Putting the garden to bed: If you think gardening season is over, think again. Fall is an ideal time for planting many things as well as an important maintenance period in the yard, even for vegetable gardeners.
Learn all about good fall gardening practices in a class at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Julia V. Morris Centennial Garden, a community garden in Monroe.
It’s part of a series of free classes organized by Monica Novini, a Snohomish County master gardener. Topics for the day will include good garden hygiene and the importance of clearing debris from summer crops, soil preparation for spring vegetable beds, composting, cover crops, effective mulching and protecting perennials.
See www.monicanovini.com/magicgarden for details about the garden and class series.
Check future Home &Garden calendar listings for class information or call Novini at 360-793-8757.
Free pruning advice: Steve Smith with Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville will teach a free pruning class at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the nursery.
Smith, who calls pruning the “single biggest source of anxiety amongst gardeners,” hopes to “remove the angst” when it comes to dealing with plants in need of careful cutting.
Though entire books have been published on pruning, Smith, in his recent Whistling Gardener column, keeps it easy. Here’s an excerpt:
“There are only two kinds of cuts in the pruning world: thinning cuts and heading back cuts. Understand how a plant responds to these cuts, and you’ve got pruning figured out. It’s that simple.
“A heading back cut is where you cut off the end of a branch or stem. Doing this causes lots of branching and growth right below the cut. When you shear a hedge you are essentially making heading back cuts.
“These kinds of cuts are perfect for plants where you want lots of dense, bushy growth. Unfortunately, what happens in a lot of yards is that the man gets out there with his power shears and starts heading everything back once a year.
“It only takes a few seasons before the yard starts looking like a miniature golf course.
“Heading back cuts destroy the natural branching patterns of plants and ultimately leave you with a yard full of green meatballs.”
Learn more about Sunnyside Nursery at www.sunnysidenursery.net or call 425-334-2002.
Herald Staff
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