coleus to overwinter indoors.
- Use kitchen wastewater to water houseplants and containers. Use leftover cooking water (unsalted). Collect cold tap water in a bowl as you’re warming up water at the faucet.
- Re-use foam packing peanuts as filler for the bottoms of flowerpots. You’ll need less soil, and the peanuts provide drainage. You can also use them to separate and aerate bulbs and corms for winter storage. Egg cartons also make good containers for storing bulbs.